QOTD -- Violence As A Republican Political Tool

 

"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. 

Republican Family Values: Wife Abuser Edition

One current Republican / Sedition Party candidate for Senate in Missouri is well-known to that state's residents, and not in a good way. Former Gov. Eric Greitens was elected in 2016, but quickly unravelled after being indicted in 2018 of invasion of privacy for taking compromising pictures of his hairstylist with whom the married Governor was having an affair. A second felony charge of misuse of campaign funds forced Greitens to resign in disgrace in 2018.

Now his ex-wife is accusing him of abuse of her and their children. From her sworn affidavit, he sounds like a real piece of work:

"A sworn affidavit from Sheena Greitens and filed Monday is part of an ongoing child custody dispute in Missouri. A public affairs professor at the University of Texas, she sought divorce from Eric Greitens after a sex scandal which led to his resignation as governor in June 2018. [snip]

In the affidavit, Sheena Greitens casts her ex-husband as someone who threatened to use his political connections and influence in order to destroy her reputation to win custody of the children.

'Prior to our divorce, during an argument in late April 2018, Eric knocked me down and confiscated my cell phone, wallet and keys so that I was unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home,' Sheena Greitens wrote in the filing. 'I became afraid for my safety and that of our children at our home,' later adding that his 'behavior included physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then-3-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by his hair.'

In 2019, one of her sons came home from a visit with his dad 'with a swollen face, bleeding gums and loose tooth,' she said.

'He said Dad had hit him; however, Eric said they were roughhousing and it had been an accident,' Sheena Greitens wrote, adding that the tooth eventually had to be removed."  (our emphasis)

Given the Republican base's preference for felons, bullies and abusers, this may not hurt Greitens at the polls in August when the Republican primary is held. But it's another window into the rotted out core of a sick party and their "leadership." 

(photo: Greitens and ex-wife in 2016. J.B. Forbes / St. Louis Post-Dispatch)