Local time on November 4, 2022, California, the United States, at the Los Angeles Election Registration Center, election workers are preparing mail-in ballots for the US midterm elections to be held on November 8. People's Vision
As the mid-term elections on November 8th entered the countdown, a series of social events staged in the United States: US House Speaker Pelosi husband Paul Pelosi was attacked at home, Musk of Twitter emphasizes the platform's "freedom of speech", meanwhile, rumors like " Trump is dead" spread like wildfire on Twitter... Political violence and disinformation - two years The nightmare that has plagued American society has injected instability into the pre-election political climate. On the evening of November 2, local time, U.S. President Joe Biden said in his speech in Washington that "American democracy is under threat". The midterm elections are usually regarded as the "midterm exams" for the president and his party, but what worries the court and the public right now is that the entire American democratic system behind the elections also seems to be facing a tough test.
Local time on October 28, 2022, in San Francisco, California, U.S., local police and FBI agents cordoned off near the home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi .
Echoes of the Capitol Hill riots?
In the early morning of October 28, local time, Paul Pelosi was hospitalized after being attacked at the residence of San Francisco . The suspect said that his target was actually Pelosi himself. At this time, less than two weeks before the midterm elections, Pelosi's status as speaker has caused concern in the American society about political violence during the election. Reuters quoted District Attorney Brooke Jenkins as saying the attack on Paul was a "politically motivated" incident.
On the day of Paul's attack, US federal agencies issued a bulletin warning of a heightened threat from violent extremists in the coming weeks, with possible attacks on candidates, staff, voters and even infrastructure.
According to Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao on November 4, election officials in many states in the United States have warned that the situation of intimidating voters and undermining public confidence in the election process is expanding. On the other hand, U.S. Capitol Police data shows that cases of "threat" against members of Congress have jumped to 9,625 from 3,939 in 2017.
US media pointed out that details of the scene of Paul's attack suggest that this was no accident. CNN (CNN) published an article on October 30 that the suspect in the attack on Paul, David Depp, carried multiple zippers that could be used to bind his hands and feet, and shouted " Nancy" during a confrontation with Paul. " (Where is Nancy?), a scene that mirrors the January 2021 riots on Capitol Hill.
reported that some of the former US President Trump supporters who broke into the Capitol at the time also had zipper buttons. They violently stormed Pelosi's office, took off the door number, smashed a mirror, and stole a laptop, while others shouted, "Where's Nancy?" "Nancy out to play." Paul was attacked The incident was therefore interpreted by the media as an "echo" of the riots on Capitol Hill.
National Public Radio (NPR) reported on October 30 that both Democrats and Republicans condemned the attack on Paul and said that violence has no place in American politics.
, a Republican show host from Las Vegas , JD Sharp, took to social platform Twitter to vigorously reject some arguments that equate the attackers with the Republican Party. Other users joked: "He (DePep) is only one 'Trump baseball cap'!" Sharp accused CNN of deliberately linking the attack to the Capitol Hill riots. He questioned: "When the public started asking questions, he suddenly went from 'wearing only underwear' to 'wearing clothes with zippers'?" Variations in the details of the attacker's clothing do exist. According to a report by New York Times on October 31, the claim that the attacker "was only wearing underwear" was first published by an affiliate of Fox News Network and subsequently spread widely in the right-wing online community. ShouldThe agency later issued a correction, saying its report "misrepresented the clothes the suspect was wearing."
However, another article citing this erroneous source made a bigger fuss. On October 30, the newly acquired Twitter CEO Elon Musk left a message under the tweet of former US Secretary of State Hillary , saying that there may be more insider stories about this matter, and attached a Link. The article in the
link is from a site called " Santa Monica watchers" titled "The Terrible Truth: Paul Pelosi drank too much again and had sex with a male prostitute on Friday morning" conflict". The American mainstream media pointed out after fact-checking that the article used anonymous sources, provided no evidence, and had extremely low credibility, which could be classified as "misinformation". Musk also deleted the link a few hours later.
According to Bloomberg's report on October 29, Musk calls himself a "free speech absolutist", and Twitter has been strictly controlling the content on the platform in recent years, committed to combating false information and hate speech.
