Commentary:
Solomon Peña’s story is instructive.
He’s the gent who idolizes Donald Trump, maintains similar illusions of election theft, and was allegedly involved in shootings targeting Albuquerque politicians’ homes. (No one was injured, though shots through a legislator’s daughter’s bedroom caused small fragments of the ceiling to fall on her.)
Peña’s “rigged election” claims are even sillier than Trump’s. In a largely Democratic district, Peña challenged a popular incumbent state representative. (A judge’s ruling let Peña run despite having served seven years in prison for felonies. I doubt the publicity enhanced his stature as candidate.) Peña amassed around 26% of the vote. To create a story that would make a Republican felon competitive in such a race is beyond my imagination. His opponent needed no fraud.
A “passionate Trump supporter” who reportedly called himself “the MAGA King,” Peña illustrates the absurdity of Trump’s “stolen election” campaign.
Peña is also a poster child for Republicans’ apparent openness to political violence. It’s not just the Capitol invasion. It’s a national pattern, although the state Republican Party says Peña, if convicted, should be punished appropriately.
Ironically, U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar just regained committee assignments he’d lost for producing violent cartoon videos depicting him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking President Biden. Apparently, Republicans find that acceptable.
Violence is facilitated by dehumanization of potential victims. That’s what certain Republican rhetoric does, including the state party’s many mailers accusing Democratic candidates of being chummy with child molesters. After an intruder broke in and attacked U.S. House Speaker Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband with a hammer, some prominent Republicans spread a false story that the “attacker” was actually a homosexual lover. Meanwhile George Santos proves that fellow Republicans will help you get elected even if they know your resume is a complete shuck.
That these folks lie is no huge surprise. Most politicians do. (As do most of us!) That they sometimes believe particularly absurd lies, and act violently based on those, is concerning. I wonder what Republicans and other conservatives think of all this, and how they plan to continue advocating their beliefs without supporting baboons as candidates. (Apologies to any actual baboons.)
What’s less obvious is what Peña’s mad misconduct has to say about you, and me. We may not share his love of Mr. Trump, but we are fellow human beings.
Is it far-fetched to see shades of Peña in all the little ways we all misapprehend inconvenient aspects of reality and respond by lashing out, albeit nonviolently? Too often, the human reaction to anything uncomfortable (or ego-crushing) is: life didn’t go as we wished, so we’re victims, treated unfairly. Let’s spread lies about her, or sabotage his lab data.
Sorry if I sound preachy, but life is too short to waste it living in a sour mood or hating others. Things happen, sometimes terrible things; but sometimes we victimize ourselves. Some folks would start the day complaining even in a wonderful house overlooking beautiful mountains with a lover, while some wake up smiling and would greet even their prison guards with a cheerful joke.
That doesn’t excuse Mr. Peña or erase what his conduct says about Mr. Trump. Society should probably jail both.
Still, with my advancing age, it feels too easy to stop at judging others, and more helpful, given our common humanity, to contemplate what others’ stories tell me about my own failings.