A dirtbag MAGAt’s home invasion plot – hoping to break Nancy Pelosi’s kneecaps, settling instead for hammering her 82-year-old husband into the hospital – would never have happened if the craven Republican party hadn’t relentlessly demonized her for lo the last 16 years.
Now that all the predictable MAGA lies have been predictably blasted to smithereens – no, David DePape was not motivated by left-wing nudism; no, he was not just a random dude in a Democratic crime wave – it is abundantly clear that he specifically targeted the Speaker of the House thanks to all the toxic fumes that had been pumped into his sick mind for lord knows how long.
Words matter, actions have consequences, and, indeed, it seems inevitable that the GOP would bring us to this low moment after so many years of whipping up hatred. Starting in the 2006 midterm campaign, when Pelosi was in her third year as the House Democratic leader, Republicans peppered TV viewers with ads that featured black-and-white photos of her wide-eyed stare, looking like a fiend from Night of the Living Dead. In their 2010 ads, she was sometimes depicted as the Wizard of Oz witch (a Republican candidate doused her with water, inducing her to melt); in other ads, she simply burst into flames. And remember, this was long before Trump lumbered onto the scene.
But it was the same deal in 2018, when roughly one-third of the Republicans’ midterm campaign ads featured Pelosi. They just couldn’t quit her. She has long functioned as their Emmanuel Goldstein, the designated mythical enemy in Orwell’s “1984,” the face that stoked Pavlovian hostility among the credulous masses in the daily Two Minutes Hate. As Orwell wrote, “There were hisses here and there among the audience … uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out … the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically … People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen … The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but that it was impossible to avoid joining in.”
What better way to explain David DePape? He has already told us his intentions, in a recorded confession that was excerpted in new court documents filed by the feds:
“DePape told (Paul) Pelosi that he was looking for Nancy … DePape stated that he was going to hold Nancy hostage and talk to her. If Nancy were to tell DePape the ‘truth,’ he would let her go, and if she ‘lied,’ he was going to break ‘her kneecaps.’ DePape was certain that Nancy would not have told the ‘truth.’ In the course of the (confession), DePape articulated he viewed Nancy as the ‘leader of the pack’ of lies told by the Democratic party. DePape later explained that by breaking Nancy’s kneecaps, she would then have to be wheeled into Congress, which would show other members of Congress there were consequences to actions.”
But, for me, the most nauseating passage popped up later in the court papers. Paul Pelosi had managed to call 911, and DePape knew it. Check this out:
“DePape stated he felt like Pelosi’s actions compelled him to respond … DePape explained that he did not leave after Pelosi’s call to 911 because, much like the American founding fathers with the British, he was fighting against tyranny without the option to surrender. DePape reiterated this sentiment elsewhere in the (confession).”
Right, because that’s exactly what the American founding fathers envisioned. James Madison, chief drafter of the Constitution, would be so proud. Our founding document explicitly states – it’s gotta be in there somewhere! – that the lower chamber shall be called the House of Representatives, that it shall be led by a Speaker of the House, and that if a Speaker’s spouse calls for emergency assistance after being confronted by a tyranny fighter, said tyranny fighter shall have the freedom to fracture said spouse’s skull.
Alas, I can’t find that provision. But this quote, from the playwright George Bernard Shaw, is truly authentic: “Beware of false knowledge. It is more dangerous than ignorance.”
Dick Polman, a veteran national political columnist based in Philadelphia and a Writer in Residence at the University of Pennsylvania, writes at DickPolman.net. Email him at dick polman7@gmail.com.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2022
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