Brevard County, Florida, on the Atlantic coast east of Orlando (profile here), is the home of the Kennedy Space Center (formerly Cape Canaveral) and a diversifying population, which an academic expert on political violence has linked to the rise of rightwing extremism. It’s also home to more than its share of political hate.
“Brevard is home to a group of bellicose Republicans … who in recent years have targeted their political opponents with a particularly vile and vindictive mix of harassment and mendacity. The result has been incidents of alleged violence, vandalism, intimidation and even a false report of child abuse,” Huffington Post says in an article here that details some of those incidents.
“In this coterie are a sheriff with extensive ties to the extremist constitutional sheriffs movement; a state representative who may have created a website to falsely accuse two of his enemies of having an affair; a county commissioner who has advocated that a local Democratic official get an abortion so that her “litter” wouldn’t be a ‘scourge on humanity’; a mayor who bragged about stockpiling weapons to use against Democrats; and a U.S. congressman who recently said ‘Let’s go, Brandon’ — a euphemism for ‘Fuck Joe Biden’ — on the House floor,” the article says.
Brevard County is instructive because, “The aggressive style of politics here predated the attack on the Capitol, local residents told HuffPost, and has only escalated in the year since. Brevard County should be a warning to the rest of the country that ‘Make America Great Again’ political violence didn’t reach its high-water mark on Jan. 6, the residents said. To the contrary, tensions are bound to intensify heading into the midterm elections this year and the presidential election in 2024.”
Jennifer Jenkins, 34, was an elementary school speech pathologist who ran for school board in 2020 so she could “work to raise teacher salaries,” and defeated a Republican incumbent. Then came the pandemic, and with it, rightwing haters. “About 20 right-wing, anti-mask protesters … gathered outside her young family’s house … haranguing her and her daughter.” Here are the kinds of things they yelled: “Be careful, your mommy hurts little kids!” “You’re going to jail!” And, when one of them coughed in her, “Give her COVID!” She also needed a police escort at school board meetings.
When she supported a school mask mandate, GOP state Rep. Randy Fine (bio here, photo right) “posted her personal cellphone number on Facebook, encouraging his tens of thousands of followers to call her,” which some did. Someone also made a false report of child abuse against her.
Fine, who also has called the Brevard County Democratic Party chairwoman “human feces,” is a sordid piece of work, but his behavior is hardly unique among Brevard County Republicans.
Huffington Post says “Henry Parrish, the former Republican mayor of Cocoa Beach, posted a message essentially encouraging his party to prepare for civil war against Democrats. In a Facebook comment … Parrish wrote: ‘In my opinion it’s fair to note at this point we’re not the ones making the case for the Dems to be eradicated from the planet. They themselves are … The founding fathers knew that this was the most likely scenario to threaten our republic. I say let the socialists/communists keep having their meetings [while] I’ll be buying more AR-15s. Now that’s reality.” The article describes other threats of violence lobbed at Democrats by prominent Brevard County Republicans.
These aren’t one-offs. This is what many Republicans are like as people now. The Republican Party itself is culpable, because it encourages this behavior, instead of dissuading its supporters from participating in it. Politics in America isn’t about ideology or policies anymore. It’s tribal, and the GOP tribe is uncivilized. That’s why you can’t vote for Republicans until this madness blows over.