«If you feel like you gave the majority of your life to your country and you’re not being listened to, that is a hard pill to swallow. That’s why she was upset,» said Roger Witthoeft, the brother of Ashli Babbitt, in an interview with The New York Times. Babbitt served four tours of duty in her 14 years of military service. Having survived deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Babbitt died in the U. Capitol.
She’d stormed the building with a riotous mob, seeking to fight back against an election the rioters firmly believe was stolen from Donald Trump. She was shot by a Capitol Police officer. Her final, bloody moments were broadcast and immortalized on social media. The struggling small business owner left a social media footprint that speaks volumes.
Her recent retweets were filled with supportive messages for Lin Wood, the pro-Trump lawyer who’s spent recent weeks advancing fringe conspiracy theories about the election results. She expressed belief in the QAnon conspiracy theory. I have no idea whether Babbitt was a decent person. I know there’s no moral defense of her decision to storm the capitol.
Further, Babbitt’s Twitter makes clear what her brother told the Times. The election of a reality television host should have been the wake-up call they needed to start that unpleasant undertaking, but the people who control the country decided instead that Trump’s supporters were not largely disenfranchised or forgotten or decent people with whom they disagreed, but mostly just bigots. «If you feel like you gave the majority of your life to your country and you’re not being listened to, that is a hard pill to swallow». Babbitt was no basement-dwelling creep with little insight into the real world.
Anecdotally, it seems just about everyone I know has been surprised to find that some normal relative or friend of theirs is a believer in the conspiracy. As the curtain closes on Trump’s presidency, the political class faces the reality that a wide swath of decent, everyday Americans now trust fringe voices.
Source: Emily Jashinsky | The Federalist
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