Americans must be better than this cynical desensitization to violence – Las Vegas Sun

Seth Wenig / AP

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speaks during a news conference in the Queens borough of New York, Monday, Feb. 8,2021.

Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021 | 2 a.m.

Theres bullying, and then theres the right-wing hate machines abuse of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

In falsely claiming that Ocasio-Cortez reported being inside the Capitol during the attack and then ridiculing her based on an equally false claim that shed exaggerated the danger she faced, the partys extremists and their allies in far-right media have once again revealed that theres no limit to their cruelty, bigotry and capacity to poison Americans with misinformation.

Here are the facts: In an Instagram Live video posted Feb. 2, the New York congresswoman said she was in her office in the Cannon House Office Building, situated on the Capitol complex, as the violence took place. She heard several loud bangs on the door, along with someone shouting Where is she? A staff member advised her to hide, and she did so in her office bathroom. As it turned out, the voice belonged to a police officer who was carrying out orders to evacuate the building. Ocasio-Cortez was taken to another building, where she hid out again in a colleagues office.

Recounting the trauma of the experience, her voice quivering with emotion, she revealed that she was a survivor of sexual assault earlier in her life.

Immediately, the GOP extremists ganged up on her. And theyve been at it ever since, piling on falsehoods and further victimizing Ocasio-Cortez. On TV news programs and in social media posts shared by hundreds of thousands of people, they mocked her for making up an imaginary mob and compared her to actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of staging a hate crime against himself in 2019.

AOC wasnt even in the Capitol Building during her near-death experience. One big lie, read a Facebook post viewed more than 100,000 times, according to the Associated Press.

The editorial cartoonist of a local news publication not the Sun even got in on the hatred this week with a cartoon in which a garishly drawn version of Ocasio-Cortez talks about nearly dying from a paper cut she received while looking at a map showing the Cannon building a half-mile away from the Capitol.

Never mind that the Cannon building was evacuated, as already noted. Or that its connected to the Capitol by tunnels that allow lawmakers easy access. Or that one of the people arrested in connection to the violence tweeted assassinate AOC, according to federal prosecutors not to mention similar posts that reportedly went up on Parler before it was shut down.

Lets state what should be obvious: Theres nothing funny about Ocasio-Cortezs experience that day.

This is someone who has faced death threats regularly throughout her service in Congress, after the GOP made her one of its biggest punching bags over her progressive policies and undoubtedly over her gender and ethnicity as well. These werent idle threats, either, as evidenced by the high-profile 2019 arrest of a Coast Guard lieutenant and white nationalist who allegedly included her on a list of progressives he planned to execute with an arsenal of weapons he had stockpiled. As Ocasio-Cortez told Vanity Fair, the abuse eventually spread to people around her: her mother, brother and even her former dean at Boston University were targeted.

Then came the Jan. 6 riot, the Feb. 2 video and the massive campaign to discredit her.

This reveals something especially sinister about the far right and not just the violent groups in its midst, like the Proud Boys and white supremacists, but also the propagandists for the likes of One America News Network and Breitbart News, and others who post and share abusive information online.

Far from condemning the violence or expressing sympathy to those who were traumatized, these forces are continuing to fan the hatreds that led to the insurrection. Ocasio-Cortez isnt alone in that regard, as extremists have continued to vilify any number of others in Democratic Party leadership and even members of their own party who have failed to show complete loyalty to former President Donald Trump.

To the many responsible members of the Republican Party, this should serve as a call to action. Its time to counter your partys lies with truth, support rational candidates and stop the extremism that has grown malignant in the GOP. Its not too early to start gearing up for the 2022 primaries now, by making plans to run for office or by encouraging your moderate friends to do so. Then help drive turnout to the primary among middle-of-the-road Republicans so that those candidates can beat back the extremists.

America needs a sane and respectable Republican Party. Democracy thrives when groups with opposing views come together to hash out their differences and construct policy.

But a GOP that doubles down on the horrors of Jan. 6 by re-victimizing survivors and continuing to foment anti-government hatred will only cause more destruction.

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Americans must be better than this cynical desensitization to violence - Las Vegas Sun