“It is with great sadness that I share we have not 20, but 50 casualties,” Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer said Sunday. Dyer was addressing a dazed nation that was learning a gay night club called Pulse was ground zero for what the media called the deadliest “mass shooting” in U.S. history.
But is this shooting a “mass shooting” or is it something more diabolical?
As the dust is settling we are learning that this shooting is not in the mold of Columbine or Sandy Hook. What Americans saw in Orlando was an act of terror; an act of war. What Americans learned was Omar Sateen, an American citizen of Afghani descent, marched into a club and gunned down as many people as he could.
While there is no denying that this situation continues to develop, the FBI almost immediately linked the Pulse tragedy to terrorism. The fact that the terror link was made public so early was unprecedented and sent a strong signal that Pulse was not a random act of violence.
But even as law enforcement sent strong signals of terror, presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton tweeted a milquetoast response to a malicious act.
“Woke up this morning to hear the devastating news from FL,” Hillary tweeted. “As we wait for more information, my thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act.”
But how much longer do we have to wait when we have an enemy publicly declaring an intention to kill Americans? How much longer do we have to wait while Democrats try a craft a politically correct response to grave national security threat? How much longer do we have to wait for Hillary to say “radical Islam”?
Orlando represented Hillary’s worst nightmare because it placed her in a position in which she had either to call this attack a product of radical Islam or publicly sell out the LGBT community in an effort to appease the Muslim community. And though her tweet bought time, time was showing this act was likely the product of Islamic terror.
While the LGBT community is routinely told its only home is the Democratic Party, this tragedy exposed that the Democratic Party will not do what is necessary to protect the LGBT community. If this shooting had been a crazed Christian fanatic or white supremacist, one only imagines the outrage the Left would have spewed.
It is not a stretch to assume Donald Trump would have been blamed for this shooting because a few weeks ago he was blamed when a Latino mob threw eggs and sucker punches at his supporters. The Left loves to blame white males.
Inside Pulse, however, the shooter did not fit the mold of a politically correct perpetrator. Instead of being an angry white Christian male, Mateen was of Afghani descent and trained in weaponry. And the unwillingness of the Left to condemn Mateen and radical Islam in the harshest terms should tell the LGBT community that the protection being afforded to them by the Democratic Party only extends to white males.
This, however, is what happens when you have a political party crippled by identity politics. Eventually two of your constituencies will have interests at odds and you have to choose whether to do the right thing or appease the lesser of two evils.
Hillary chose the lesser of two evils and, in doing so, sold the LGBT community a bill of goods. Regardless of how many times liberals attempt to interject gun laws into this narrative or try to paint this as a hate crime, this spade will continue to be a spade – an act of terror committed by an enemy that routinely flings gays off rooftops.
State Sen. Geraldine F. Thompson, the Democrat who represents Floridians in Pulse’s district, immediately pivoted to the need for gun control to prevent this type of crime. But who thinks a terrorist will follow U.S. gun control laws when they want “death to America”?
News media also floated the idea that this was not necessary an act of radical Islam but caused when Mateen saw two men kissing in Miami. Cue the Benghazi YouTube video excuse.
The LGBT community needs to wake up and stop being played for fools. Hillary does not have its back and will not take the measures as president to protect LGBT Americans; protect all Americans. As Secretary of State she made excuses for radical Islam and she is doing the same as she campaigns for President.
If this country is going to prevent other major U.S. cities from suffering the same violence as Orlando, as Paris, it has to unify and get tough. It has to stop the nonsense over the refugee program and entertain the notion that Trump was correct when he proposed a temporary ban on Muslim immigration.
Hillary, Democrats and the world condemned Trump when he made his Muslim ban proposal public. They called him un-American, Islamophobic. But such righteous condemnation of Trump is of little comfort to Orlando.
Mateen was an American citizen who was reportedly the target of two FBI terror investigations. He was operating in the United States and that means we have other radicalized US citizens doing the same. Why give them reinforcements by allowing Muslim migration when our own house is in disorder?
Trump has answered that question, Hillary & Democrats refuse to. But then there is a reason Mateen was a registered Democrat.
Joseph R. Murray II, is a conservative commentator, former campaign official for Pat Buchanan, and author of “Odd Man Out”. He can be reached at jrm@joemurrayenterprises.com.
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