Starting Monday of this week, packages containing explosive devices were sent to prominent Democratic politicians. Some of these individuals include, former President Obama, former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and CNN. All these packages were intercepted before they could arrive to their residencies. Other packages had the names of former Attorney General Eric Holder, who served under President Obama and another package was found with the address of John Brennan, the director of the CIA under President Obama. Since then, the packages were sent to a FBI laboratory. New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio said, "this clearly is an act of terror attempting to undermine our free press and leaders of this free country through acts of violence." I believe this acts fall under the "political terrorism" category, for these terrorists probably have political motives but not necessarily to capture control of the state. Individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr. have been assassinated for their political beliefs, however in this case, it seems as if these terrorist are simply trying to take out the Democratic party.
1. Who do you believe sent these packages?
2. Why do you think Democrats are being targeted?
3. What message do you think these terrorists are trying to send?
I would assume that a conservative American who is extremely opposed to liberal political ideals made these assassination attempts. The reason that I believe this is the victims all have similar political ideals and there are a lot of people who believe that individuals like Obama, Clinton, and Holder are the problem in our country. I would assume that the person who did this has some sort of mental illness because no one in their right mind could justify harming law abiding individuals who were put in their positions as a result of the democratic process. I would assume that the message is a warning towards current and future Democrats that they could be endangered if they continue to try and move our country towards their agenda. It is sad to see that the Democratic process can result in assassination attempts but some people don't realize that people are entitled to their own opinions and having different political ideals doesn't make someone a bad person.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrew that the culprit is most likely a conservative citizen trying to target prominent Democratic/liberal politicians. This relates to the general political sentiment today, as many Americans feel great animosity towards the "opposing" side or party, because the two political parties have completely turned against each other with an "us v. them" mentality. This increases party loyalty and prevents free thinking, which violates the ideals of democracy. While this attempted attack was simply one crazed citizen, I feel that this event is a more drastic representation of the sentiment of many Americans today.
ReplyDeleteLooks like both Andrew and Maddie were correct as news just broke that they have arrested a conservative suspect. The current political climate is already extremely tense and polarized, and this definitely does not help to resolve that. I do think that Trump addressed this appropriately by immediately denouncing this suspect and encouraging the peaceful route of voting. However, I think it was a little funny to hear him say that because although he certainly has not been violent, he has not exactly been polite or courteous to the other side.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the person sending these packages is an extreme conservative since he is targeting liberal politicians with bombs. I believe Democrats are being targeted because the sender might believe that change can't be made in our polarized political state and that removing the opposition can help make progress. I believe that the people behind this are trying to make a statement about getting back at liberals who undermine the conservatives. Overall, the packages threaten the entire Democratic Party and make a statement that the conservatives will win one way or another.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the person sending these packages is someone with a more conservative standpoint, and most likely a member of the Republican Party as they send these packages to high profile members of the Democratic Party, people that are seen as representatives of the party. One reason to why these specific people might be targeted is because of the fact that they are obvious Democratic representatives that could influence the results of the upcoming midterm election. The upcoming election is very important and could have a big impact on the politic decisions to be made in the future, which could be a reason to why the said terrorist chose to do this right now, just about a week before the election as they believed they might've had a chance to influence the results in the election. The message this person was trying to send out is that no one sits safely regarding their position in the political system, and that the Democratic Party will have to be on their toes in order to win this upcoming election.
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ReplyDeleteThe information about the bomber is now out. It looks like he had political motivations in choosing his victims, and he did turn out to be a Trump supporter. He also turned out to have issues with his mother. Apparently, his mother kicked him out of her condo for many reasons including he was a Trump supporter. I don't think this person was trying to send a particular message. He was just lashing out at Democrats because of hatred against his mother, who apparently was a "Democrat in her progressive community."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-news-sayoc-maga-bomber-20181028-story.html
I agree with the opinions stated above that the person who sent the packages is most likely an extreme conservative as they would go so far as to use pipe bombs to scare only members of the Democratic party or liberals. However, I believe that Democrats are only being targeted because of the increasing polarization in the country. With less influence on the Democratic side, perhaps this conservative pipe bomber believes that the conservatives may gain more support especially if Trump handles the situation well. Therefore, this would aid in stopping political polarization as more people would support the conservative side due to their responses to the situation and the lack of influential response from the liberal side. Ultimately, I think that these terrorists are trying to send the message that these influential democrats nee dot be quiet. The act is obviously one that strikes fear since the packages did not go off. Therefore, it seems to me that the packages are merely a way for the conservatives or the terrorists to gain attention and have the democrats afraid so that they will not respond to attention from the media, and the lack of democratic response on the media would ultimately lead to less democratic influence on the country.
ReplyDeleteAfter the events that happened last week, the nation is truly in terror. Now we found out that the terrorist was indeed Cesar Sayoc, a outspoken white supremacist. The people's suspiscions are correct, and the perpetrator is a conservative and undoubtedly racist man. I believe that these acts of terror did not only attack the Democrats or liberals, but it also affected the whole nation regardless of political views. Sayoc's actions only highlights how extreme politics have become recently, that civilians are encouraged to go to great lengths for "political expression." Sayoc wanted to instill fear in people and terrorize the nation for what? A little political clout?
ReplyDeleteI believe that a mentally deranged person most likely sent these packages, trying to attack Democrats for having a shadow cabal that secretly controls the government to prevent the Republicans from doing anything in government, despite the Republicans having both the president and the majority in both houses. Clearly, he believes that the Democrats are in some greater conspiracy to attack the Republicans, and so he sent these packages to attack the Democrats and hopefully take them out of the picture so that they'll be scared to participate in politics.
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