Name what is broken
Name what is broken—clearly and bravely
Those are some of the words in a pastoral letter from Bishop Lanette Plambeck, the bishop of the United Methodist Church for Minnesota and the Dakotas, that was read to United Methodist congregations on Sunday, June 15th, the day after Melissa and Mark Hortman were assassinated and John and Yvette Hoffman were grievously wounded by the same gunman in acts of partisan, political violence.
I am going to name what is broken.
There were Hutu voices in the Rwandan genocide that repeatedly called the Tutsi minority inyenzi, or “cockroaches,” and inzoka, or “snakes.”
That is not much different than this on Paul Krugman’s substack:
And Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama basically declared New York’s voters subhuman [for voting for Zohran Momdani], saying:
These inner-city rats, they live off the federal government. And that’s one reason we’re $37 trillion in debt. And it’s time we find these rats and we send them back home, that are living off the American taxpayers that are working very hard every week to pay taxes.
Never mind, of course, that New York and New York City contribute massively more to the federal treasury than Alabama; in Republican language, New York is the maker and Alabama is the taker. New York subsidizes Alabama. Tuberville never lets the facts interfere with a smear, though.
You don’t have to travel to Alabama to find examples of dehumanizing language by Republicans.
Tom Emmer is the US House Majority Whip
You can also find many examples of odious, inflammatory and dehumanizing language by Minnesota Republicans.
Walter Hudson is a Republican member of the Minnesota House
Walter Hudson on his view of the loving nature of Jesus
Rep. Hudson is quite an evangelist on going to war with Democrats.
In a recent speech, Republican Rep. Walter Hudson declared “this is no longer politics as usual… this is war.”
Hudson went on to compare Democrats to “an invading force” that is “trying to conquer you.”
Rhetoric like this is toxic, radicalizing, and deranged. #mnleg pic.twitter.com/FrvU0WTYla
— Brian Evans (@BriInMN) June 22, 2023
Rep. Hudson is hardly alone among Minnesota Republican rabble-rousers.
What was it that Vance Boelter texted to his family in the hours after the shootings? Oh yes, it was “Daddy went to war last night.”
Recall also that Boelter preached on spiritual warfare.
In the end, Boelter is just a sad, impressionable man, swayed by the stochastic terrorism of demagogues like Tuberville, Emmer, Hudson, and many like them.
I lay the bodies of Melissa and Mark Hortman at their feet.
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