• Latest
  • Trending
  • All
  • News
  • Lifestyle
Why Republicans are embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as their mascot thumbnail

Why Republicans are embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as their mascot

November 28, 2021
'It's frustrating and stressful.' 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume thumbnail

‘It’s frustrating and stressful.’ 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume

August 18, 2022
Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor thumbnail

Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor

August 18, 2022
U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise thumbnail

U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise

August 18, 2022
Always Tired, I Thought It Was Stress. Turns Out, It Was Sleep Apnea thumbnail

Always Tired, I Thought It Was Stress. Turns Out, It Was Sleep Apnea

August 18, 2022
Massachusetts law on hold until Supreme Court decides California case thumbnail

Massachusetts law on hold until Supreme Court decides California case

August 17, 2022
Arizona Republicans are making a case against the idea of democracy itself thumbnail

Arizona Republicans are making a case against the idea of democracy itself

August 17, 2022
Dietary Supplements Are No Substitute For a Healthy Lifestyle thumbnail

Dietary Supplements Are No Substitute For a Healthy Lifestyle

August 17, 2022
Boston Children's Hospital: Children Know They Are Trans 'the Minute They Were Born' thumbnail

Boston Children’s Hospital: Children Know They Are Trans ‘the Minute They Were Born’

August 17, 2022
Most Americans say government, corporations responsible for tackling climate change thumbnail

Most Americans say government, corporations responsible for tackling climate change

August 17, 2022
Meet the marine geologist mapping the deepest point on Earth thumbnail

Meet the marine geologist mapping the deepest point on Earth

August 17, 2022
Hackers prove it doesn’t take much to hijack a dead satellite thumbnail

Hackers prove it doesn’t take much to hijack a dead satellite

August 17, 2022
Massachusetts climate law boosts offshore wind, EVs thumbnail

Massachusetts climate law boosts offshore wind, EVs

August 16, 2022
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate
Thursday, August 18, 2022
66 °f
Wellfleet
58 ° Tue
63 ° Wed
68 ° Thu
61 ° Fri
  • Login
  • Register
FREE Cape Cod News
DONATE
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Cape Cod News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Free Cape Cod News
No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
  • Politics
  • Business
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
  • Videos
Home News

Why Republicans are embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as their mascot

FREE Cape Cod News by FREE Cape Cod News
November 28, 2021
in News, Opinion, Politics
Reading Time: 6 mins read
Donate
0
Why Republicans are embracing Kyle Rittenhouse as their mascot thumbnail
631
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on TwitterShare on Facebook

Wearing suits and ties, the two men give the camera smiles and thumbs up. One is Donald Trump, former president of the United States. The other is Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people at an anti-racism protest. And behind them is a framed photo of Trump meeting the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

The mesmerizing tableau emerged from the ex-president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida earlier this week. It was, in effect, the coronation of Rittenhouse as a future star of the rightwing media, Republican party and “Make America great again” (Maga) movement in their crusade against liberalism.

“Kyle Rittenhouse has become the poster child for a general feeling among some in this country that White America is under siege,” Eddie Glaude, chairman of the department of African American studies at Princeton University, wrote in the Washington Post. “Rittenhouse defended himself, this argument goes, and White America must do the same.”

Rittenhouse was 17 last year when he travelled 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where racial justice protests had been held since the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer.

Rittenhouse joined others who said they wanted to protect private property. Armed with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle, he shot and killed two people and wounded a third. In court he argued that he fired in self-defense after he was attacked and in fear for his life.

When a jury acquitted Rittenhouse on all charges earlier this month, progressive activists urged fresh debate on gun safety and vigilantism. But Republican members of Congress wasted no time in lionising Rittenhouse as a victim turned hero.

Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Matt Gaetz of Florida and Paul Gosar of Arizona floated the idea of offering Rittenhouse an internship in their offices on Capitol Hill. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Florida trumped them by sponsoring a House bill to award Rittenhouse a congressional gold medal for protecting the community of Kenosha.

