Half a century ago, David Crosby sang, “You’ve got to speak out against the madness.” That’s truer than ever today. We’ve got to speak out against the MAGA.
For instance, can we possibly be shocked about by the events that have transpired in New Mexico?
Solomon Pena – a MAGA candidate for the New Mexico legislature, an ex-con, a Trump worshipper who’d attended a Washington rally on Jan. 6 – was arrested the other day for aggravated assault involving a deadly weapon, shooting at a dwelling, shooting from a motor vehicle, various conspiracy and criminal solicitation charges…all told, at least 15 counts.
Pena lost his ’22 race for a state House seat by a whopping 47 points, but, duly inspired by his hero’s election denialism, he somehow got it into his head that his landslide defeat had occurred only because the voting was rigged. After November race was called, he tweeted: “I dissent. I am the MAGA king.” Shortly thereafter he announced that he would never concede and that he was “researching options.”
His chosen option, based on the evidence, was to lash out by fomenting violence. Like your typical grassroots fascist.
According to police, Pena initially showed up at the homes of four local Democratic leaders, toting paperwork which purported to prove that his victory in a deep-blue Albuquerque district had been stolen. Clearly his fake proof was not persuasive. So he then hired four people – accompanying and paying them – to pump bullets into those four homes. Nobody was hurt, but bullets pierced the bedroom of a 10-year-old girl as she slept, scattering sheetrock on her bed.
Earlier this week, Pena was arrested by a SWAT team. The previous week, he’d tweeted: “When we finally defeat the rigged NM elections, oh, the hero I will be! MAGA nation 4ever!”
By the way, it should come as a shock – not! – that top New Mexico Republicans knew all along that Pena was an ex-con (seven years in the slammer on a smash-and-grab conviction) and a peddler of wacko garbage (2020 election officials should be sent to Guantanamo!), but naturally they deliberately overlooked those little nuances and gave him their blessing. (Shades of the George Santos farce.)
Federal authorities have been warning for years, long before Trump, about upticks in politically-motivated right-wing violence. The head-hammering of Paul Pelosi was only the most recent example. Now we have this loser in New Mexico, the classic case of a guy stoked by conspiracy lies and insurrection idiocy. In the words of Lindsay Schubiner, who runs programs at the Western States Center, an organization that advocates for inclusive democracy, “What we’re seeing now are the results of the way that Donald Trump opened the door to welcome bigoted movements into mainstream politics, and you can’t put that genie back in the bottle.”
I’ll say it more bluntly: MAGA lures in low-lifes the way feces attracts flies.
I have yet to hear a single prominent Republican denounce the New Mexico shootings – but that’s no surprise. At the rate things are going, they’ll soon be debating whether Solomon Pena or Kyle Rittenhouse should deliver the keynote at the 2024 cult convention.