" Washington Post " published an article on October 31 that Musk's deletion of posts highlighted his dilemma when he took over Twitter. Before closing the acquisition, Musk had advocated for more "freedom of speech" on Twitter, arguing that the platform should not police content other than apparently illegal speech. But as the owner of the platform, he had to live up to his previous promise not to make Twitter a hell of freewheeling.
"When it comes to political disinformation, putting Musk in charge of Twitter is like putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop," said Joan Donovan, director of the Shorenstein Center for Media, Politics and Public Policy. It's a lot less important when he's just a user: because if people don't trust the platform owner's values, they probably won't trust the platform."
To test Musk's stance on disinformation and Twitter's content moderation mechanism, In early November, American comedian Tim Heidecker created the hashtag "TrumpIsDead" on Twitter. Unsurprisingly, the hashtag became a hot trend and continued for hours.
Politico, an American political news website, said that liberals have begun to worry that a Twitter platform without gatekeepers may facilitate disinformation such as "election fraud". There is a lingering shadow over American democracy over the upcoming midterm elections or the 2024 presidential election.
MAGA comeback?
According to the Associated Press November 3 report, many Americans are pessimistic about the state of democracy in the United States. An October poll by the Center for Public Affairs Research found that only 9 percent of U.S. adults thought the democratic system was functioning "extremely well" or "very well," while 52 percent said it was not functioning well.
It is worth noting that on November 2, local time, Biden said in his speech on the state of democracy in the United States that although "extreme MAGA Republicans" are a minority of the Republican Party, they are the "driving force" of the party.
Since September, Biden has repeatedly mentioned the group of "MAGA Republicans", accusing it of not recognizing the results of the general election. For a time, "MAGA Republicans" became synonymous with threats to American democracy. The
abbreviation "MAGA" comes from Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan, and it's the Republicans and supporters who will storm the Capitol in January 2021. DePep, the suspect in the Paul Pelosi attack, has also been compared for his conduct with the MAGA Republicans.
Minnesota Democratic congressman Amy Klobuchar said in an interview with NBC that Nancy Pelosi has been portrayed as a villain by the Republican Party for years and spread widely. "It's important for people to realize that this is not just a moment in this horrific attack, it's the violence we see happening across the entire political system," she said.
Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel McDaniel, said it would be unfair to accuse Republicans of creating a political climate conducive to such attacks. She believes that the Republicans' "let's fire Pelosi" or "let's take back the House" andNot the same as instigating violence.
NBC previously published an article saying that a poll in September showed that 58% of Republicans refused to accept the "MAGA" label. However, in today's more polarized American society and rising anti-establishment sentiment, the impact of the rise of "MAGA" rising stars on the midterm elections cannot be underestimated.
Local time on October 9, 2022, in Mesa, Arizona, United States, Arizona Republican candidate and gubernatorial candidate Cary Lake participates in a campaign rally.
According to the US news website Axios previously reported that Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake is a hot candidate among the "MAGA" rising stars. As a former TV anchor, she has a more popular screen image than Trump, "the way she speaks makes MAGA appear mainstream."
Former US President Obama 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe believes that Lake has the potential to run for president in the "post-Trump era". And Lake is also willing to compare himself with Trump, and even hype the 2020 "election fraud" theory, and support the use of Trump-endorsed but unfounded anti-malarial drugs to treat the new crown. Not long ago, she told supporters at a rally: "You can always call me Trump in a skirt."
The British " Guardian " published an article on November 3 that called Lake a "very dangerous candidate" . The article pointed out that in 2008, she was also a Democrat who donated to Obama. She has also protested against the Bush administration's Iraq and the war in Afghanistan. Political scientists suspect speculative considerations behind her sudden turn.
Time wrote that Lake, who was a TV anchor until last year, used the Republican Party's most important weapon -- the ability to attract audiences -- to achieve a stunning political rise.
According to statistics from the polling website FiveThirtyEight, in this year's midterm elections, 60% of Americans are in constituencies where "MAGA Republicans" who have denied the 2020 election results are running. This election is almost "Trump line". A massive test. In addition to the "America First" slogan and the clear-cut "culture war" (which involves all social and cultural issues including race, gender, education, climate, gun control, abortion rights, etc.), inflation and other issues In American society wrapped in real problems, it is still doubtful whether Trump, Lake and a group of MAGA Republicans can come up with pragmatic solutions. The topics that were supposed to be discussed in the midterm elections have also lost focus in the chaotic political environment.