Not to be outdone, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida tipped as a potential presidential candidate in 2024, declared: “Kyle Rittenhouse did what we should want citizens to do in such a situation: step forward to defend the community against mob violence.”

And in light of Rittenhouse’s meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago, it would come as no surprise if the now 18-year-old is given a speaking slot at next year’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) or a future Republican National Convention (RNC).

Kurt Bardella, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said: “It’s very clear that they’re trying to make him their mascot. Any time that your mascot is someone who thought that it was an acceptable form of protest to show up at a political event with an AR-15, that is glorifying violence. And that’s a very dangerous thing to prop up and promote.”

In the week of Rittenhouse’s acquittal, all but two House Republicans refused to censure Gosar for posting an animated video that depicted him killing Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and attacking Biden.

Bardella, a former Republican congressional aide and spokesperson for rightwing Breitbart News, added: “It is a pattern. These aren’t isolated incidents. One is following the other and it’s not an accident and it’s not a coincidence. It’s a deliberate strategy.”

The sanctification of Rittenhouse, who was photographed in a bar before his trial with apparent members of the far-right Proud Boys, fits a tried and trusted playbook. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a white couple in St Louis who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their house, addressed last year’s RNC a day before Rittenhouse opened fire in Kenosha.

Mark McCloskey is now running for the US Senate in Missouri and welcomed Rittenhouse’s acquittal by stating: “Liberals want to defund the police and prevent you from defending yourself, your family, your home, and your businesses. I will never stand for that. I stood for Kyle Rittenhouse and his right to self-defense.”

Nicholas Sandmann, a high school student from Kentucky who sued media outlets for their depiction of his interaction – wearing a Maga cap – with a Native American activist on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington also came to personify grievances on the right.

And the pro-Trump mob that stormed the US Capitol on 6 January in an attempt to block certification of Joe Biden’s election has received similar treatment. Taylor Greene visited accused insurrectionists in what she called the “patriot wing” of a Washington prison, condemning its conditions as she tweeted: “I have never seen human suffering like I witnessed last night.”

Trump himself has praised Ashli Babbitt, a Capitol rioter fatally shot by police, as “a truly incredible person” and recorded a video to mark what would have been her 36th birthday in what many regard as an effort to turn her into a martyr.

Each cause célèbre is typically magnified by conservative media. On Monday more than 5m viewers watched Rittenhouse interviewed by Tucker Carlson, the Fox News opinion host’s biggest audience since the night of the 6 January attack.

Carlson told viewers: “During the course of our long conversation, Kyle Rittenhouse struck us as bright, decent, sincere, dutiful and hardworking … exactly the kind of person you would want many more of in your country. He’s not especially political. He never wanted to be the symbol of anything.” He also described Rittenhouse as a “sweet kid”.

In the interview, Rittenhouse claimed that he had been “extremely defamed” during the case, fuelling speculation that he will take legal action against the media and politicians. Sandmann urged him to do so, writing in the Daily Mail: “The parallels between me and Kyle Rittenhouse are impossible not to draw … The attacks on Kyle came from the national news media, just as they came for me.”

Other Fox News presenters have revelled in an opportunity to “own the libs”. Laura Ingraham tweeted: “The Left is going wild. Enjoy,” ahead of a show captioned: “Kyle and the liberal mind.” Sean Hannity interviewed Trump, who after meeting Rittenhouse made the provocative claim: “He should not have had to suffer through a trial. He should never have been put through that.”

Such comments imply resistance to a leftwing tyranny that assails individual rights, such as the right to bear arms. Dan Cassino, a political scientist at Fairleigh Dickinson University and author of Fox News and American Politics: How One Channel Shapes American Politics and Society, said: “This is where the energy in the party is.

“If you ask people on the right or look at rightwing media, they’ll tell you all the people Kyle Rittenhouse shot were criminals, they were terrible, they were going to kill everybody and these people are heroes for standing up, especially for using their second amendment rights.

