The alarming message behind the GOP's embrace of Kyle Rittenhouse

The scariest part of the Rittenhouse affair began after the verdict

Kyle Rittenhouse.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Getty Images, iStock)

America's political violence problem took a dramatic turn for the worse on Friday when Kyle Rittenhouse — who shot three people during riots following police reform protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020, killing two — was acquitted of all charges in what had become the latest in a series of nationally-watched trials related to the country's racial justice movement.

Yet the verdict, whatever you might think of it, was far from the most worrisome aspect of this affair. Instead, it is the unhinged Republican embrace of Rittenhouse as a hero, and the right's glorification of vigilante gun violence, that raises serious alarm about the direction of our politics.

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David Faris

David Faris is an associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics. He is a frequent contributor to Informed Comment, and his work has appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times, The Christian Science Monitor, and Indy Week.