There were months of left-wing violence in the streets, numerous assaults on Senator Rand Paul and an attempt to assassinate Republican congressmen at a baseball field. It was the New York Times is wringing its hands over an animated video issued by a far-right Republican congressman, smearing the entire party as coursing with violence in Wednesday’s story by Catie Edmondson, “Democrats Press for House Censure of Gosar for Violent Anime Video.”
House Democrats will move Wednesday to officially rebuke Senator Paul Gosar of Arizona and to remove him from committee assignments because he posted an animated video in which he killed a Democratic congresswoman as well as attacking President Biden.
(The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday afternoon to censure Gosar.
House Republican leaders didn’t publicly condemn Mr. Gosar because of the video. which surfaced as prominent members of the party have become increasingly tolerant of violent statements, and their core supporters have resorted to threats against lawmakers considered insufficiently loyal to the G.O.P. line.
Do Times reporters really not remember the assaults on Republican Sen. Rand Paul, or the Bernie Sanders’ supporter who shot up a ballfield of Republican congressmen in 2017? The obnoxious protests outside the homes of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Lindsay Graham? Federalist also ran a useful compendium of Democrat threats against Republicans: “14 Times Republican Officials Viciously Harassed, Threatened With Death.”
The animated video proved to be the last straw for Democrats.
Even worse in its hysteria and bias by omission was a front-page story on Saturday by Lisa Lerer and Astead Herndon, “Menace Enters the Republican Mainstream.”
According to the reporters,
A significant portion of the Republican Party is now accustomed to violence threats, whether in congressional offices or community meeting rooms. Ten months on from the Jan. 6th rioters attack the United States Capitol, and four years after the president spoke with violence about his opponents, right-wing Republicans now speak more frequently and openly about using force to oppose those who have removed him from office.
Most galling, they let the Democrats off the hook for their own violence, linking to a story on the 2017 shooting by a Bernie Sanders supporter of Republican Rep. Steve Scalise and other Republican congressmen on a ballfield, but without mentioning it in the story itself — while praising Democrats for condemning such violence! For context, see the links below.
Political violence has been part of the American story since the founding of the country, often entwined with racial politics and erupting in periods of great change: More than 70 brawls, duels and other violent incidents embroiled members of Congress from 1830 to 1860 alone. And elements of the left have contributed to the confrontational tenor of the country’s current politics, though Democratic leaders routinely condemn violence and violent imagery.
History and others who study democracy agree that violence has become more acceptable in recent times. They include some of the loudest voices inside and outside government, as well its most influential and powerful members.
They warn that the Republican Party is using menace to mainstream as a political tool.
This story even descended into domestic rumors as if Republicans own the scandals or have any connection to political rhetoric.
The party’s increasingly violent tone isn’t paying a political price. There are no signs of it.
Lerer and Herndon did not identify the party while relaying this statistic.
And threats against members of Congress have jumped by 107 percent compared with the same period in 2020, according to the Capitol Police. At airports, lawmakers were harassed and targeted at their houses. Family members have also been threatened.….
Democrat Senator Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona was harassed in an airport and on a plane multiple times by liberal activists. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also experienced harassment, however, these examples don’t seem relevant.
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