McConnell went on to assume that the bombings were the work of some unnamed group, which isn't anything anyone knew at the time -- unless McConnell had special knowledge. In this jumping to an unwarranted conclusion, McConnell was again ahead of the President, as well as law enforcement and the evidence.
And then he said a stranger thing, referring to:
"our unshakeable resolve to bring those responsible, and any others who
are contemplating acts like this, to justice."
What sounds at first like boilerplate is, on closer inspection, an aspiration that is not yet achievable and would be an achievement devastating to civil rights and freedom in America. Really? Yes, indeed -- bringing people to justice just because they've been "contemplating acts like this" suggests a dystopian future dominated by government mind control. You've probably seen the movie.
But McConnell has a purpose with this drift and we're getting to it. But first he has to get away from the specific context of the unsolved Boston crime and create a bigger, scarier context, full of groups like the one he imagines attacked Boston, even though there's no evidence for that assumption. Never mind, he delivers the terror line in a familiar trope, rooted in fear rather than reality:
"These horrific attacks are a grim reminder of the hatred and contempt
that many continue to harbor in their hearts not only for our nation and its
freedoms but for innocent human life."
There's no logical reason "these attacks" should remind anyone of any other event, and if they are a reminder why wouldn't it be of four girls blown up in Birmingham, or a car bomb in Kabul or Karachi, or an abortion clinic bombed in Florida or Wisconsin? Or even, although it's out of scale to the Boston event, why not think of the Murrah building in Oklahoma City?
McConnell's rhetoric echoes President Bush twelve years ago, and with a purpose:
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