Attack Add

​There’s so much to write about the brutal attack on Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of the Speaker of the House, who was the ultimate intended victim.  And so many different perspectives one can take.  They’ve been covered well and often by many, so this is what I’ll chime in.

It began early in the day with a series of tweets by Harmeet Dhillion, who suggested there was something fishy about the attack, that it made no sense that there was no security at the house (though Nancy Pelosi was 3,000 miles away in Washington, D.C.)

What Ms. Dhillon left out of her repugnant tweets is that she is currently employed as an attorney for Trump.   What I noted to her in reply was that, as an attorney, it seemed ill-advised to post so many tweets suggesting something she had absolutely zero way of knowing, which is contrary to all known details at the time.  But then she's Trump's lawyer, so -- yeah, we get it.

As the day went on, it became clear that her series of tweets aged really horrifically after only just a few hours.  Indeed, it’s turned out that the attacker was inspired by things Ms. Dhillon’s own client had been smearing Speaker with for years.

Then there were such high Republican officials as Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia who, later in the day of the violent attack, callously said on the campaign trail “There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California.”  And Republican National Committee chair Rona Romney McDaniel who just as callously said in speech later in the day of the attack, “Are you ready to fire Nancy Pelosi?”

The core of all this related to a thought I wrote about at the time, after reading a stream of comments from the Republican base that took pleasure in the attack.  I said that it appears these days that it's hard for many, if not most Republicans to feel sorry for those hurt or in need, unless it's themselves.  As you might imagine, that brought its own string of snarky, cold-hearted attacks.  The good side is that it let me thank them all for helping to confirm what I’d just written.

None of these public statements and tweets remotely surprised me.  It was to be expected.  That’s what comes from a party that has become fascist.  After all, one of the core tenets of fascism is the use of political violence.  And another is the try to undermine opposing political authority.

The only odd thing was that there was no tweet from Marco Rubio being outraged at a violent political attack, especially one that was actually politically motivated.  That seemed to be his thing last week, when he was “outraged” by what he claimed was a political attack on one of his campaign’s canvasser – until he went silent when it turned out that the canvasser was a white supremacist who had been arrested numerous times, was on parole, the attack took place in a Republican area, and the police report had nothing in it about the attack being politically motivated.

At least Rubio had company in his silence from a fellow Floridian.  Because Trump was silent all day, as well.

Then there was Kari Lake, the deranged GOP nominee for governor of Arizona, considered a future face of the GOP if she wins, who appeared on Fox "News" to egregiously and brazenly blame the brutal attacked on "leftist elected officials."  Because of course she does, because Kari Lake has met few facts she doesn't ignore -- or understand. Or a lunatic conspiracy theory she doesn't embrace.  The attacker's digital profile is FULL of far-right conspiracies.  But to admit that reality would hurt the Lake brand.  Indeed, her response to this violent attack is part of the problem.  And helps define GOP reaction to the attack -- and most things today.  Ignore reality and point your own worst qualities at the other side.

But what may have leaped out most to me was the disingenuous "prayer" for Paul Pelosi by Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who tried to deflect her own responsibility.  The assault was not a street "crime" like burglary or home invasion, as she and many Republican officials tried to claim in making a Campaign Point, but rather a political attack that was prompted by an ongoing barrage of very specific violent words, smears and campaign flyers by Trump, Greene herself and other Republican officials directed bluntly at Speaker Pelosi, calling her a traitor, evil and threat to democracy, and much, much more.  Including making a Facebook video where she suggests Pelosi can be executed for treason, adding that "It's a crime punishable by death is what treason is. Nancy Pelosi is guilty of treason."  (Fun fact: Greene has just removed this video and other of her violent, incendiary posts, including others about executing Democrats, in a failed effort to pretend they didn't happen -- not realizing the past lives on in the Internet.  In fairness, that might be why Kari Lake missed them and was confused, thinking such things were from the left, not the extreme right where she herself lives.)

Greene and the still-silent Trump and other Republicans do not get to try to position this brutal political attack -- on the 82 year-old husband of a politician, while waiting for that politician -- as emblematic of "crime."  What it is emblematic of is Republican fascism promoting violence against authority opponents.

And woven through this all were the ongoing attempts by the extreme right to "But what about..." the violent attack on Paul Pelosi.  They did this, relentlessly, by pointing to a gleeful tweet that Christine Pelosi, daughter of Paul and Nancy, posted a few years back when Rand Paul got injured. But as I wrote back to a woman who attempted that phony, pathetic, empty-headed "argument" --

Don't even try. Her tweet was rude and wrong-headed. But it was about two neighbors fighting.

That's the massive difference. Rand Paul was arguing with his neighbor, and the two acquaintances got into a fight.  But this on Friday was a planned, brutal attack on an 82-year old husband of the intended target...while waiting to KILL the Speaker.

Goodbye.

-- And I muted her, to be then blocked. Because life is too short.

That’s today’s Republican Party.  Among so many of them, there is no caring for those hurt or in need.  They push violence and revel in the brutal violence against political opponents.  They leap to conspiracy theories to advance their own lunatic reality.  They take no personal responsibility, despite once claiming to be the Party of Personal Responsibility.  And don’t seem to realize that when you foment violence, especially political violence, it eventually can get out of your control and risks spreading everywhere, including back at you.  That’s why everyone should abhor such political violence.

This is on Trump.  This is on Marjorie Taylor Greene.  On Lauren Boebert.  On Fox "News," OAN, Newsmax.  On all Republican officials who have been crying traitor, evil, enemy, fraud, stolen election, knowingly lying, pushing lunatic anonymous conspiracies, fomenting an insurrection and more and more and more for years, building to all this.

And that’s all why today’s Republican Party, by every book definition is fascist.