Is the talk of violence regarding the US midterm elections serious or are they just idle threats?

[lpetrich]

Opinion | The Fading Line Between Rhetorical Extremism and Political Violence - The New York Times - Oct. 31, 2022

Under Mr. Trump’s leadership, groups on the right have felt increasingly comfortable incubating, encouraging and carrying out violence.

The consistency of the rhetoric (“enemy of the people,” “Our house is on fire,” “You’re not going to have a country anymore,” “the greatest theft in the history of America,” “Where’s Nancy?”) has ingrained dehumanization of Republican opponents in parts of the political culture; conservatives have often painted their critics as enemies who must be annihilated before they destroy you. As the Department of Homeland Security has reported, domestic violent extremism — such as the white supremacist Charlottesville riots and the Jan. 6 insurrection — is one of the most pressing internal threats facing the United States.

Some on the left, too, have increasingly abandoned norms of civility and respect for rules and institutions. The gunman who in 2017 targeted Republican members of Congress and shot five people playing baseball — the Republican House whip, Steve Scalise, was seriously wounded — drew inspiration from his hatred of Republicans and Donald Trump. In June a California man was arrested outside Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home and charged with attempted murder after the man posted on the social platform Discord that he was going to “stop Roe v. Wade from being overturned.”

There is much more of that on the Right than on the Left, it must be noted.

But the far right has its own, more direct history of conspiracy theories — for instance, Joe McCarthy’s argument that Communists controlled elements of the American government, and the John Birch Society’s insistence that the greatest threat to the United States came from Communists and their dupes inside the White House, the media, religious institutions and higher education.

Robert Welch, founder of the John Birch Society, claimed that then-President Dwight Eisenhower was involved in this great Communist conspiracy.

The difference is that now the Republican Party has taken conspiracy theories into the political mainstream, widening their reach. Once, even hard-line conservatives dismissed such theories: Barry Goldwater, during his 1964 White House run, rejected accusations that the Supreme Court chief justice Earl Warren was a Communist or that enemy agents were in control of recent administrations.

Not so today. Election denialism, the growth of QAnon (Mr. Trump called adherents “people that love our country”), the belief that a conspiracy of global elites is stealing the American people’s wealth act to spur Mr. Trump’s followers and a sizable minority of voters to conclude that dire steps are required. Social media and partisan news outlets have accelerated the spread of these ideas, but they did not create them.

 

[southernhybrid]

I don't have the link handy, but I read the other day that some voters in Arizona are too frightened to vote. That's really sad.

Too frightened to use the early voting drop boxes. That doesn't mean they won't vote by other means.

I don't remember it saying they were afraid to use the drop boxes. I read they were afraid to vote. I could be wrong, but if I find the link, I'll add it.

I don't have the link handy, but I read the other day that some voters in Arizona are too frightened to vote. That's really sad.

Too frightened to use the early voting drop boxes. That doesn't mean they won't vote by other means.

First of all, nobody should be afraid to vote, regardless of the method they choose. But, what I read is that some people in Arizona are afraid to vote period. I don't have many NYTimes gifted articles left, so I'll just quote a little from the piece where I read this.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/04/us/arizona-voter-fraud-san-luis.html

As early voting began last month, Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced that two more San Luis residents — one of them a current city councilwoman — had been indicted on charges of ballot abuse during the 2020 primary election. Separately, the Yuma County sheriff is investigating 26 potential voting cases across this county in Southwest Arizona.
José Castro, a local Baptist pastor, has been trying to persuade his congregants to go to the polls. Two longtime friends, Tere Varela and Maria Robles, normally visit a senior center during elections to guide Spanish-speaking retirees through the ballots. But they said they were planning to stay away in November.
“We don’t want to help,” Ms. Robles said one recent afternoon. “We’re afraid.”
“Is that the purpose of this?” Ms. Varela asked. “To keep us from voting?”

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[ZiprHead]

Ohio man’s murder by neighbor angry he was a Democrat realizes far right’s lethal fantasy

There is a certain inevitability to eliminationist rhetoric: It may not happen right away, but at some point it will inexorably move from mere words into action—the violent kind, often the lethal kind. That’s how stochastic terrorism works—randomly,...

www.dailykos.com

That scenario already seems to have played out last weekend in rural Okeana, in southwestern Ohio, where a 43-year-old man out mowing his lawn in the back yard of his home was gunned down by his next-door neighbor—a 26-year-old man who had verbally attacked the older man on at least four previous occasions for being a “Democrat.”


The victim, Anthony Lee King, died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was confronted while tending his yard by Austin Gene Combs, who lived next door. Combs casually walked away, and was arrested without incident soon after while nearby in a Jeep with his father.
Combs was booked on murder charges in the Butler County Jail, and bond was set at $950,000. (The community is located about 30 miles northwest of Cincinnati.) Police said Combs admitted he shot King “several times with a revolver.”
The Butler County Journal News obtained a recording of the family’s call to 911 after the shooting. It opens with King’s son informing the dispatcher: “My neighbor just shot my dad.”
The shooter, he told the dispatcher, “just walked back onto his property.” He said the man was their neighbor who “has come over multiple times making statements. He’s insane.” He said the confrontations were over his father’s perceived political affiliation as a Democrat.
King’s wife then got on the line and recounted what had happened: She and her husband were tending to their back yard, and she went inside the home to let the dog out—at which point she heard gunshots.
“I look in the backyard and that man is walking away from my husband, and my husband is on the ground,” the woman said. “He has come over like four times confronting my husband because he thought he was a Democrat. Why, why … Please, I don’t understand.”

 

[ZiprHead]

Pelosi attack suspect planned to target Hunter Biden, Gavin Newsom and Tom Hanks, police official says | CNN Politics

The man accused of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, said there was "evil in Washington" and had also planned to target President Joe Biden's son Hunter, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and actor Tom Hanks, a San Francisco Police Department official testified Wednesday.

www.cnn.com

CNN — The man accused of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, said there was “evil in Washington” and had also planned to target President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and actor Tom Hanks, a San Francisco Police Department official testified Wednesday.
.....
DePape previously entered a not guilty plea to all state and federal charges. He faces charges on a litany of crimes, including assault, attempted murder and attempted kidnapping, following the break-in at the couple’s home, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the San Francisco district attorney announced last month. He was also charged with one count of “attempted kidnapping of a US official,” according to the US attorney’s office.

 

[laughing dog]

I don't have the link handy, but I read the other day that some voters in Arizona are too frightened to vote. That's really sad.

Too frightened to use the early voting drop boxes. That doesn't mean they won't vote by other means.

Doesn't mean it they will either.

 

[Politesse]

I only use the early voting boxes shortly before they all get collected, out of concern for vandalism. But at least there aren't any, you know, posses with guns to contend with.