Dead congressional shooter was a Trump-hating Sanders supporter; letters show leftist bent

James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois died of his wounds after shooting House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), two Capitol police officers, and a congressional aide at a baseball practice early this morning in Alexandria, Virginia.

Based on his Facebook posts, it's clear that Hodgkinson despised President Donald J. Trump. He was also a supporter of Bernie Sanders.

Today is Trump's birthday.

The Belleville News-Democrat posted some letters-to-the-editor from 2012 that he wrote to that paper. Belleville is in the Metro East part of the state, adjacent to St. Louis and it's a reliably Democratic area, an anomaly in downstate Illinois. In the letters the shooter railed against the rich, called the book Aftershock by former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich "the best book I read in a while" and he said that MSNBC's Rachel Maddow show was one of his favorite television programs.

But why did Hodkinson  become a potential murderer? Of course I don't know but the toxic environment of the hard left might provide some answers.

"President" @realDonaldTrump: You truly are an evil man. Your job is to help Americans. Not intentionally try to destroy their lives. https://t.co/2M94E1g39b

— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 25, 2017

Yes, that Tweet, from a California Democratic congressman, Ted Lieu, reads, "President" @realDonaldTrump: You truly are an evil man. Your job is to help Americans. Not intentionally try to destroy their lives."

Evil? Yep. "President," as in illegitimate?

 Democrats don't want to cooperate with the 45th president of the United States--they speak of resistance. And the entertainment world, much of it, is along for the ride. Last month so-called comedian Kathy Griffin posed with a photo of herself with a bloodied head resembling Trump. And a New York rendition of a Shakespeare's Julius Caesar ends with an orange-wigged emperor getting stabbed to death.

Yes, today is Trump birthday. Coincidence?

Surely most Trump-haters go about their lives in a non-violent manner.

But can the left tone down its rhetoric a bit? And Democrats, can you end the "resistance" and work with the president of all Americans?