Officially Condoned Violence and Election Police with Real Badges

Meaningless “thoughts and prayers” follow every American incident of mass killing or political violence. It’s almost an embarrassment when those words are spouted, when those who enable the violence take no responsibility for what they have caused, directly or indirectly. When military assault rifles are used in mass shootings, where we are the only nation not at war where such weapons are even permitted, that there are political factions arguing that the Second Amendment, passed in an era of flintlocks and muskets carried by “well regulated militia,” creates a basic right for all Americans to have such semiautomatic weapons, is beyond absurd.

While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul attack by a rabid Trump supporter with a skull-crushing hammer in Pelosi’s own home has drawn condemnation from senior Republicans, they are the same GOP politicians who have elevated the violent attackers at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 to patriots simply engaging in “legitimate political discourse.” What’s worse is the rising Republican faction – White Christian nationalists – that rejects the notion that the First Amendment mandates a separation of church and state and tells us that the Second Amendment was specially passed to enable citizen unhappy with political leadership to use guns to overthrow them. The policies represented are racist, anti-Semitic and profoundly un-American.

“Illustrating that Christian nationalist ideas are moving further and further into the mainstream, a September poll by Politico found that 61% of Republicans and 17% of Democrats believe the U.S. should declare itself a Christian nation. The poll also found that ‘white grievance is highly correlated with support for a Christian nation.’ Indeed, as the Christians Against Christian Nationalism website explains, Christian nationalism ‘often overlaps with and provides cover for white supremacy and racial subjugation.’

“The even more dangerous aspect of Christian nationalism is its acceptance of the inevitability of violence. Christian nationalism argues that Americans are an exceptional, chosen people who will eventually face an apocalyptic end-times battle. This us-versus-them thinking positions the ‘other’ as a dire threat that has to be defeated out of a moral duty to defend Christian values and prevent the nation from falling into darkness…

“In April, Doug Mastriano, Pennsylvania’s Republican nominee for governor, called the separation of church and state a ‘myth. ’ That same month, Maryland’s Republican nominee for governor, Dan Cox, told a crowd that his platform ‘recognizes the creator’ and said ‘we have rights that supersede government.’

“It’s not just Mastriano and Cox. A growing number of Republicans now espouse Christian nationalism. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado argued in June that ‘the church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church.’ Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia put it more bluntly in July. ‘I’m a Christian and I say it proudly,” she said. “We should be Christian nationalists.’” MSNBC.com, October 23rd. Yet the attack on Speaker Pelosi’s husband was apparently the direct result of conspiracy theorist, a White Christian nationalist, strike out for his increasingly prevalent belief system. “They shall not replace us!” has become their rallying cry.

“But for many Americans, shock [at this attack on Paul Pelosi] was tinged with a weary sense of inevitability. Far from a freak occurrence, the attack felt of a piece with the other threats and warnings publicized that day — the latest additions to the country’s growing sense of political menace, especially from the far right… ‘Unfortunately, this is a continuation of at least a 2½-year-long established pattern of violence against elected officials and local officials, including poll workers, that has been steadily ramping up,’ said Erica Chenoweth, a Harvard Kennedy School professor who studies political violence.

“Politically motivated violence has ebbed and flowed throughout U.S. history. Currently, America is going through an upsurge in right-wing violence, according to researchers who track attacks and other incidents. They say today’s climate is comparable to that in the mid-1990s, when a similar wave of right-wing violence culminated in the 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people.” Los Angeles Times, October 30th. Except today, that violence is both vastly more widespread and carries with it the supportive rhetoric from GOP leaders, ranging from Donald Trump to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Not only have congressional districts been gerrymandered to exclude proportionate representation for minority voters, voter restrictions target the same restrictions, but just in case those efforts fall short, genuinely empowered law enforcement officers in many counties are using their badges to intimidate voters who do not support the rising radical right. “Amid reports of harassment outside ballot drop boxes and threats to election workers, experts are sounding the alarm about another potential source of election interference ahead of the 2022 midterms: a growing coalition of far-right ‘constitutional sheriffs’ who are gearing up to insert themselves into upcoming elections.

“The ‘constitutional sheriffs’ movement, which has ties to the Oath Keepers and other antigovernment fringe movements, is based on the legally dubious belief that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority within their counties, superseding state and federal officials, including the U.S. president. In recent years, self-appointed constitutional sheriffs have refused to enforce various laws that they deem unconstitutional, from state and federal gun laws to pandemic-era mask mandates.

“But now, experts warn, key figures in the movement have teamed up with prominent election deniers as part of a new campaign that seeks to lend law enforcement credibility to the false notion, promoted by former President Donald Trump and his supporters, that voter fraud is rampant in U.S. elections.

“Leading this charge are two major constitutional sheriffs groups — the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and Protect America Now — which have aligned themselves with True the Vote, a conservative vote-monitoring group whose widely discredited claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election were the basis for the film ‘2000 Mules.’” Yahoo!News, October 29th. I fear both election intimidation and post-election interference with properly generated election results. We live in hellish times with the nation teetering on the brink of transitioning from democracy to right-wing autocracy.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the words of Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate, election denier Kari Lake, echo in my mind: “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result.”