And that difference suggests that violent extremism and the descent into the rabbit hole of conspiracy theory be understood – and treated – as a form of disturbance rather than a sign of voter dissatisfaction and another symptom of our political divisions. One could argue that David DePape has more in common with these unhinged attackers than with protesters expressing their concerns outside the US supreme court. A mugger might be deterred by the sight of a uniformed officer, but the people pushing commuters onto the tracks are more likely to be heeding the directives of the voices inside their heads than checking for the location of the nearest CCTV camera. The quick fix of hiring more guards is not unlike New York City’s plan for reducing subway crime by beefing up police presence. Tighter surveillance and more armed patrols may make our politicians more secure, but it’s precisely the sort of Band-aid that we have been pasting over the deep wounds from which our society suffers. Republican and Democrats alike have been warned that they and their families will be killed, and some have wisely taken advantage of the provision that allows them to use their campaign funds to pay for private security teams. According to the US Capitol police, there were 9,621 threats against members of Congress in 2021, and the frequency of those disturbing emails and phone calls appears to be increasing. In fact, the only thing that’s hard to comprehend is why, given the current political climate, incidents like this one don’t occur more often.
And it’s all too easy to picture his assailant, David DePape, calling out, “Where’s Nancy?”, the same cry that went up from the insurrectionists roaming the halls of the US Capitol on 6 January.
It’s not hard to imagine the terror that Pelosi must have felt as he made his coded phone call to the police, telling them that someone had broken into his San Francisco home. S urely I’m not the only person haunted by visions of 82-year-old Paul Pelosi, the husband of House speaker Nancy Pelosi, struggling with an intruder in the early hours this past Friday.
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