Senators in Glass Houses
I fear that there’s going to be an assassination. I really worry that somebody is going to be killed, and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation … they have to realize they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence. – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY)
Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is worried that the escalating rhetoric surrounding the mid-term elections and the Kavanaugh Supreme Court nomination might lead to violence. Paul knows about violence, earlier this year a neighbor attacked Paul in his backyard, breaking ribs and bruising a lung. While the attacking neighbor was very different from Paul politically, there also was a “lawncare” issue of blown yard waste that festered to a breaking point.
Paul was also present at the attack at a Virginia baseball field where Republican Congressmen were practicing for the annual inter-partisan game. Four were shot, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise. The shooter was crying out, “…this is for health care.”
Paul spoke out after former Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton told listeners that Democrats “…can’t be civil anymore.” In addition, former Attorney General Eric Holder stated that “…if Republicans go low, kick ‘em,” in contrast to Michelle Obama’s 2016 “…if they go low, we go high” mantra. New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, California Congresswoman Maxine Waters and others have also encouraged citizens to confront legislators.
Republicans are concerned. They are confronted in the hallways of the Congress by protestors who see their basic rights being threatened. And those confrontations have had more of an impact than just inconveniencing the passage from office to hearing room. The elevator confrontation between Arizona Senator Jeff Flake and two sexual assault survivors is in part credited for the delay in the Kavanaugh nomination to allow for further FBI investigation. While the investigation itself was a sham (with the White House circumscribing the witness list) it did show the impact of protest.
Republicans have also been confronted in more private settings. Senator Ted Cruz, Secretary Kristen Nielsen, White House Advisor Stephen Miller, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, and Presidential son Donald Trump Jr. have all been either harassed in restaurants or denied service. They didn’t like it.
This is the political party that has embraced the confrontational tactics of the Right to Life movement for decades, including harassing patients going to clinics, sending out inflammatory mailings and messages, and turning a blind-eye to abortion clinic violence. The “movement” justifies their actions by saying – “we are trying to save life.” Agreement or disagreement on the question of abortion isn’t the issue: the GOP has embraced these tactics as being “acceptable” in the pursuit of “life.”
So it shouldn’t surprise Republicans that many on the left are willing to embrace similar tactics when they see children separated at the border, healthcare coverage denied, and the rights of women, minorities and LGBTQ folks threatened. The continuing actions of President Trump, with rally after rally of inflammatory rhetoric, threatening opponents with jail (“lock her up”) and demeaning critics and the news media, simply serve as more fuel on the fire.
There is no question that the political “temperature” is high. Historians are comparing our present age to the 1960’s Vietnam Era, or worse, the 1850’s pre-Civil War Abolitionist time. But for the Republicans: the White House, Majority Leader McConnell, and Senator Paul; to try to thrust the blame on the Democrats is simply one more step in ratcheting up the tension.
Perhaps that’s what they want. Republican voters were motivated by the Kavanaugh hearings, now that he’s on the Supreme Court the drive to go to the polls has lessened. Meanwhile Democratic voters are even more incentivized: it’s the only way they can change the current path. So Republicans leaders resort to scaring their constituency; creating fear of the “mob” and the “radical left.” Get out to vote or “violence will rule.”
They should remember they live in glass houses.
