Did Donald Trump shoot Buckwheat?
Posted on August 8, 2019
Did Donald Trump shoot Buckwheat?Nope.
Everybody knows it was another famous person, John David Stutts, who did the dirty deed.
When I was in college, I had an actual VHS tape of the great Saturday Night Live skit, featuring Eddie Murphy as both Buckwheat and John David Stutts.
The skit included Joe Piscopo as Ted Koppel, who hilariously creates the kind of media circus from which deranged killers get their inspiration.
As Koppel points out, “John David Stutts graduated from Unionville High School. His classmates called him “The Loner.” Stutts was a member of the Key Club, the Audio/Visual squad, and President of the Future Assassins of America. It’s no wonder that his classmates chose him, “Most Likely to Kill Buckwheat.”
Koppel also interviewed Dr. Irwin Fletcher, who when asked why John David Stutts killed Buckwheat, responded, “Publicity. In the deranged mind of the killer, he truly believes that if he kills someone famous, he’ll become famous himself. And, unfortunately, certain irresponsible members of the media are only too eager to turn these assassins into instant celebrities.”
The humor of this SNL skit, of course, hits especially close to home these days, even though it was first broadcast in 1983.
It highlighted issues that we still have yet to resolve. The idea that the media makes celebrities out of killers. The fact that some of these folks are known to be threats to their communities well before they commit any crimes. The question of how unbalanced and mentally incompetent people still get easy access to guns.
The media, of course, is as irresponsible as ever when it comes to these shootings. Instead of instantly making the killers celebrities, though, now the major shortcoming of the media is to make these shootings instantly political.
A media industry which reflexively hates Donald Trump is going to reflexively blame the President for the actions of a deranged few.
If Buckwheat were shot today, I guarantee you the media would have John David Stutts wearing a MAGA hat.
Of the two shooters over the weekend, one was an Elizabeth Warren supporter while the other, an anti-immigrant nativist, specifically said that his actions had nothing to do with Donald Trump’s rhetoric.
And yet, the media and the whole of the Democratic Party is blaming the President’s anti-illegal immigration rhetoric for the attacks.
I don’t think that is fair, nor do I think it is particularly helpful to finding solutions to the complex problems that make America susceptible to this type of violence.
Is there a problem with some fringe white nationalists? Yes, but that is not a new problem that suddenly just cropped up with the Trump Presidency. Timothy McVeigh’s attack occurred during the Bill Clinton Administration. The Turner Diaries was published during the Carter Administration. David Duke almost won a Senate race in Louisiana during the first Bush Administration (although he started his political career as a Democrat).
Should the President be more forceful in condemning white nationalism? Absolutely. Did he make a huge mistake in his Charlottesville remarks? Most definitely. But that doesn’t make him the racist that his opponents believe him to be.
No matter what the President says or does, it won’t be enough for the Democrats, who have a vested interest in branding Mr. Trump, a racist. In fact, once impeachment lost its luster, convincing rich suburban voters that Donald Trump is a racist is the only way they will be able to beat him in 2020, especially with the current crop of candidates.
I have been a big supporter of any legislation that makes it more difficult for the mentally unhinged to get access to guns. I am in favor of the so-called red flag laws. I believe that we need to spend more resources specifically targeting disaffected youth, including white nationalists, gang-bangers and drug-selling crews, who are the most violent people in our society.
My prediction, though, is that no matter how hard Donald Trump pushes to get some legislation passed, the Democrats will find some reason to walk away from the negotiating table. They don’t want Trump to get any credit for signing any gun control legislation for the same reasons that they don’t want him to reform our broken immigration laws or to successfully bring drug prices down. They don’t want to give him any kind of political victory.
They think they can pin these shootings on the President, call him a racist in the process, and beat him in next year’s election. That’s their game plan.
Donald Trump didn’t shoot Buckwheat, but the Democrats will want to make you believe that he did.