We are part of The Trust Project.
MINOT, N.D. — There was a tragedy in Uvalde, Texas, this week. Another mass shooting, this was resulting in 21 deaths. Most of them were elementary school children.
Now Americans — from politicians to Hollywood celebrities to sports figures to just people with a Facebook following — are saying the same tired things they always say when this happens.
In that latter group is disgraced former state lawmaker Luke Simons who became the first legislator in state history to be expelled from the assembly after multiple accounts of harassment from legislative staff and colleagues became public.
Simons, a cookie-cutter example of the sort of shameless cretin that has found a degree of political fame in the Trump era, is proud of that expulsion. The profile picture for his Facebook page touts that he was "expelled and censored."
It shouldn't surprise us that a man who is proud of being expelled by his fellow lawmakers in a historically unprecedented move would lack the decency it takes to refrain from standing astride the dead bodies of children to hatch a stupid political conspiracy.
ADVERTISEMENT
A meme posted by Simons last night, as news of mass murder in Texas roiled the nation, suggested on Facebook that the tragedy was a political stunt.
"It's all part of their narrative," Simons wrote , above an image indicating that mass shootings are "turned on" by political interests out to influence the midterms.
Simons didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
This is beyond despicable.
Stuff like this is why American politics have become so dysfunctional.
It's really, really hard to have good faith debates about things like gun violence. Abortion. Civil rights. It becomes impossible when our politics are littered by ingrates who, rather than approaching the topics with reason, instead rush to impugn the motivations of the other side, to the point of hatching conspiracy theories.
This isn't just a joke. This sort of nonsense gets traction. The families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting have spent years in litigation to hold schlock jock Alex Jones responsible for similar conspiracy theories about that tragedy being staged. A stunt perpetrated by alleged "crisis actors" in pursuit of some supposed political agenda.
Simons is, whether it's deserved or not, a public figure. He has a following. He's held elected office. He may well hold it again in the future.
ADVERTISEMENT
And today, as parents and friends and family mourn their dead in Texas, he's using their pain to score cheap internet points.
I would call on him to be ashamed, but I don't think people like him are capable of it.
