DeSantis is the latest GOPer to embrace 'redemptive violence': columnist

Ron DeSantis drew condemnation over the incendiary rhetoric he used to announce his plans to trim the federal government when he said “we’re going to start slitting throats on Day 1" at a recent campaign event.

But author and commentator Paul Waldman writes for MSNBC that the violent language the Florida governor used is part of a growing trend in right-wing media and political circles.

Waldman writes that “Such rhetoric began with Trump; far-right movements the world over have long valorized violence against foreigners, racial and ethnic out-groups and political opponents. But in modern American politics, Trump took it from the fringe to the mainstream, including the Republican elite.”

Conservatives during the Trump era have been flooded with what Waldman describes as “fantasies of violence against perceived enemies,” noting that we shouldn’t be surprised when violence spills from the realm of fantasy into reality.

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“If you believe that, what options remain?” Waldman writes. “If the broken system produces the outcome you want — especially the election of your candidate — then perhaps the brokenness is a problem for another day. But if it doesn’t, then seeking satisfaction within the system seems pointless.”

Waldman notes the language some right-wing media figures use has turned dark, noting radio host Michael Savage’s statement that he’s “willing to pick up arms” after Trump was indicted.

Waldman also notes some conservative lawmakers have sent out Christmas cards to constituents showing “the whole family, even kids barely old enough to tie their own shoes, posing proudly holding military-style rifles,” and the celebrity treatment conservatives have given Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two people at a Kenosha, Wisconsin rally, as other examples of how violence has been fetishized by the right.

Waldman contends that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol wasn’t “an aberration,” but instead “the natural response to everything Trump’s supporters had been told in the days and months before — and are still being told to this day.”

Waldman writes that although the insurrection failed and many rioters have faced consequences, “The thirst to solve their problems with spasms of redemptive violence remains. It’s being fed every day, by elite figures on the right who believe they can harness the bloodlust they reinforce for their own ends. And we don’t yet know whether next time will be even harder to contain.”

Read the full article here.