It's been months since a mob of pro-Trump extremists stormed the United States Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power, but an unignorable faction of the Republican party continues to endorse taking arms against a functional democracy.
Republican Steve Lynch—a candidate in for Northampton County executive—is just the most recent Republican to call for the intimidation of municipal elected officials.
Amid a growing wave of right-wing disinformation regarding the pandemic that's killed over 600 thousand Americans, school board members across the country have faced unhinged diatribes and threats of violence from their communities in response to basic pandemic safety guidelines, such as the wearing of masks in schools.
In a speech to supporters, Lynch vowed to assemble "strong men" to intimidate school board members into resigning.
Watch below.
PA GOP Gov candidate Steve Lynch today: \u201cForget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go in to these school boards to remove them. I\u2019m going in with 20 strong men and I\u2019m gonna give them an option - they can leave or they can be removed.\u201dpic.twitter.com/A0M6SsOldI— Ron Filipkowski (@Ron Filipkowski) 1630290086
Lynch said:
"I'm going in with 20 strong men, I'm going to speak to the school board and I'm going to give them an option. They can leave or they can be removed. And then after that we're going to replace them with nine parents and we're going to vote down the mask mandates that evening."
He went on to publicly fantasize about fighting imaginary criminals supposedly targeting his family:
"When I see criminals trying to take my wife and my beautiful children, everything that they're gonna do, you're gonna have to take my life. There's no way. I'll die on this hill. There's no way. No way."
Lynch was met with cheers from the crowd.
But social media users found his tirade alarming.
There are a lot of clips like this recently and there's a similar logic in all the speeches: The school boards aren't doing what the angry people want, and therefore what the school boards are doing is illegal and can be removed by mobs.https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— Dave Weigel (@Dave Weigel) 1630346726
gangs of fascist homeschool parents are going to storm school boards across the country and force them to remove mask mandates at gunpointhttps://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— ryan cooper (@ryan cooper) 1630348982
This should be considered an active threat against elected officials.https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— Jim Hoffman (@Jim Hoffman) 1630337158
Some may hear this as hyperbolic, others as actual incitement to violence. After living thru Jan 6, no politician should do this & if one does, there should be party discipline & even prohibition from running. Pennsylvania GOP?https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— Joyce Alene (@Joyce Alene) 1630326692
I\u2019m old enough to remember when publicly threatening public officials and inciting violence was considered a crime.https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— Dan #GetVaccinated (@Dan #GetVaccinated) 1630324493
This is domestic terrorism.https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— Regina Marston (@Regina Marston) 1630324343
People deemed Lynch a fascist.
Naked fascism.https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— Kenyon Farrow (@Kenyon Farrow) 1630410682
In case you were wondering what fascism looks like....https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1432166542683279362\u00a0\u2026— David Corn (@David Corn) 1630338956
Chilling.
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AMC