This Is How We’ll End Up In A Sectarian Civil War
Once it gets started, it’ll be very difficult to shove it all back into Pandora’s Box.
by Bob Cesca
WASHINGTON, DC – The harassment, the death threats, and the intimidation tactics used by Trump supporters against the 1/6 committee witnesses, including Shaye Moss, Ruby Freeman, Rusty Bowers, and their families, is just the beginning of what could very easily descend into endless sectarian violence in American neighborhoods and public spaces.
We’ve entered an extremely dangerous era in politics. It’s emerged slowly over the last 20 years and significantly worsened under Trump. For more than a decade now, Fox News and other far-right voices have justified through example the idea of personally confronting perceived opponents or enemies in their homes, outside their workplaces – far beyond the traditional platforms for political discourse.
I recall wingnuts like blogger Michelle Malkin stalking a 12-year-old boy, Graeme Frost, whose mortal sin was to appear in a TV commercial in support of SCHIP. Malkin spent time doxing him and his family, while lurking outside their home to see if they were really worthy of SCHIP benefits. Jesse Watters, now hosting his own show on Fox News, made a name for himself by chasing down everyone from school principals to mentally ill homeless people, cornering and embarrassing them for laughs. Bill O’Reilly was partly responsible for the murder of Dr. George Tiller, a doctor who O’Reilly nicknamed “Tiller the Baby Killer.” The list goes on and on.
For many years, Republican politicians have been producing campaign videos in which they use AR-15s and similar firearms to literally shoot the legislation they don’t like. Missouri’s disgraced ex-governor Eric Greitens, this week, released a video in which he went hunting for “RINOs” – Republicans in name only. Millions of our fellow Americans are being told that democracy is sought at the point of a gun, not through words and votes.
This is eliminationism.
It seems as though if you participate long enough in politics on social media, or if you happened to get named by prominent leaders with radicalized followers, you will face some sort of physical retribution for it. My girlfriend, Kimberley Johnson, host of the Start Me Up podcast, was relentlessly stalked after Fox News featured her on the front page of their website. My Dad, who shares my first and last name, was accosted at his door by an overzealous Alex Jones disciple who thought he was knocking on my door. This is where we’re headed, and there’s no sign of things cooling off any time soon, despite our calmer, kinder president.
Our politics have gone from a debate about the merits of issues and policies, to physical, financial, and emotional assaults against the debaters. Someone isn’t merely considered wrong on an issue, they’re often made to harshly pay for their wrongness with online doxing, phone calls, in-your-face harassment, and worse. It’s not difficult to see the trajectory of the escalation. What started out as dirty tricks decades ago became discussion-forum flame wars 20 years ago, and now it’s all de-evolved into the kinds of physical assaults we heard about in Tuesday’s 1/6 hearings. And unless cooler heads prevail, it’s going to spark something more serious down the road.
I’m extremely hesitant to even mention the notion of another civil war, but the nature of a second conflict won’t necessarily be a direct rebellion against the government like the first one, 161 years ago. What we’ll see this time, if at all, are violent confrontations, mayhem, and terrorism engaged by citizens against other citizens. Bombings, guerrilla warfare, politically-motivated mass shootings, assassinations, and other forms of violence – each one met with retaliatory responses. And once it gets started, it’ll be very difficult to shove it all back into Pandora’s Box. Not only will an endless sectarian war like this be immensely bloody, but it’ll rapidly eat away at our quality of life and erode the free exercise of democracy. If nonpartisan election workers are on the hit list in 2021 and 2022, imagine what it’ll be like for prominent political voices five or ten years from now.
While we’re rightfully disgusted by the behavior of the Red Hats who attacked this week’s witnesses, it’s also crucial that we not engage on this level ourselves. I’m not saying that we are or that we will, but we have to resist the urge to play their violent, in-your-face game. It’s shocking, infuriating, and heartbreaking when we see it happen, and our instincts sometimes drive us to seek an eye-for-an-eye. However, there are other ways, on-the-level ways, to win the debate that don’t involve escalation, intimidation, and more violence. Remember, our mission is to preserve democracy, not to undermine it.
We can’t just be right, we need to be better than them.
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Members Only: Republicans Are Building Their Paramilitary Wing
The Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are the rapidly organizing paramilitary wing of the Republican Party.
by Justin Rosario
In Timothy Snyder’s “On Tyranny,” you will find many useful lessons to both thwart the GOP’s incipient fascism and for resisting it if we fail. The one that stuck out the most for me was #6: Be Wary of Paramilitaries.
Snyder is referring to groups like the Nazi Brownshirts that work outside the law to sow fear and violence against their political enemies but are openly embraced and controlled by a political party. The GOP has been laying the groundwork for their Brownshirts for decades and is on the precipice of taking this important step on their path to true fascism.
You’d think we’d be talking about it a bit more… Continue reading here.
“We can’t just be right, we need to be better than them.”
Agreed. But it should also be noted that the response, while in more “acceptable” Democracy-supporting ways, must not be any less forceful or unrelenting.
“What we’ll see this time, if at all, are violent confrontations,…”
“if”??
You gave examples of confrontations that have happened, and… follow with “if”?
It’s not obvious at times but I notice a recurring reticence on the part of folks on the left, sometimes even when pointing out the vileness, of Republicans and other reprehensibles, to unabashedly and consistently call them out on their shit. Qualifiers creep into the discussion.