A sickening culture of death threats and animated killings of lawmakers

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When one member of Congress posts a video — even a cartoonish one — in which he’s depicted as killing another member of Congress, it tends to grab some attention.

It’s no surprise that Democratic leaders are denouncing Republican Rep. Paul Gosar for an animation in which his character slays a monster with the head of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and uses swords to stab President Biden. What’s a bit more surprising is that the GOP leadership has said nothing about the matter, not even the mildest expression of disapproval.

As several pundits have observed, anyone in any other business who posted a video suggesting they murdered a colleague would be gone by day’s end.

But there are far more dangerous threats being issued in this country in a way that reveals the sickness of some elements of our society and a breakdown of our politics.

In a remarkable piece, Reuters tracked down nine people who left death threats or searingly hostile messages for local election officials and workers. And all nine, eight of them on the record, believed they had done nothing wrong. Seven of them were totally unapologetic.

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"Ross Miller, a Georgia real-estate investor, warned an official in the Atlanta area that he’d be tarred and feathered, hung or face firing squads unless he addressed voter fraud. In an interview, Miller said he would continue to make such calls ‘until they do something...We can’t have another election until they fix what happened in the last one.’"

One man who repeatedly threatened Vermont election officials by name — and included two Reuters reporters in those threats — said: You guys are a bunch of f‑‑‑‑‑‑ clowns, and all you dirty c‑‑‑suckers are about to get f‑‑‑‑‑‑ popped. I f‑‑‑‑‑‑ guarantee it."

Jamie Fialkin, a former Brooklyn standup comic, blamed Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs for Donald Trump’s loss in the state. He left a message with Hobbs’ office saying she’d hang "from a f‑‑‑‑‑‑ tree. They’re going to hang you for treason, you f‑‑‑‑‑‑ b----h," he said.

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 29: Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., attends a House Oversight and Reform Committee business meeting in Rayburn Building on Tuesday, January 29, 2019. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

And Fialkin told Reuters: "I’m not denying anything, because I’m a patriot…We’re just waiting to see when the civil war starts."

Pretty chilling stuff.

Incredibly, law enforcement did not investigate most of these cases, and almost no arrests have been made.

Look, there have always been crazies out there. Before voice mail and email, they wrote letters in crayon. And maybe most of these folks are nutty but harmless. But some may not be.

While claims of election fraud remain the hottest of hot-button issues, there have also been threats related to the infrastructure bill. That’s right, at least one of the 13 House Republicans who backed the bipartisan bill to spend money on roads, bridges, rail and ports — as did Mitch McConnell and 18 other Senate Republicans — are getting not just political grief but obscenity-laced calls.

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Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan, made one such message available to CNN:

"I hope you die. I hope everybody in your f--- family dies," the male caller says, calling Upton a "f--- piece of s--- traitor."

The congressman told Anderson Cooper that this was "very disturbing, adult language. To say the least, that truly is frightening."

FILE - In this Dec. 2013, file photo, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., speaks during a Congressional Field Hearing on the Affordable Care Act in Apache Junction, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File) ( )

As for the Gosar video, his staff initially tried to laugh it off as a prank and that "everyone needs to relax." AOC, for her part, said the "creepy member" was facing "no consequences," and that "white supremacy is for extremely fragile people and sad men like him."

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Gosar, whose own sister denounced him as a sociopath, finally issued a statement saying "I do not espouse violence or harm towards any member of Congress or Mr. Biden," and calling the anime "symbolic."

I don’t care whether you like or don’t like Ocasio-Cortez, or whether you like or don’t like the infrastructure bill. This sort of thing is unacceptable. Threatening messages for election workers who are doing their job are beyond the pale. That would seem to be beyond dispute even in our utterly polarized political culture.