While social media and cable news have been abuzz about Democrat Jay Jones’ text messages, the corporate national networks have largely ignored the story.
If Jones were a Republican candidate for attorney general, it’s hard to imagine ABC, CBS, or PBS giving it the same silence — or NBC News devoting only 66 seconds of coverage. For comparison, NBC literally spent more airtime on my own resignation from the Republican Attorneys General Association years ago than they did on a candidate fantasizing about political violence.
For those who missed it — because of a lack of legacy media attention — Jones, the Democrat nominee for Virginia Attorney General, was so enraged about a Republican eulogizing a Democrat that he wanted to “piss on graves” and put bullets into Republicans heads — going so far as to wish his Republican opponent would be forced to watch their children, who he called “little fascists,” die.
Once used to describe regimes responsible for some of history’s darkest atrocities, “fascist” has been repurposed as a political insult. It now functions less as a descriptor and more as a moral license and permission slip to dehumanize those who disagree. When people believe their opponents are evil, it becomes easier to rationalize hatred, harassment, or worse.
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We must turn the temperature down. Unfortunately, Democrats and the national media are not helping. Aside from outliers such as MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), national Democrats largely dodged and excused Jones’ text messages, even as the context of the text messages was Jones being unhinged about Republicans and Democrats working together.
This moment presents a clear choice. The national media and the national Democratic Party need to ride their high horse of bipartisanship and moral authority through good times and bad, or concede they have lost all credibility.
Calling on Jones to drop out should not be difficult, controversial, or calculated. Unfortunately, Abigail Spanberger and national Democrats have refused to do so. I called on him to drop out immediately after seeing the text messages. I didn’t do this because I lead the organization that made the largest investment in Jason Miyares’ campaign, but because I am a husband and father who understands how unchecked hatred destroys our country for my children’s future.
Jones didn’t just fantasize about killing Republicans once. He did it repeatedly by phone and text and even wished death upon the children of a Republican counterpart, saying that he hoped the “little fascists” they were breeding would bleed out in their mother’s arms. What was once fringe language is now mainstream.
If we don’t change the rhetoric, it’s only a matter of time before words once again become weapons.
The term “fascist” must be banished to history books or the trash heap of slurs, such as other insults that begin with a F and end with a T, which routinely get people doxed and canceled.
Democrats must condemn Jones’ texts and put an end to the use of the term fascism.
We should reserve the word “fascist” for actual fascism. Neither President Donald Trump nor former President Joe Biden is a fascist. “Fascist” is not a punchline. It’s not a meme. It’s not a way to win an argument.
It’s a hate-fueled dog whistle that has killed innocent men and women. It’s time we treated it like hate speech and permanently retired the term.
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If everything is fascism, then nothing is.
As media elites allow this language to go unchecked, only viewers can hold them accountable by changing the channel, and voters can send a message by rejecting it at the ballot box.
Adam Piper is the Executive Director of the Republican Attorneys General Association
