New Republic editor and author Michael Tomasky slammed members of the right for desperately trying to pigeonhole accused political assassin Vance Boelter as a Democrat over the weekend.
“I had to laugh darkly Saturday evening as I saw many conservatives on social media, prominent and not, try to locate an aha! moment in the fact that Vance Boelter, the Minnesota suspect, was appointed to a state advisory board by two Democratic governors. Please. He was targeting abortion providers. His neighbor said he was a Trump voter,” said Tomasky, adding that the ‘both sides’ arguments are muddying the water as political violence and terrorism in America rises to scary new heights.
“Is there violence on ‘both sides’? Sure there is. Some of the recent violence against Jews, like the Molotov cocktail attack in Boulder and the shooting of that Israeli couple in Washington, D.C., was perpetrated by people who were acting on behalf of a cause associated with the left," Tomasky wrote.
READ MORE: Trump's 'disturbing and unethical' new rule allows discrimination against Dems and single women
There was also some violence at the ‘No Kings’ marches, Tomasky concedes. But he added the “most notable instance” was the man driving his car into a group of anti-Trump protesters in Culpeper, Virginia. “Gee, I seem to remember another man in Virginia who drove his car into a phalanx of protesters, killing one of them. Which side was he on again?” Tomasky asked.
“‘The left,’ very broadly defined, engages in some acts of violence. Sure. But America’s culture of violence is driven by the right. And here’s the important point. This broadly defined ‘left’ includes people and groups that despise the Democratic Party as much as or even more than they do Republicans,” Tomasky argues. “Antifa activists weren’t racing to the polls to vote for Kamala Harris.”
But, on the right, extremists worship Trump.
“He is their avenger,” Tomasky said. “No Democratic presidential candidate would welcome the support of violent extremist groups (not that they would even offer it). Trump has. Repeatedly. They were at the U.S. Capitol for him on January 6, 2021, ready to administer a little street justice to his vice president in his name and in order to keep him in office illegally.”
This is a real problem considering Armed Conflict Location and Event Data ranks the U.S. No. 50 in terms of ‘turbulence’ — right behind Libya at No. 49, Tomasky reports. Additionally, the group Vision of Humanity ranks the U.S. at No. 132 on its Global Peace Index, just ahead of Iran. (Iceland ranks No. 1 and Yemen is No. 163 — just 28 slots behind the U.S.)
The left-wing style political violence of the Weathermen–Patty Hearst kidnapping back in the ’70s, is different than today, said Tomasky, in that “Today, one of our two political parties abets it.”
“That isn’t going to change, and it’s almost certain to get worse. That will lead to more acts of violence on the other side, and eventually … Libya, here we come,” he said.
Read the full New Republic report at this link.