Political violence does not achieve its intended effect unless those who sympathize with an alleged murderer’s politics take action themselves.
In a clip posted Sunday to the social media platform X, Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut generated backlash from outraged X users when he suggested that Americans should take an alleged murderer’s grievances seriously and even act on those grievances.
On Dec. 4, a masked shooter gunned down 50-year-old UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a hotel in New York City.
Five days later, authorities in Altoona, Pennsylvania, arrested the 26-year-old suspect, Luigi Mangione. An Ivy League graduate from a well-to-do Maryland family, Mangione had penned a three-page manifesto referring to health care industry executives as “parasites.”
Murphy, for his part, insisted that he does not “condone violence.”
He did, however, use the alleged murderer’s violence to make the same political point Mangione himself tried to make.
“I know it’s uncomfortable for political leaders to wade into the conversation that’s happening in this country in the aftermath of the murder of the United Health CEO” Murphy wrote in an accompanying tweet. “But we need to listen to what people are feeling. And act.”
I know it’s uncomfortable for political leaders to wade into the conversation that’s happening in this country in the aftermath of the murder of the United Health CEO. But we need to listen to what people are feeling. And act. pic.twitter.com/V3WwRV74Fo
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) December 15, 2024
Are you disturbed by the way Democratic lawmakers are discussing the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson?
Yes: 96% (762 Votes)
No: 4% (32 Votes)
X users focused on two very curious aspects of Murphy’s argument.
The first and less severe of the two involves cognitive dissonance.
For instance, the same Democrats who touted Obamacare now characterize the entire health care system as broken.
“Obamacare saved everyone and is perfect, how dare you suggest we replace it!”
2 minutes later…
“Our healthcare system essentially slaughters people by the millions and murdering anyone who makes a living in the industry deserves to be murdered so their kids are orphaned!”
— Darth Crypto null af (@DefNotDarth) December 16, 2024
ObamaCare made the healthcare market a disaster.
People have been explaining that to you for years.
— Axiomatic Enemy of the State (@DeTocqueville14) December 15, 2024
Moreover, how can one decry America’s health system while urging tens of billions of dollars more for Ukraine? If that does not qualify as cognitive dissonance, then nothing does.
Many X users, however, focused on a second and more egregious aspect of Murphy’s comments.
One X user, for instance, marveled at the sight of a “Democrat Senator siding with a [murderous] domestic terrorist.”
A Democrat Senator siding with a mvrderous domestic terrorist. There is no low you psychopaths won’t go.
— Savannah (@BasedSavannah) December 16, 2024
“This is insane. You are an absolutely despicable human being and a disgrace to the people of Connecticut. If you had an ounce of integrity, you’d resign,” another X user wrote.
This is insane.
You are an absolutely despicable human being and a disgrace to the people of Connecticut.
If you had an ounce of integrity, you’d resign.
— David Giglio (@DavidGiglioCA) December 16, 2024
Those X users characterized Murphy as an “insane” and “despicable” psychopath because the senator, whether he understands it or not, effectively endorsed political violence, not because he agreed with the violence but because he used it to further alleged murderer’s political objectives.
To illustrate, imagine a similar lethal attack on someone deeply involved in the abortion industry.
“If someone pulled a Luigi on the president of Planned Parenthood, would you say we need to listen and act?” one X user wrote.
Now apply your “uncomfortable listening” schtick to abortion.
If someone pulled a Luigi on the president of Planned Parenthood, would you say we need to listen and act?
— Political Sock (@politicalsock) December 16, 2024
Indeed, if pro-life activists were to use the hypothetical murder of a Planned Parenthood executive as cause to begin a “national conversation” about abortion and then demand that lawmakers take action, then those activists, in so doing, would have endorsed the political aspect of the hypothetical murderer’s political violence.
Do Murphy and others of his ilk realize that they have done no less than this?
In short, cold-blooded murder only becomes effective political violence when people like Murphy use it as an excuse to advance their own political agenda, in this case by talking about health care rather than the loss of an innocent man’s life.
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