Of brown shirts and Charles Bronsons
Charlie Sykes writes at The Bulwark, “A few months ago, in a particularly dark mood, I wrote a column suggesting that cruelty was no longer the point in MAGA World…. Trump has already pivoted to brutality, and there is nothing subtle about it.”
“As it turns out, I may have understated the case,” Sykes quips:
Indeed, in April, DeSantis signed legislation to make it easier for juries to recommend the death penalty by eliminating the requirement that jurors have to be unanimous. The right media wing ecosystem exploded with praise. But some wanted to go even further.
Via Media Matters: “Conservative pundits are increasingly open about who they think should be killed.”
The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh was among the biggest fans of DeSantis’s death penalty move, but now that his appetite has been whetted, he wants to widen the circle of those who need to be killed.
“If we have this weird rule that we’ve imposed on ourselves that we can only execute one, either murderers or child rapist, like if we had to choose between those two categories of people to execute, then I would say, well, if we don’t do one, then I’d probably murder the — I’d probably execute, rather — execute legally the child rapist,” Walsh said. “But in fact, we don’t have to choose. You know, that’s the wonderful thing.”
“We don’t have to make choices. We can execute all of them,” he continued. “We should be able to, anyway. Execute all the worst people, all of the worst criminals. Just execute them all. And this is the right first step. There’s a lot more that needs to be done. I mean, this is actual criminal justice reform.”
They are not alone, you are not surprised to know.
Stephen Crowder of “Louder with Crowder” weighed in on the killing of homeless Jordan Neely on a New York Subway, declaring, “The second that you are engaging in an activity where someone else is forced to make a decision to save their life or a life of their loved one, completely, by the way, not of their own volition, you’ve put them in that scenario, you forfeit your right to live.”
In essence: When in doubt, take them out.
Trump, Nikki Haley, and Ron DeSantis have all rushed to celebrate Daniel Perry, the man charged with killing Jordan Neely. But DeSantis raised the ante, by calling him a “Good Samaritan,” and raising money for his defense.
Greg Sargent (Washington Post) observed that DeSantis “cast the law enforcement apparatus prosecuting Perry as presumptively illegitimate.” The right is making the case that Penny is a victim of the “deep state,” Sargent observes:
But this is particularly sobering coming from DeSantis; it suggests the two leading contenders for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination — DeSantis and former president Donald Trump — are open celebrators of vigilante “justice.”
[…]
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), for instance, hailed Penny as a “hero” who “stepped in to protect others.” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) suggested that Penny is being persecuted for standing up to “anarcho-tyranny.” The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page echoed DeSantis, describing Penny as “the Subway Samaritan.” This, of course, is an allusion to the biblical Samaritan who aids a traveler who had been robbed and beaten; the tale doesn’t involve putting the perp in a chokehold until he dies.
Some of these sociopaths are, to be sure, poseurs, the sort of wannabes who get a thrill in their nether regions from dressing in Punisher drag. The problem is, as the neverending bloodbath of mass shootings confirms, some of them will act on their American carnage fantasies. They are egged on not just by podcasters from the lunatic fringe, but assured by leaders the likes of Trump, DeSantis, and the Wall Street Journal that tomorrow belongs to them.
Protesting their innocence later, they will have “ash in their feather dusters.”