As I see itWhy Asia must stay on guard for the rise of US-style political violence

Flippancy or nonchalance in the face of attacks on politicians and their families, as we saw with Paul Pelosi, is akin to playing with fire

Malaysia in particular could learn much from how the politics of absolutes is fuelling violence in the US. And Asia’s media have a role to play, too

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Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, was attacked at his San Francisco home last month by a would-be kidnapper in an act of political violence. Photo: Reuters

Published: 8:00am, 4 Nov 2022

As if last Friday’s attack on the husband of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in their San Francisco home was not disturbing enough, I have found the follow-up reaction – or lack thereof – to be even more unsettling.

Major US media outlets reported on the October 28 assault on Paul Pelosi, but the amount of play it was given on their websites and in their print publications the day afterwards suggested newsroom leaders had already decided that there were more important stories worth covering.

More startling still is the fact that the attempted kidnap and vicious assault – Paul Pelosi is recovering in hospital with a fractured skull – has apparently become a punchline for some in the US Republican Party ahead of the country’s November 8 midterm elections.

Officials wait outside the San Francisco home of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul, who was attacked there by a rumoured Trump supporter on October 28. Photo: AP

Speaker Pelosi, second in line to the US presidency, is a central figure of the Democratic Party and her husband’s attacker is said to be – like many other supporters of Donald Trump, the Republican ex-president – an adherent of the QAnon conspiracy theory.

“Nancy Pelosi, well, she’s got protection when she’s in D.C. – apparently her house doesn’t have a lot of protection,” Kari Lake, the Republican nominee for Arizona governor, said at a campaign event on Monday, reportedly drawing laughter from her interviewer and the audience.

That kind of flippancy – or nonchalance as in the case of some media outlets – towards political violence is akin to playing with fire.

Temperatures are already running high in the US, with reports of election workers thinking of quitting their posts. As early voting got under way, at least five people were charged with harassing poll workers.