Hoodwinked

Right-wing influencers have convinced their gullible audiences that Melissa Hortman was killed by a Never-Trumper or Democrat.

Republicans are pushing a narrative that the violence in the country is coming from the left, not the right. It’s a fiction, but conservatives have embraced it. The people who insist on free speech for themselves want the left muzzled because liberal commentators are calling Trumpists fascists. To borrow a phrase, “Words don’t kill people. People kill people.”

To hear conservatives tell it, the left is violent because of the murder of Charlie Kirk and the assassination attempts on Donald Trump. They also like to throw in the George Floyd protests, while ignoring Floyd’s video-taped death and the violence against Black men that led to the riots. In their world, armed paramilitary organizations roaming the streets are keeping the peace while protesters are provoking violence.

But the conservative base has also been hoodwinked about right-wing violence. They believe the guy who killed Minnesota state Representative Melissa Hortman was a disgruntled Democrat, not a conservative Republican and Trump supporter. A conservative commenter responded to one of my recent posts, writing, “In this, his latest screed, he (me) suggests Republicans are ‘downplaying’ the death of a Minnesota legislator as if the murder was carried out by a crazed person wearing a MAGA hat. To the contrary, the gunman was a devout Never Trumper and ‘No Kings’ protestor.” Another wrote, “Nobody outside of Minnesota knew her. She was killed by a pissed off, fucking psycho who is upset that she did not vote Democrat.” That’s just false.

In the wake of Hortman’s murder, social media influencers on the right jumped on a kernel of truth and turned it into a lie. The gunman was appointed to a minor board by Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat. They spent the next few days calling the killer a Democratic supporter and speculating wildly about his motives. The narrative that evolved was that he was mad at Hortman for not supporting a legislative measure backed by Walz. Now, it’s become truth in conservative lore.

Just to clarify, the man who killed Hortman was a conservative Republican who was deeply religious. He had a hit list of 45 Democrats, including Walz, and abortion providers. He killed Hortman and her husband and seriously wounded Minnesota state Senator John Hoffman and his wife in home invasions in the middle of the night. The gunman’s roommate and best friend told reporters shortly after his arrest that he was a Trump supporter who listened to Alex Jones’ podcast Infowars. I’m sure he is also seriously mentally ill, but he was not a Democrat or never-Trumper.

Study after study has shown that right-wing violence in this country far outstrips left-wing violence and it’s not even really close. Left-wing violence has seen an uptick this year, but political violence over the past decade has come overwhelmingly from the right. Repeatedly and constantly pushing the narrative that left-wing violence is more prevalent is an example of the saying, “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” On conservative social media channels, the Hortman lie has probably been repeated millions of time.

Today, conservatives are using their narrative about left-wing violence to justify government-sanctioned violence. Trump declared Antifa a domestic terrorist organization which is laughable since it’s not an organization but a loose collection of self-proclaimed anarchists. It’s not funny, though, since the Trump administration is using the designation to try to provoke a response that justifies military intervention into state and local affairs.

The narrative, though, isn’t just aimed at conservatives or the GOP base. They’ve already been had, living in an imaginary reality where violent leftists are roaming city streets. No, the narrative is trying to drive a widespread negative impression of Democrats and liberals as responsible for violence to justify the government invasion of cities run by Democrats. Trump wants to use imaginary violence or rhetoric as an excuse to use real violence against American citizens.

On a side note, Democrats should throw Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones overboard. He made remarkably stupid comments in a 2022 text exchange with a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, indicating that he would rather kill the Republican Speaker of the House than Adolf Hitler. No Democrats should be put in the position to defend him. He’s at best a negative distraction and at worst a drag on the ticket. He probably sunk his own campaign. He could sink others.

Maybe Jones can overcome the negative publicity in this polarized political environment, but that’s besides the point. He showed a lack of judgment that calls into question his fitness to serve, especially in an office that requires fairness. He may be able to have a second act, but it needs to be after he’s been out of office for a time, proving that his text was a one-off, not a personality trait.