Republicans are siding with the angry mob

Republicans are siding with the angry mob

Opinion by Paul Waldman

Columnist

Today at 4:20 p.m. EDT

Republicans in Congress have seen the threat of mob violence, and they are going to do something about it.

They’re going to defend the mob, and make sure law enforcement doesn’t crack down too hard on it.

That’s the clear message being sent from up and down the right — politicians, pundits, and conservative media — in response to a memorandum from the Department of Justice laying out an effort to address the rising tide of angry threats directed at school boards and education officials.

The memorandum itself may have been restrained to the point of banality (we’ll get to that in a moment), but it presented a perfect opportunity for Republicans to reemphasize to their supporters that 1) the Biden administration is tyrannical; 2) conservatives are oppressed and afflicted; and 3) mob intimidation is an appropriate response to any public policy they disagree with.

This all started because of a trend that has become disturbingly common: Local officials who heretofore did their jobs with little notice becoming the target of right-wing rage. It began with public health health officials who are defending their communities from covid-19 by implementing shutdown orders and mask mandates, and found themselves targeted online, over the phone, and even at their homes by a relentless campaign of threats and harassment.

Then it was election officials, who have been threatened by Trump supporters convinced of the existence of a far-reaching conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.

And now it’s teachers, principals, and school boards, whipped up by a campaign of race-baiting meant to convince white people that their children’s schools are a hotbed of radical teachings, combined with festering anger about the supposed oppression of having to wear a mask when indoors in large groups.

At times that anger has boiled over into angry shouting at school board meetings. But officials have also been subject to threats and harassment. Which is illegal.

So the Justice Department put out its memo, which says that “While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence.” Attorney General Merrick Garland instructed the FBI to work with U.S. Attorneys to convene meetings with federal, state, and local officials that will “facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”

A reasonable person would respond that convening meetings to facilitate discussion might or might not wind up producing anything at all, but it’s hardly a Stalinist purge. A Republican senator or a conservative media personality, on the other hand, would see it as a golden opportunity for some grade A demagoguery.

Fox News promptly sent a wave of histrionic, dishonest rants to its viewers. Laura Ingraham, for instance, is telling conservative parents that the government wants to "label you a potential domestic terrorist. Unbelievable.”

It is indeed unbelievable, because Ingraham was lying (the word “terrorist” appears nowhere in the DOJ documents, applied to parents or anyone else). Meanwhile, a Fox host asked, “What is at the root of this attempt to criminalize parents?”

Meanwhile, at a Senate hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) raged that the Justice Department is attempting to “intimidate” and “silence” parents. And on an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s show, Hawley accused the government of “sending FBI agents to try to silence voting, taxpaying parents, trying to silence them.”

That faux outrage not only stirs up the base; it can also be a way for Republicans to exercise power over policy even when they lack the formal authority to do so. Recall that in 2009, when the Department of Homeland Security under Barack Obama issued a report warning that right-wing extremists were seeking to recruit current and former members of the military, Republicans raised such a stink that DHS withdrew the report and apologized.

There is certainly a long history in the United States of law enforcement at all levels identifying real or not-so-real threats, then using the excuse of those threats to target and oppress innocent people. But the victims have not been polite suburban moms; they’re more likely to have been racial and ethic minorities or people with leftist views. The Fox News audience has little to worry about.

But here’s the real problem: Threats of violence against public officials are now simply part of the Republican repertoire. Even if most people who vote GOP would never threaten their local school principal, Republican politicians know that a number of their supporters would. And one level below that — the furious mob, screaming over a lie they’ve been told on Fox — is seen by those politicians not as a dangerous threat to society but as an instrument for them to regain power.

So they’ll do what they can to protect that mob, condemn its targets (whatever they are), and find any excuse they can to portray themselves as the courageous and oppressed. The result is likely to be more mobs and more violence.