Paul Pelosi, husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in 2019
Photo:
Mike Theiler/REUTERS
The home invasion and assault on
Paul Pelosi
on Friday is another sickening example of political violence in our increasingly disturbed culture. We’re glad to see the attack denounced by partisans on the right and left, but we wish we could say this will be the last such assault.
Police say Mr. Pelosi was attacked shortly before 2:30 a.m. with a hammer by 42-year-old
David DePape,
who will be charged with attempted murder, among other things. Mr. DePape was apparently looking for Mrs. Pelosi at their San Francisco home and shouted, “Where is Nancy?” before attacking the House Speaker’s 82-year-old husband.
Mrs. Pelosi was fortunately in Washington at the time. Her office said her husband, who was hospitalized with head and body trauma, “is expected to make a full recovery.”
The assailant’s motives weren’t clear by the time of publication, but he seems to have been caught up like many others in conspiracy theories spun on the internet. Mr. DePape posted links regarding right-wing election claims and he called the trial of
Derek Chauvin,
the police officer convicted of killing
George Floyd,
a “modern lynching.”
He also sold hemp bracelets with peace signs and posted rants about Jesus being the antichrist. In other words, he fits the profile of an alienated, perhaps mentally ill, person who latches on to internet obsessions, some of which turn out to be political.
The U.S. is full of such people, and their political targets are on the left and right, Democrats and Republicans. The gunman who nearly killed GOP House whip
Steve Scalise
in 2017 at a Congressional baseball practice was a
Bernie Sanders
supporter. The man with weapons and ill-intent arrested outside Justice
Brett Kavanaugh’s
home this year was angry about the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade.
There’s no easy solution to this problem given our larger cultural breakdown. Prominent politicians will inevitably become targets. Capitol Police say they investigated some 9,600 threats against lawmakers in 2021. Recall the man who rushed New York Rep.
Lee Zeldin
with a key chain with two sharp points this summer as he campaigned for Governor.
More security will have to be provided to public officials, and candidates will have to take precautions. The growing risks will deter many people from considering politics.
The political and media classes can help by avoiding hateful rhetoric aimed at their opponents. They can also not pile on Justice
Samuel Alito,
as some did this week after he said that the leak of his draft Supreme Court opinion in the Dobbs abortion case led to the threats against Justice Kavanaugh. Justice Alito was right, but left-wing Twitter treated him like a paranoid complainer.
The risk of violence will grow as the election nears and passions get hot, and as more people come to mistakenly believe that any one election will determine the country’s fate. Small-d democratic tolerance is in short supply these days, but it behooves everyone in public life to practice it.
Copyright ©2022 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the October 29, 2022, print edition.
