In our highly partisan times, it’s necessary to draw some boundaries. Regardless of our political allegiances, we should agree that political violence is not only wrong, but threatens the foundation of our democracy. That’s a modest standard, but one that too many Americans — even prominent commentators and politicians — struggle to meet.
The response from some conservatives to the recent assault on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, at the couple’s home in San Francisco should set off alarm bells.
Instead of condemning the break-in and hammer attack that left Mr. Pelosi hospitalized, they joked about it and circulated unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.
According to an FBI affidavit, David DePape allegedly broke into the house and “stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied,’ he was going to break ‘her kneecaps.’”
The Washington Post notes DePape’s blogs show “he appears to have been deeply drawn into election falsehoods and political conspiracy theories.”
Nevertheless, Donald Trump Jr. shared posts on social media including a “Paul Pelosi Halloween Costume” — a pair of underwear and a hammer.
The posts echoed a conspiracy theory that the man had a romantic relationship with Mr. Pelosi. Trump Jr. later deleted the posts.
Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake drew laughter when she stated at a campaign event, “Apparently, (Pelosi’s) house doesn’t have a lot of protection.” U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called DePape “Paul Pelosi’s friend” in a tweet.
And failed gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder thought it was a good idea to tastelessly joke about the attack in a now-deleted tweet.
One needn’t be a fan of Nancy Pelosi’s politics to be outraged by these grotesque responses to a violent attack.
It certainly doesn’t reflect well on the current state of American politics, either.
A Carnegie Endowment for International Peace survey found that in the past few years “support for political violence has doubled for Republicans since 2017 and has grown for Democrats.”
It said these numbers approach the level of support for political violence in Northern Ireland during its most-violent period.
Enough already. It’s wrong to de-stigmatize violence. It shouldn’t matter what your worldview is or what your partisan team is. When it comes to this incident, more voices from the right need to say as much without any caveats.