Conservative issues a dire warning: Violence-obsessed Republicans ‘are playing with fire’

Writing in The Bulwark this Wednesday, Mona Charen says that she hopes the "increasing fascination with political violence we are hearing from Republicans is a passing thing, and not a sign of unravelling."

She cites a recent rant from a Republican running for Northampton County Executive in Pennsylvania who is against mask mandates in schools. According to Steve Lynch, you don't need to provide schools with "frigging data."

"You go into school boards to remove 'em! That's what you do! They don't follow the law!" Lynch, who was present for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, said. "You go in and you remove 'em. I'm going in there with 20 strong men, I'm going to speak to the school board and I'm going to give them an option. They can leave or they can be removed."

Charen then cites recent comments from GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, who spoke last weekend at an event sponsored by the Macon County Republican Party. Along with the expected rhetoric on how the 2020 election was "stolen," Cawthorn cautioned the audience to "defend their children" from vaccines. He also called those arrested for rioting at the Capitol on Jan. 6 "political hostages."

"The things that we are wanting to fight for, it doesn't matter if our votes don't count," Cawthorn said. "Because, you know, if our election systems continue to be rigged and continue to be stolen, then it's going to lead to one place—and it's bloodshed."

Then there was the Williamson County school board in Tennessee that was disrupted by anti-mask parents. "We will find you! We know who you are!" said a group of parents to doctors and nurses who testified at the meeting that masks would help limit the spread of COVID-19.

According to Charen the America where election workers and health professionals were universally held in high regard is gone, thanks to the Republican Party.

"They are playing with fire," she concludes. "Nothing less than democratic legitimacy is on the line. These menacing signals suggest that January 6 may have been the overture, not the finale."

Read the full op-ed over at The Bulwark.