Democracy Dies in Darkness

Opinion Don’t blame ‘both sides.’ The right is driving political violence.

By
Columnist|
October 30, 2022 at 5:33 p.m. EDT
Rolls of toilet paper with edited images of President Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Feb. 27 in Orlando. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
5 min

It should not be controversial to say that America has a major problem with right-wing political violence. The evidence continues to accumulate — yet the GOP continues to deny responsibility for this horrifying trend.

On Friday, a man enflamed by right-wing conspiracy theories (including QAnon) entered the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and attacked her 82-year-old husband with a hammer, fracturing Paul Pelosi’s skull. “Where is Nancy?” he reportedly shouted, echoing the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, at President Donald Trump’s instigation. This comes after years of Republican demonization of the House speaker, a figure of hatred for the right rivaled only by Hillary Clinton.