Earlier today, Kyle Rittenhouse was found “not guilty” on all counts.

Rittenhouse was 17 years old when he crossed state lines with an assault rifle in August of 2020 — to, in his words, protect property — as protests spread through Kenosha, Wisconsin, after police there shot an unarmed Black man (in the back, seven times) named Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse ended up shooting three people, killing two of them.

Because our laws are so skewed in favor of gun ownership and claims of “self-defense” — at least for white people — a case was able to be made for Rittenhouse’s acquittal.

Even Rittenhouse’s defenders should view what happened as a tragedy.

But instead, right-wing figures are having a field day, declaring Rittenhouse a hero. Here are just a few examples:

• Rep. Matt Gaetz announced that Rittenhouse would “make a great congressional intern.”

• Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman called Rittenhouse a “civil hero.”

• Fox News “personality” Greg Gutfeld thinks Rittenhouse “did what the government should have done” by making sure “these violent, disgusting dirtbags weren’t roaming the streets.”

• Gutfeld’s colleague Tomi Lahren — who three years ago stated that the “highlight” of her Thanksgiving was watching border patrol agents teargas immigrants — opined that “the decent people of this country are tired of allowing it to be destroyed by thugs and miscreants.”

• And Fox News’s biggest act, Tucker Carlson, said that in a “normal country,” Black Lives Matter activists would “be put down immediately with force.”

This idolization of Rittenhouse is one more example of a very dangerous phenomenon — the calculated encouragement and normalization of political violence — that is unfolding all across America.

We saw it last week when a sitting member of Congress, Rep. Paul Gosar, proudly posted an animated video in which he is depicted killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Joe Biden.

We saw it on January 6 when a mob incited by Donald Trump laid siege to the United States Capitol in what amounted to an attempted coup d’etat to keep Trump in power.

We saw it last summer when a wealthy white couple in St. Louis pointed guns at unarmed people participating in a Black Lives Matter march after George Floyd’s murder. (One half of that couple, Mark McCloskey, is now running for the Senate. He showed up in Kenosha during the trial to show support for Rittenhouse, posing for photos with people making “white power” hand signals.)

We are witnessing the emergence of a proto-fascist movement that has a categorically different disdain for democracy, multiculturalism, and the rule of law than anything we’ve seen in generations.

Please join me in this simple but essential commitment:

I am outraged by the rise of neo-fascism in America. Democracy cannot exist at the end of a gun. We must stand up to right-wing leaders who foment, glorify, and even perpetrate political violence.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For peace and justice,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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