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It’s Time to Hold Extremists Accountable
The horrifying domestic terrorism attack in Buffalo, New York, served as a dreadful reminder that there are Americans who hold such hateful, extremist views, they will kill for them. While this isn’t purely a modern phenomenon, what is new is that the rhetoric used by the Buffalo shooter in his nefarious screed parrots the language public officials are using in their execrable attempts to court the white supremacist vote. Some of these officials are in the highest positions of leadership in the Republican Party.
Even worse, the GOP has one hell of a farm team — that is, if you’re on team extremist. With the attack ads, yard signs, and political rallies to which we’ve all grown accustomed, 2022 may look like every other election year, but amidst all the usual campaigning, something unusual is happening. There has been an uptick of people with extreme views seeking public office. From school boards to state houses to U.S. Congress, this pipeline of extremists, some with views similar to the Buffalo shooter, marks a clear and present threat to our national security.
To be clear, I’m not referring to policy positions. We can all point to visionaries who labored tenaciously for years until their ideas, once labeled “extreme,” were proven sound and accepted by a wider audience. Here, I am talking about genuinely radical beliefs, which supersede more…
