Fight Dud

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is in the news again, this time after claiming that what seem like a couple of random murders are the start of a coordinated campaign on the part of the Democratic Party to kill Republicans.

"Democrats want Republicans dead," according to Representative Greene, "and they have already started the killings."

I don't know if Representative Greene is sincere, cynical or mentally ill, and in the end, it doesn't matter. Because she isn't the problem. The idea that, in a nation where violence is endemic, that two random incidents that escalated to violence are part of some sort of coordinated campaign is the problem. Or rather, that there are people who are eager enough to believe that they've become targets that this makes sense is the problem.

Of course, Republicans aren't alone in this. The only surprising thing is how late they are to this particular tactic. Taking the actions of a few individuals in a nation of 330-plus million and making those out to be indicative of some broad nationwide trend is practically a profession for any number of people.

As I see it, there's a weird sense of safety in these things. Because the enemy is always implacably hateful, yet clearly incompetent. If people in Rwanda could engage in a widespread massacre of their fellow citizens with machetes and sticks, it stands to reason that in a nation with as many guns as the United States, mass targeting of Republicans would be pretty straightforward. If, as Republican filmmaker Dinesh D'Sousa claims, the Democrats were able to round up hundreds of people to steal an election, it seems that they could round up more than a couple of people to commit lethal political violence.

In any event, it's identity politics being weird again. It won't be the last time.