The Choice Is Clear: Bullies Or Ballots?
As a nation we are cursed with an obsession to placate those who view weapons as religious icons.
The person second in line for the Presidency was targeted by a man with a hammer who opted to smash her 82 year old husband’s head instead. The assailant’s plan, we learned yesterday from police, was to kidnap the Speaker of the House, interrogate her about some conspiracy theories, and then maim her by smashing her kneecaps with a hammer.
This home invasion was supposed to serve as an example for others who didn’t exist in a world not dominated by conspiracy theories, racism, and anti-Semitism. The thinking –if you could call it that– was that fear of retribution of their actions would somehow make Democrats (and one should presume RINOs) give up their role in governance.
Up to this point, the scenario sounds like something attributable to a mentally ill person with violent tendencies.
Unfortunately, you can’t separate what happened in San Francisco from the overall political situation.
Aaron Rupar says Republicans not only tolerate this stuff — they encourage it.
Over the last six years, Republican leaders have variously called on their followers to physically beat opponents, have physically attacked reporters themselves, have spread conspiracy theories which have led to mass shootings, have plotted and cheered on a violent insurrection, and have embraced the violent intimidation of election officials.
Some officials may repudiate particular acts of violence. Republican Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell and other GOP congressional leaders strongly denounced the attack on Pelosi, for example. But other GOP figures like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Louisiana Congressman Clay Higgins, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin mocked the Pelosis, or suggested the attack was a fake or a conspiracy.
Faced with social and demographic changes offering grim prospects for its future, the vanguard of a political party has made the implied threat of violence a cornerstone of their strategy to gain and/or retain power.
As Tom Nichols put it in the Atlantic Daily:
One might think that it would be easy for America, as one nation, to condemn an attempt to kidnap the woman second in line to the presidency that resulted in the beating of her husband with a hammer. As Ernest Hemingway would say: Pretty to think so. Instead, we have seen the dark heart of the Republican Party, with a reaction so callous, so flippantly sadistic, so hateful, that it all feels irredeemable.
The midterm elections of 2022 are serving as a testing ground for practices in the 2024 election. Although there have been incidents involving intimidation or confrontations at voting places, it’s more likely that most of the real dangerous stuff will be targeted at individuals deemed to be insufficiently loyal to the cult of the Dear Leader accompanied by orchestrated legal assaults designed to stir up controversy.
There are states where senior leaders, specifically in the Republican Party, are calling into question the results of the election even before ballots are counted. This should be seen as an implicit affirmation of violence should the results not match expectations.
While the GOP boasts of its 30,000 especially trained election observers, the real threat to democracy comes from the "lone offenders" primed to act on fears shared on the internet.
The release of an internal bulletin within federal agencies — on the same day as the Pelosi attack — warning of a heightened threat from domestic violent extremists in the coming weeks lists grievances that may motivate these individuals, including debunked claims of widespread election fraud and polarizing social topics such as abortion and LGBTQ rights..
Those who would attempt to pave over this truth by saying we have a “both sides' ' problem are wrong, either because they’re too lazy to do the research or they are complicit.
To be clear, only one political party is inclusive of violent insurrectionists as a constituency they dare not alienate, as observed by Timothy Noah at the New Republic:
The numbers aren’t discussed as often as they should be because most nonpartisan news organizations think it’s bad manners to document their lopsidedness. But let’s get real: “Domestic terrorism” has become a polite euphemism for “right-wing extremism.” The Anti-Defamation League counted 29 people killed in the United States by political extremists in 2021; of those, 26 were killed by right-wing extremists.
The Washington Post reports the break-in at the Pelosi residence was captured on video via security cameras installed at the direction of the Capitol Police. Because the Speaker was not at home, nobody was watching the monitors. (The video does provide ample evidence to refute the scurrilous fanatics being circulated in right wing circles.)
As the article points out, providing security for all 535 members of Congress is a daunting task, one that currently is not being met.
Threats to lawmakers are not rare but have dramatically increased in the past several years. Since 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president, threats of violence against lawmakers recorded by the Capitol Police have surged from roughly 900 cases in 2016 to 9,625 in 2021. Meanwhile, the share of threats that federal authorities pursue for criminal prosecution in the same period ranged from 7 percent to 17 percent of cases referred by the Capitol Police.
While “crime” is supposedly an issue in this election, what is or can be done about it ranges from ridiculous notions to fascist pogroms. The same holds true when it comes to security for elected officials and the electoral process.
More police and more people behind bars are solutions that may sound politically pleasing but mainly serve to stratify racial and economic divisions in society. Spending more (or less) on police has no discernible impact on violent crime.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t provide more security for elected officials. If it gives them and their families the peace of mind needed to do their jobs effectively, then it’s a worthwhile investment. It just isn’t a solution.
There are two things that could make the country safer for those who are in governance.
Fewer guns on the street would make life easier for everybody, but as a nation we are cursed with an obsession to placate those who view weapons as religious icons.
The other thing is conceivably easier to accomplish, namely don’t reward those who incorporate violence or the threat thereof as a viable political strategy or tactic. We’ll see in the next couple of weeks if sane America is ready to scream ENOUGH.
Do your part and don’t vote for those who abide the MAGA cult.
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Here’s a link to my Voter Guide.
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Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com
Lead image: : Zach D. Roberts via the Greg Palast Investigations team