Right Wing Violence Sanctioned by Republican Party?

Republicans won’t push back on violence-inciting rhetoric because they don’t want to pay the political price of losing support. At what point are they culpable?

With the proliferation of right-wing political violence most recently best evinced by Solomon Peña’s alleged drive-by shooting into the homes of Democrats in New Mexico, it’s time to ask if the Republican Party itself is even implicitly sanctioning this violence.

Donald Trump incited and continues to incite violence with his rhetoric, yet he is still the leader of the Republican Party. Indeed, Trump has stamped the entire party in his image even as this association in terms of its most notable feature being election denialism cost Republicans “bigly” in the 2022 midterms.

Peña lost his 2022 run for New Mexico House District 14. “Police have described the shootings as politically motivated attacks by a man who refused to accept the results of his election,” the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.

Investigators say Peña intended to cause serious injury or death. “Gunshots were fired into the homes of Bernalillo County Commissioner Adriann Barboa on December 4; incoming state House Speaker Javier Martinez on December 8; then-Bernalillo Commissioner Debbie O’Malley on December 11; and state Sen. Linda Lopez on January 3, according to police,” CNN reported.

But he did accomplish terrorizing the Democrats into whose homes he is accused of shooting:

“Myself and my children were awakened by some loud noises. Initially I thought they were fireworks,” Lopez told CNN affiliate KOAT. “It’s very scary. You know, as a mom, it’s something you never want to experience.”

Three of the gunshots made it into her daughter’s bedroom and two were fired into Lopez’s bedroom, KOAT reported.

If Democrats who lost their elections were shooting into the homes of Republicans, the righteous howls of indignation and persecution would be both relentless and deafening. Rightly so.