To the editor:

Guilty people often blame others for what they’re doing wrong. Parents and teachers recognize this scenario. A child caught misbehaving claims it’s someone else’s fault. “It wasn’t me. He/She did it.”

Psychologists describe this behavior as “projection.” It’s a tell. Blame someone else for what you’re doing wrong and take no responsibility for your own actions. Trump does this. He accuses others of lying, slandering, breaking the law, disrespecting women, or causing violence because there’s tangible evidence he’s guilty of all those things. Trump is very skilled in deflection. His politicians imitate him, and the press doesn’t call it out.

So, Charlie Kirk is killed, and Trump immediately blames “liberal Democrats” for inciting a climate of hatred and violence. Reality says otherwise. An entire book could be filled with the daily slurs Trump and his minions have made against women, Blacks, Latinos, LGBTQ individuals, immigrants, journalists, the military, the elderly, the handicapped, and “liberals.”

Democrats and innocent citizens have been demonized/harassed/attacked/trolled/killed because Trump and Stefanik say: “The radical Left is the problem.” Memes like this circulate: “It’s time for a complete crackdown of the Left. Every Democrat politician must be arrested, and every libtard commentator shut down. They caused Kirk’s death.” And voters are supposed to believe that Trump and his minions aren’t inciting hatred and violence. Seriously?

I don’t understand why Trump/Republican voters aren’t appalled by the nasty aggression directed toward fellow human beings. Do “putdowns” amuse them? Do they reject people because they’re not like them? Do they automatically assume criticism must be unfounded because people “hate” Trump — instead of carefully analyzing reasons concretely justifying alarm about his and the GOP’s illegal/corrupt behavior?

I see two motives for Trump and the GOP pretending their racist, inflammatory comments aren’t responsible for violence, antagonism, and radicalization of mass shooters. For one, they’re blaming Democrats for being supposedly “soft on crime” (by using false statistics). And two: They’re trying to blame Democrats to deflect from the obvious reason Charlie Kirk is dead. Someone had a gun to kill him.

The Republican Party doesn’t want to have that conversation. Of course not. Because the NRA and weapons manufacturers contribute millions to their campaigns. Kirk himself repeated NRA propaganda that “innocent people being killed is just a necessary trade-off in ensuring protection of the Second Amendment and unrestricted gun ownership.”

The Republican Party doesn’t want to have THIS conversation either: Hate crimes and mass shootings have statistically increased because of right-wing anger-inducing insinuations about “government being repressive,” Black and brown immigrants “taking over” or LGBTQ people “ruining our society.” Those were Charlie Kirk’s talking points as founder of Turning Point USA, an organization with 850 chapters on college campuses across the US claiming to “promote freedom-loving American values.”

And people are killed by guns every 11 minutes in America? Are their families blaming Democrats for their loved one’s death? The Democrats who consistently advocate for sensible gun control, legal equality, and tolerance for differences? I doubt it.

Martha Hodges

Massena