Assassination Nation
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The United States has now witnessed at least three political assassination attempts in recent memory. The first two came during the Jan. 6 coup, when rioters attempted to overthrow the election by threatening to kill the vice president and the speaker of the House. Make no mistake, these were assassination attempts, as the gallows erected outside the capitol can attest. Not to mention the cries of “Hang Mike Pence’’ and “Nancy, Nancy.’’
And now, just two years after the first attempt on her life, we have a second attempt to kill House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Last week, an attacker broke into Pelosi’s home in San Francisco, looking to kidnap the speaker, break her knee caps and drag her back to Washington, DC for questioning, according to police.
You read that right.
Instead, the attacker found Pelosi’s husband, Paul, who fought him off after calling 911. Despite his bravery, Mr. Pelosi was bludgeoned with a hammer and left with a fractured skull. The physical injuries to Mr. Pelosi doesn't begin to deal with the emotional trauma this family must now live with.
There is a pattern here. Last week’s attacker repeated the Jan. 6 refrain of “Where’s Nancy?” He carried zip ties and weapons just like his predecessors. These are the same people. They hold the same beliefs and watch the same news.
This attack comes a week before the midterm elections with the airwaves filled with advertisments framing Nancy Pelosi as an enemy of the country. Pelosi is a favorite target of conspiracy theorists led by MAGA people and phony outrage TV types like Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones.
These are the culprits to this violence. For years they have ginned up their viewers and followers, manipulating them to believe in fake conspiracies led by Hillary Clinton and Pelosi so they can sell advertising on their shows. They know it's wrong but they do it anyway.
It is important to remember, despite all the noise from the right, that these are assassination attempts. When I interviewed NY Times reporter Maggie Haberman last week, I asked her what she thought might have happened if the Jan. 6 attackers had actually found Vice President Mike Pence or Pelosi. She resisted an answer, sticking to her journalistic role.
I haven’t seen much speculation in the national media about what might have happened either. While I appreciate the restraint, I think it’s important to state the obvious. We cannot allow these actions to be softened by conservative pundits or timid mainstream media. These attackers would have killed Pence and Pelosi.
The same goes for the the Wolverine Watchmen, the heavily armed militia who, in 2020, planned to kidnap and murder Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer before the FBI foiled their plot. You read that right too. Armed men playing soldiers planned, for months, to kidnap and kill the governor of Michigan. Those men have now been charged with crimes and face long jail sentences.
Just think if Speaker Pelosi had been home last week. The attacker, fueled by right-wing propaganda and online conspiracy theories, would have killed her.
The proper response from everyone involved in politics, government and the media should have been outrage and a call to stop the tribal politics that have taken over the country. Instead, we get this from the governor of Virginia, Glen Youngkin, campaigning for Republicans to win back the House this Tuesday.
“Speaker Pelosi’s husband had a break in last night in their house and he was assaulted. There’s no room for violence anywhere,” Youngkin said at a rally Friday. “But we’re gonna send her back to be with him in California. That’s what we’re gonna go do.”
That is where we are in our public debate. And that, sadly, is what the Republican party has become. No concern for the health and safety of the Pelosis. No concern for a fellow government official, not to mention the woman second in line to the presidency. Just sheer avarice.
Make no mistake, this isn’t just attempted assassination, it’s domestic terrorism. These attackers are young men radicalized by nights spent on the internet and dark web, searching for confirmation of crazy theories peddled by the right-wing media.
We are failing to recognize the danger of this terrorism and take action to save our Republic. We are all to blame. We voters have fallen into complacency. The Democratic party has utterly failed to articulate the threat and its own vision for the country.
The media has failed to explain the threat, cowed by old-fashioned adherence to fairness and objectivity, which constrains their ability to write and speak the truth. Increasingly, national media is owned by conglomerates seeking to maximize advertising revenue and eyeballs, not to serve the public. We are left to get the truth from smaller, non-profit media outlets that brave the disapproval of convention.
And our problems don’t stop there. Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have completely abdicated their responsibility to the civic good. Facebook continues to allow and promote conspiracy theories that fuel these terrorists. Twitter does the same. And now that the company has fallen into the hands of Elon Musk, the raw sewage of faux free speech will flow without restraint. To Musk, Twitter is just another toy with which to fool around with Democracy. He’s like a kid with LEGOs - only this kid is the richest man in the world who talks to the Chinese government and plays with Russian propaganda.
This is real.
When JFK was assassinated, it threw the country into a tailspin.
The country is one failed private security slip up from a successful assassination. And with those odds, I ask why would anyone want to serve in government? Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez travels with security guards because of right wing threats against her life on a DAILY basis.
In Vermont, we think we are immune to this insanity. But our own Speaker of the House has been stalked and threatened.
This violence is growing. It is real. And it is here. It is time for us, as citizens, to wake up to the threat. The first step is voting on Tuesday.
