"At this moment in history, Republican radicalism comes in so many forms — election subversion, draconian abortion restrictions, gun fetishism, anti-LGBTQ scapegoating — that some argue the party is moving toward a new kind of fascism. That raises complicated questions, but one of fascism’s key features is the glorification of violence as a domestic political tool. [snip]
"At the moment, we’re seeing a rise in widely distributed, low-level acts of violence and intimidation directed at the right’s enemies. This will likely escalate: This year has seen a dramatic increase in threats against Pride Month events, which comes after a couple of years of near-riots at school board meetings and threats against public health officials and election administrators.
"There is an undeniable connection between what the angry right-wing mob does on the ground and what it sees from the Republican elite.
"And what do members of the right-wing mob see? Every day on Fox News and other conservative media outlets, they get a deluge of histrionic outrage and apocalyptic warnings about 'groomers' preparing to abuse their children, about the coming genocidal campaign against White people, about antifa coming to burn down their towns, about the impending outlawing of gun ownership and Christianity and everything else they hold dear.
"If you actually believed all of it, violence might seem a reasonable response, just like storming the Capitol might seem reasonable if you believed Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election." -- Paul Waldman in the Washington Post, commenting on the incendiary political ad from the scandal- plagued ammosexual Republican Senate candidate in Missouri, Eric Greitens. Greitens has received pushback from a state Republican official, but national Republican weasels, as of late yesterday, have not responded to media inquiries.
