The adoption of morals is like getting a cut. You experience something and it leaves an open wound. You take care of it, you clean it and check for infection, impurities. Eventually it heals and leaves fortified skin, a thick scar, a reminder of what you had been exposed to and why it changed your mind.
The man who attacked Paul Pelosi last week did not check on his wound, but let it fester. He let it fill him with poison and fear and anger as he set out to hold hostage and break the kneecaps of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. He did not bandage his wound, but instead delighted as it leaked puss, reopened, bled and bled some more.
The people who stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, too, were filled with infection and disease.
They were all sick. Not in the way people love to use mental sickness as a scapegoat, but in ideology, in belief. They, too, searched rabidly for Rep. Pelosi during the attack. They banged on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s office door, someone yelling, “where is she?” with enough fervor to make her fear for her life.
Infamously, they chanted “hang Mike Pence!” and erected a full noose and gallows outside the Capitol.
Although political violence is nothing new in the United States, the vitriol with which those on the far right are fuming with is unlike anything seen before in this country. Incidents of domestic right-wing terror attacks have been increasing since the early 2000’s, but they really took off when Donald Trump was elected: not only was there now a far-right leader in office, but one that used his platform as the President to knowingly spread misinformation, conspiracy theories and bigotry.
Then he gave rise to other ultra-conservatives such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Matt Gaetz who promoted the same ideologies, but arguably with more aggression and force. Suddenly, the right-wing conspiracy theorists went from the fringes of society to holding the most powerful positions in the U.S. government.
What we are witnessing is no longer a matter of politics– Paul Pelosi, an 82 year-old man, was struck in the head with a hammer. If Nancy Pelosi was there, she would have been held hostage and tortured. It is a matter of the poorly informed being misled by those who pretend to see them and who manipulated and lied their way into office.
When the man who lost the election can claim he won and his minions become violent with those the people elect, there is no more democracy. When vigilantes are showing up to the polls armed to intimidate voters, there is no more democracy. When thousands break into the capitol and start looking for the vice president, the only person who can certify an election, while a noose and gallows sit outside waiting for him, there is no democracy. When representatives don gas masks and hide from a violent mob in their offices, there is no more democracy; it cannot survive in such violence.
Megan Diehl is a sophomore studying journalism at Ohio University. The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of The Post. Want to talk to Megan about her column? Tweet her @megandiehl02.
Assistant Opinion Editor
