US politics is more polarised than ever

One might think that post Trump the opposite would be true. Not according to Jonathan Friedland.

Friedland is an excellent author and journalist, and I love reading his columns. This weekend, he wrote:

"Today’s Republican party is normalising the notion of violence as a means of securing a political outcome.

Start with the case of Paul Gosar, the Republican member of Congress for Arizona. He retweeted an anime-style video that depicted him murdering his Democratic colleague, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as swinging a sword at Joe Biden. Appalling though that was, especially at a time when AOC and others face constant threats of violence, more telling was the response of Gosar’s party. When Democrats moved to censure him, only two Republicans voted with them. The 200-odd others gave Gosar their blessing.

Earlier, Republicans had had to make a similar decision. Before her election to Congress in 2020, Marjorie Taylor Greene had posted on Facebook a photograph of herself holding a gun next to an image of AOC and two other members of the so-called Squad, made up of left-leaning Democratic women of colour. Taylor Greene also all but called for the execution of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi."

Source: The Republican party is embracing violence in the name of Trump | Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian

There is a related podcast on the Guardian site that focuses on Islamaphobia in US politics, largely on the back of a recent incident in Congress between Republican Lauren Boebert and Democrat congresswoman Ilhan Omar. It does come with its own health warning. Listen here: Republicans accused of Islamophobia? Politics Weekly Extra - podcast | Politics | The Guardian