Right wing hate rhetoric and violence top the political agenda

Photo of MAGABomber Cesar Sayoc with photoshopped slogan on sign.

Just days before the 2018 midterm elections, two incidents have pushed the Republican culture of hate and violence to the top of the political agenda. The first incident culminated on Friday, when right wing activist Cesar Sayoc was arrested for allegedly sending approximately 14 package bombs to prominent targets of Donald Trump and the Republicans, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Joe Biden, Florida Congresswoman (and former Democratic National Committee Chair) Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and CNN. Sayoc’s van is covered in pro-Trump and anti-Democratic hate messages, including a picture of Hillary Clinton with gun cross-hairs over it. Sayoc was therefore dubbed the “MAGA Bomber.”

The second incident occurred Saturday morning, when a white man, yelling “all Jews must die!” opened fire with an AR-15 assault rifle at the Tree of Life Synogogue in Pittsburgh, PA, killing at least 11 worshippers and wounding several others, including police officers. This comes several days after a Fox Business channel host and other Republicans raised anti-Jewish conspiracy theories, such as the idea that the so-called “caravan” of migrants from Central America are dangerous people funded by Jewish billionaire George Soros. Likewise, Donald Trump tweeted on October 22 that the caravan included “unknown Middle Easterners,” a statement with which Vice President Mike Pence agreed. The Pittsburgh killer seemed to synthesize these ideas when he recently posted on his social media:

It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!

This latest right wing violence (it appears to meet the definition of “terrorism,” which is essentially targeting civilians for violence for political purposes) is part of a long history coinciding with Republican hate and death rhetoric. For example, years of Republican anti-government propaganda, including after the 1993 siege in Waco, Texas, culminated in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building on Oklahoma City on Waco’s second anniversary.

In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security wrote a report indicating that, with the inauguration of President Barack Obama, right wing extremism in America was becoming more dangerous. The report followed a number of earlier incidents, such as the Oklahoma City bombing. However, when parts of the report were leaked before publication, a big right wing backlash ensued, after which DHS buried the report.

Since then, many more incidents have occurred. In 2009, there was the murder of Dr. George Tiller, spurred on by Bill O’Reilly of Fox News. Then, in 2010, Sarah Palin distributed a map with gun cross-hairs over a number of Democratic Congressional districts and named the representatives, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Palin introduced the map to her Twitter followers with the gun analogy “Don’t retreat, instead- RELOAD!” Months later, Jared Loughner targeted Giffords and others at an outdoor rally, shooting Giffords in the head, killing one of her staffers, as well as a nine year-old girl and a federal judge, and wounding others.

Since the Giffords shooting, we have also had the Sikh temple shooting, the Charlottesville Nazi march (where peaceful counter-protesters were beaten and one was killed), numerous other incidents, and now these latest events of the past week.

The connection between violent right wing rhetoric and incidents of right wing domestic terrorism was well established by former President Bill Clinton years ago, on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing:

What we learned from Oklahoma City is not that we should gag each other or that we should hold less passion for the positions we hold, but that our words really do matter. There is this vast echo chamber, and the words fall on the serious and delirious alike. Have at it. Go fight. Do whatever you want. You don’t have to be nice. But be careful with what you say and do not advocate violence.

Besides being shocking, the latest incidents of right wing violence come at an inopportune time for Republicans. Facing a growing Blue Wave in the midterm elections just eight days from now (with early voting already happening in many areas), the Republicans are desperately trying to distract from their own votes and policies, which include attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and its preexisting conditions coverage, attempts to cut Medicare and Social Security to pay for Trump’s deficit-exploding tax cuts for the rich, and tariffs on imported goods that are raising the price of items from cars to baseball caps. Their distractions include increased scapegoating of immigrants (including fear-mongering about the “caravan”) and other blatantly racist appeals. Trump even expressed annoyance that the “bombing stuff” is distracting from these Republican racist narratives shortly before the elections.

These latest incidents only reinforce the idea that the Republicans’ hateful rhetoric and regular calls for violence eventually result in right wing violence. We need to call out Republican hate and death rhetoric, and punish Republicans at the ballot box for using it as a rallying cry to their followers.

Photo by centralmarylandphoto, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/urydag