Chuck Edwards can say he condemns violence until his face turns blue, but that doesn’t mean it’s true. He’s aligned himself with a party whose ethos is cruelty. I genuinely want to believe that more people than not are fundamentally good, that they can think for themselves and reject cruelty and violence. However, as much as I want to believe this, I don’t know that I can, not the way things are going, where so many people and politicians are complicit in allowing hate and violence to thrive. Are you OK with it? It’s something you’ll have to ask yourself when voting this week.
Chuck Edwards seems OK with the violence of the Jan. 6 insurrection, where police officers were beaten unconscious and people were killed. He’s never denounced Trump’s “Big Lie.”
Edwards seemingly tolerates the vitriol of our Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Edwards has campaigned with Robinson, who regularly engages in violence-inspiring hate speech — the same day Edwards tweeted about “not tolerating” violence, Robinson posted on Facebook, “I’m sorry Paul I don’t believe you or the press!!!!” No prominent NC Republicans denounced Robinson’s callousness.
Edwards prides himself on being pro-life, but anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that if abortion is criminalized in North Carolina, many women and girls may meet violent ends. He’ll tolerate that violence, though, because he belongs to a religion more concerned with sanctimony than empathy or people.
And lest we forget, on the afternoon that 19 children and two teachers were violently torn apart by the bullets of an AR-15, Edwards’s Republican State Senate colleagues held a press conference to introduce a North Carolina version of Florida’s controversial “Don’t Say Gay” bill that would lead to increased violence towards LGBTQ+ students. Edwards voted affirmatively for that bill and has neglected to address gun control — the kind that would make it harder for mentally disturbed young men to obtain and perpetrate violence with semi-automatic weapons — in any meaningful way because that might dent his income.
Edwards isn’t the worst of the bunch by any means, but his complicity is emblematic of today’s MAGA right.