Republicans seem to think that running over protestors with a car is a completely acceptable thing to do. Though the events in Charlottesville and the resulting death of Heather Heyer have shown us that white supremacists really do use this as a tactic to silence and kill people seeking racial justice, they still want to make it lawful to do so. Currently, there are six states that have introduced bills to protect drivers who run over protesters. And earlier this month, the GOP whip for the House of Representatives in South Dakota lost her day job after she posted a meme on Facebook supporting the act of harming protestors with a car.
A real estate company dropped its ties to a state lawmaker Tuesday night after she shared an image on Facebook depicting protesters being hit by a vehicle under the caption, "All Lives Splatter."
Keller Williams Realty of the Black Hills, where Rep. Lynne DiSanto was previously listed as an associate realtor, announced on Facebook that it was no longer associated with her.
Another group, Working Against Violence, Inc., said they were in search of another speaker for an upcoming event after DiSanto shared the image September 7, less than one month after a driver plowed through counter protesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., killing a 32-year-old woman and injuring 19 others.
Let’s take this in—members of the GOP are now openly advocating assault and murder. This is completely vile and disgusting, but not entirely unsurprising. Fox News and The Daily Caller encouraged this kind of behavior by posting a video that circulated on their websites showing compilations of different videos in which protestors were being run off the road by drivers. Of course, they only advocate this action directed toward people they identify as liberals. It’s guaranteed they will likely defend the right of Trump supporters to protest wherever and however they please.
In DiSanto’s case, she claims that her post was not intended to be harmful but instead to caution protestors to stay out of the road. Yeah, right. She’s obviously lying and delusional if she thinks anyone will buy that. But her post had plenty of support until she was called out for encouraging violence and murder.
Comments from friends and constituents on the post were initially supportive of the image. After the post was more widely circulated the tone of comments turned against DiSanto until she deleted the post Tuesday afternoon. [...]
In an interview with the Rapid City Journal, DiSanto said she was sorry if the post offended people and should've thought more about posting the image given "the highly charged political environment that we’re in."
“I am sorry if people took offense to it and perceived my message in any way insinuating support or condoning people being hit by cars,” DiSanto said. “I perceived it differently. I perceived it as encouraging people to stay out of the street.”
As usual, Republicans don’t seem to have any consequences for their hideous, racist behavior. Currently, DiSanto gets to keep her job in the House and is still set to serve as the majority whip in the 2018 legislative session. It’s been clear for some time that this party has devolved into a complete cesspool. But now, in the era of Trump, Republicans also think murder and abuse is fine if it secures their right to the roadways and to get where they are going. There’s pretty much nothing this party can do at this point to redeem itself.