This week, I ran a column on how many on the left have discovered the joy and release of unmitigated hate speech. Democratic Helena City Commissioner candidate Haley McKnight is under fire for messages left on the phone of freshman Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., in which she hopes for him to get cancer and die. It comes on the day that voters are going to the polls in Virginia, where the Democratic candidate for Attorney General, Jay Jones, admitted that he previously expressed a desire to kill a political opponent and his children.
As a measure of the appeal of rage rhetoric, Jones remains the leading candidate in the race, with most Democrats planning to vote for him.
In her voicemail, McKnight states:
“Hi, this is Haley McKnight. I’m a constituent in Helena, Montana. I just wanted to let you know that you are the most insufferable kind of coward and thief. You just stripped away healthcare for 17 million Americans, and I hope you’re really proud of that. I hope that one day you get pancreatic cancer, and it spreads throughout your body so fast that they can’t even treat you for it.”
She then left a litany of insults about Sheehy’s fertility and his children, before warning the senator not to “meet me on the streets.” She then added:
“I hope you die in the street like a dog. One day, you’re going to live to regret this. I hope that your children never forgive you. I hope that you are infertile. I hope that you manage to never get a boner ever again. You are the worst piece of s— I have ever, ever, ever had the misfortune of looking at … God forbid that you ever meet me on the streets because I will make you regret it. F— you. I hope you die…All that you have done since you have gotten into power is do s— for yourself.”
McKnight moved to Montana from North Carolina and owned Sage & Oats Trading Post, which she describes as “a successful Native American-owned gift store” on her campaign website.
What was striking about this story was McKnight’s response. She explained how her rage was righteous and blamed conservatives for making public a voicemail with threats left at the office of a U.S. senator.
In an interview about the controversy, she insisted, “I was responding to some horrible policy with some justified rage.”
McKnight blamed Sheehy for not calling her back after her hateful messages to chat:
“I would hope that if Sheehy was so rattled by my voicemail, he would have contacted me instead of leaking my information to conservative news media the night before an election. It feels like a cheap shot. I’m one of his constituents, and you know, this message is nothing that I’d say to my grandmother or in front of any children, it was meant for Senator Sheehy alone.”
There is, of course, another lesson that many of us strive to leave for our children: you should speak with respect and civility in others in both private and public settings. Indeed, you should not talk to others in ways that you would be embarrassed to do in front of children. It is not the consequences that dictate how we act or speak.
Instead, McKnight insists that such threats and insults are justified when you disagree with others. She is clearly not alone. As shown in Virginia, many voters will still vote for such candidates. Indeed, many may be drawn to such candidates by such rhetoric.
Ironically, her campaign site quotes her saying, “I have worked hard to combat the loneliness epidemic in our community.”
Raving at others about wishing them cancer and celebrating their death may not be the best approach for building relationships for the chronically lonely.
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