‘Only the GOP Celebrates Political Violence’
David Frum:
But if both Republicans and Democrats, left and right, suffer
political violence, the same cannot be said of those who
celebrate political violence. That’s not a “both sides” affair
in 2020s America.You don’t see Democratic House members wielding weapons in videos
and threatening to shoot candidates who want to cut capital-gains
taxes or slow the growth of Medicare. Democratic candidates for
Senate do not post video fantasies of hunting and executing
political rivals, or of using a firearm to discipline their
children’s romantic partners. It’s not because of Democratic
members that Speaker Nancy Pelosi
installed
metal detectors to bar firearms from the floor of the House. No
Democratic equivalent exists of Donald Trump, who regularly
praises and encourages violence as a normal tool of politics, most
recently against his own party’s Senate leader, Mitch McConnell.
As the formerly Trump-leaning Wall Street Journal
editorialized
on October 2: “It’s all too easy to imagine some fanatic taking
Mr. Trump seriously and literally, and attempting to kill Mr.
McConnell. Many supporters took Mr. Trump’s rhetoric about former
Vice President Mike
Pence all too
seriously on Jan. 6.”