“That’s a big part of this narrative, that having guns allows you to stand up to disorder and is a necessary thing to do in order to protect your community. It’s not Kyle Rittenhouse himself: he was protecting his community, and that’s what the second amendment is about as far as they’re concerned.”

But the normalisation of violence represented by Trump’s remarks at rallies, Gosar’s tweet and Rittenhouse’s valorisation is likely to be politically polarising, firing up the Maga base but turning off certain constituencies in elections.

Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “The challenge for Republicans who are running in competitive seats is, is that who you want? He’s a guy who is not cheered by a lot of people, including suburban and better educated women. The idea of people running around with automatic weapons in street? That doesn’t really excite them.

“I expect the Trumpians to grab on to him, bring him out, have him smile and wave and say a few things. But I think the candidates may be more selective.”

Read More

Tags: opinionpoliticsrepublicanrepublicans

FREE Digital Newspaper Subscription!
Sign up for your free digital subscription. The FREE Cape Cod News

Unsubscribe
FREE Cape Cod News

FREE Cape Cod News

Free Cape Cod News is what's happening in the Cape Cod, U.S and World & what people are talking about right now. Local newspaper. Stay in the know. Subscribe to get notified about our latest news.

Related Posts

'It's frustrating and stressful.' 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume thumbnail
News

‘It’s frustrating and stressful.’ 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume

by FREE Cape Cod News
August 18, 2022
Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor thumbnail
News

Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor

by FREE Cape Cod News
August 18, 2022
U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise thumbnail
Business

U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise

by FREE Cape Cod News
August 18, 2022
Massachusetts law on hold until Supreme Court decides California case thumbnail
Food

Massachusetts law on hold until Supreme Court decides California case

by FREE Cape Cod News
August 17, 2022
Load More
Please login to join discussion

Follow Us on Twitter

FREE Cape Cod News - Your source for local Cape Cod news, latest breaking U.S. and World news. Every day, all day. Subscribe for your favorite categories.

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest
Nintendo Switch Sales Top 60 Million Units Sold Worldwide thumbnail

Nintendo Switch Sales Top 60 Million Units Sold Worldwide

July 23, 2020
Worldwide Hardware Estimates for July 12 to 18 thumbnail

Worldwide Hardware Estimates for July 12 to 18

July 23, 2020
Analysis: A big warning sign for Trump's campaign thumbnail

Analysis: A big warning sign for Trump’s campaign

July 27, 2020
'It's frustrating and stressful.' 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume thumbnail

‘It’s frustrating and stressful.’ 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume

August 18, 2022
Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor thumbnail

Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor

August 18, 2022
U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise thumbnail

U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise

August 18, 2022
Support Local News, Make a Donation Support Local News, Make a Donation Support Local News, Make a Donation

FREE Cape Cod News On Twitter

Today’s News

  • ‘It’s frustrating and stressful.’ 40 million people are in the dark about whether or not student loan payments will resume August 18, 2022
  • Boston police save the day by ferrying stranded groom to wedding in harbor August 17, 2022
  • U.S. retail sales flat in July; core sales rise August 17, 2022
  • Always Tired, I Thought It Was Stress. Turns Out, It Was Sleep Apnea August 17, 2022
  • Massachusetts law on hold until Supreme Court decides California case August 17, 2022
FREE Cape Cod News

Copyright © 2022 Free Cape Cod News

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
  • Donate

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • FREE Cape Cod News
  • News
    • News
    • Cape Cod News
    • Massachusetts
    • Breaking News
    • Cape Cod Weather
    • Storm Watch
    • Environment
  • Politics
    • democrats
    • republicans
  • Business
    • business
    • cryptocurrency
    • economy
    • money
    • Real Estate
    • Tech
  • World
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyle
  • Photos
    • Orleans
    • Eastham
    • Wellfleet
    • Truro
    • Provincetown
    • Brewster
    • Chatham
  • Videos
  • Login
  • Sign Up

Copyright © 2022 Free Cape Cod News

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist