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It’s actually insane to me how white men will go to amazing lengths to not identify with Sam’s Captain America.

If we’ve reached the point to where people are now getting thousands of likes straight up defending Walker’s most explicitly demonstrated villainous act and calling him “relatable” then we’ve severely lost the plot and sam fans are gonna be in a new kind of hell for longer than i thought

This will come as no surprise, but the assassin is Vance Boelter - a right-wing evangelical pastor.

He supports the Christofascist "Alliance for Defending Freedom", an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group that works to expand Christian religious practices within public schools and in government.

There are different ways to wage spiritual war, some more literal than others. Faith healing, of the sort practiced in Lindsay’s tradition and in the modern ministries in which Boelter preached, makes of “spiritual war” a physicalized reality. And in researching my 2010 book C Street, I learned of senior U.S. military officers who’d come to describe the actual war they fought in Iraq and Afghanistan as “spiritual war.” I wrote of an incident in Samarra which a young American lieutenant, following their theological lead, instructed a translator to write in Arabic, on the side of a Bradley fighting vehicle, “Jesus Killed Muhammad.” Then he used it to roll into war, opening fire door to door.

Metaphors don’t just reflect reality, they shape it. Like actual war, spiritual war presupposes an enemy so dangerous and so unreasonable that violence is the only logical response. “The Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence,” says Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, “and violent men take it by force.”

For the close reader of scripture, that’s another metaphor; for Boelter’s Christian nationalist tradition, it’s a religion based on the “deep and holy goodness of masculine aggression,” in the words of fundamentalist author John Eldredge’s 2001 bestselling guide to spiritual war, Wild at Heart, still in print, which advised wives to gift their men actual broad swords as symbols of their warrior nature. Did Boelter, who boasted of bringing the gospel to “Islamic militants” in Gaza, who listed himself as “director of patrols” of the security firm he ran with his wife, Praetorian Guard, read this particular volume? If he’s caught, maybe we can ask him. But we don’t have to wonder whether he read the Word through theology of prayer as a violent devotion.

By Tony Pentimalli

There are no more warnings. Not after this weekend. Not after Vance Boelter, a 57-year-old private security firm director and self-appointed enforcer of political vengeance, shot and killed Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and left State Senator John Hoffman and his wife clinging to life. The question is no longer whether political violence defines the Trump era. It already does.

Boelter, now in custody after a 48-hour manhunt, was arrested Sunday evening near Green Isle, Minnesota, just miles from where one of his vehicles and a cowboy hat had been found earlier. Law enforcement confirmed he was spotted along a trail near his family’s farm. He surrendered without incident after being surrounded by officers in rural Sibley County. The arrest ended a tense two-day search that left entire townships on edge and in lockdown.

He now faces state and likely federal charges for what authorities have called a politically motivated rampage. Boelter is accused of murdering House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and attempting to kill Senator Hoffman and his wife. He posed as a police officer, carried tactical gear and multiple firearms, and left behind a manifesto, maps, and a hit list naming Democratic lawmakers and abortion rights advocates. His wife, detained the day before with weapons, cash, and passports in her car, was later released. The threat wasn't theoretical. It was planned, personal, and deliberate.

That hit list included Governor Tim Walz. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Senator Tina Smith. Attorney General Keith Ellison. Abortion providers across the state. This wasn’t a break from political norms. This is the new norm, a direct outcome of years of stochastic terrorism, rising extremism, and political cowardice by a Republican Party that no longer sees domestic terrorists as threats, but as foot soldiers.

Boelter dressed like a cop. Moved like a soldier. Thought like a crusader. But he was no patriot. He was a man radicalized by right-wing propaganda, and permitted to act because no one stopped him. And let’s be honest, we all saw this coming.

His vehicle was outfitted to mimic a squad car. Inside, investigators found flyers twisted from the “No Kings” protest movement. What began as an anti-authoritarian call had been distorted into justification for murder. Boelter’s digital footprint, investigators say, was littered with content from extremist Telegram groups, militia forums, and MAGA channels steeped in paranoia and rage.

This is what happens when Donald Trump calls his opponents “vermin” and promises mass deportations and military sweeps. When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. compares political dissent to treason. When Elon Musk guts federal law enforcement under the banner of “efficiency” while private militias gain ground. When Tucker Carlson, now serving as Trump’s National Communications Director, uses state media to warn that civil war is inevitable and even necessary.

Boelter didn’t invent this violence. He inherited it. Consumed it. Recycled it. And acted on it.

His worldview didn’t form in the shadows. It was shaped in plain sight. He repeated the talking points broadcast daily by conspiracy platforms, podcast pundits, and cable news hosts who blur the line between entertainment and incitement. He believed what millions have been conditioned to believe, that Democrats are traitors, immigrants are invaders, and violence is patriotism.

We’re told he was a lone wolf. That’s a lie. Lone wolves don’t carry manifestos, impersonate officers, and target elected officials with tactical precision. Lone wolves don’t write hit lists. This was not chaos. It was choreography.

And the GOP knows it.

Melissa Hortman was not a radical. She was a public servant. A mother. A voice for working people. Her assassination wasn’t just a tragedy. It was an attack on democratic life itself.

And yet, where’s the outrage?

Trump issued a generic statement calling the killings “horrific” before immediately insulting Governor Walz as “grossly incompetent.” He refused to call him. Speaker Mike Johnson called for bipartisan unity, but the rest of the MAGA machine? Silent. Tucker. Greene. Bannon. Nothing.

The same crowd that explodes over Mr. Potato Head pronouns fell quiet when a lawmaker and her husband were executed. That silence? It’s not neutrality. It’s endorsement by omission.

This isn’t condemnation. It’s coordination.

For the MAGA movement, this isn’t a nightmare. It’s a strategy.

We are not at the brink. We are in the fire. The violence is no longer metaphorical. The bodies are real. And unless we summon the courage to name this for what it is—right-wing domestic terrorism—it will keep spreading.

As Governor Tim Walz said on Sunday, “This was not just an attack on individuals. It was an attack on democracy itself.”

So speak. Report. Vote. Organize. Or prepare to bury more of your leaders.

The sirens have already started. The only question now is whether we’ll listen, or wait for the next knock on the door.

Please like and share!

*Tony Pentimalli is a political analyst and commentator fighting for democracy, economic justice, and social equity. Follow him for sharp analysis and hard-hitting critiques on Facebook and BlueSky

@tonywriteshere.bsky.social