'Not going to end well': GOP slammed for putting the country on the path to more violence
In a blistering editorial from the editors of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Republican Party is taken to task for putting a stop of Donald Trump-style grievances and attacks on the government that continues to inflame far-right conservatives who are increasingly turning to violence.
Citing two recent examples of extremists who have launched attacks that go far beyond verbal, the editors warned the GOP that their looking the other way will only ramp up more violence.
In particular, coming on the heels of multiple mass shootings and attempts on the lives of Democratic operatives, the editors wrote that "the two rallying cries of the far right — election fraud and gun rights" have come "together in the most dangerous ways."
"The deadly Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection offered just a taste of the radicalism that the Republican mainstream has nurtured by refusing to condemn extreme acts of violence and the political leaders who encourage it — including former President Donald Trump," they wrote. "All signs suggest this extremism is only going to get worse because GOP leaders fear losing power if they alienate the far right wing. Given the current trajectory, it’s not going to end well."
Citing the attack on the husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in their San Francisco home and the arrest of GOP candidate Solomon Peña for hiring shooters to open fire on the homes of four Democratic officials, the editors claimed violence seems to be a trending response to electoral setbacks.
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"The common theme here is that it’s now acceptable in some circles to treat defeat as an automatic call to arms and violence," they wrote.
The editors concluded, "The days of magnanimity and bipartisan compromise are over. Some people want war and seem determined to provoke it. In the past, they could easily be dismissed as the lunatics they are. But since they now can claim an ex-president as their inspiration, lunacy is steadily infiltrating into the Republican mainstream, unchallenged by the party’s cowardly leaders."
You can read the whole piece here.