Gosar has lost it (again). But don’t ban him from Twitter

Rep. Paul Gosar just lost it. Again, that is.

The pride and joy of Arizona on Sunday evening posted a bizarre animated video of himself on Twitter, wherein he kills Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and goes after President Joe Biden.

With swords.

Two of them.

Naturally, there is a move afoot by understandably aghast sane people to have Gosar suspended from Twitter. Don’t do it, Twitter.

Gosar, through his posts, regularly offers us a two-dimensional look into the disturbing mind of a congressman who has no problem showing us who he really is.

We really do need to look.

It goes without saying that Gosar is an embarrassment to Arizona. This is a guy who is to the far right of the far right. He cozies up to white nationalists and sees the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as victims. Even his own relatives are appalled. But he is a member of the United States Congress – reelected in a landslide in his heavily Republican district just last year – and really, given that, isn’t it better to know what he’s thinking?

In his latest descent into delusion, Gosar posted a photoshopped version of himself starring in a Japanese anime video called “Attack on Titan” — referring to giant creatures that are devouring human civilization.

Or as Gosar renamed it (in Japanese text, no less): “Attack of Immigrants.”

The 90-second video features scenes of immigrants, interspersed with the words “drugs,” “crime,” “poverty,” “gangs,” “violence,” “trafficking,” along with pictures of Border Patrol agents, some of them on horses as Haitians crossed the Rio Grande.

Then along comes the hero, with Gosar’s face photoshopped onto the lead cartoon character. Swords in hand, he flashes and slashes his way through the land alongside cartoon versions of Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Lauren Boebert, RCol.

Along the way, he kills a Titan that has been photoshopped with OcasioCortez’s face, leaping into the air to slash the back of her neck. He is last seen airborne and swinging his swords toward Joe Biden’s head.

The video, as of Tuesday afternoon, had been viewed 3.4 million times.

Naturally, it has prompted condemnation (as it should) and calls for his Twitter account to be suspended (as it should not be. Gosar’s constituents need to be constantly reminded of who it is they elected.).

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., flagged the video for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

“Happy Monday in America, where

@GOPLeader McCarthy’s colleague just posted a video of himself swinging two swords at President Biden,” Swalwell said in a tweet. “These blood thirsty losers are more comfortable with violence than voting. Keep exposing them.”

Which is precisely why Twitter should ignore calls to silence Gosar. (The social media giant has allowed it to remain online “in the public interest” but added a warning to the post, saying it violated guidelines on “hateful conduct.”)

It’s appalling that a member of Congress would post such a disturbing video, fantasizing about killing a congresswoman.

It is doubly so that a member of Congress from Arizona would do such a disgraceful thing. It wasn’t so long ago that Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Az., was shot in the head by a deranged killer.

Gosar counters that the video of him killing a congresswoman and coming at a sitting president with swords swinging isn’t really a video about killing a congresswoman and coming at a sitting president with swords swinging.

“I do not espouse violence or harm towards any Member of Congress or Mr. Biden,” Gosar said in a statement Tuesday. “The video depicts the fight taking place next week on the House floor and symbolizes the battle for the soul of America when Congress takes up Mr. Biden’s massive $4 trillion spending bill that includes amnesty for millions of illegal aliens already in our country and was not meant to depict any harm or violence against anyone portrayed in the anime. This video is truly a symbolic portrayal of a fight over immigration policy.”

Yeah, by portraying the murder of a congresswoman and the presumed assassination of a president.

Don’t expect to hear any condemnation from Republican officials in Arizona.

We didn’t hear a peep from them when Gosar spoke at a white nationalist conference in February — when he posed for pictures with the event organizer, a guy who lamented the loss of the country’s “white demographic core” and proclaimed the events leading up to the Jan. 6 riot at the nation’s Capitol as “awesome.”

We didn’t hear a peep when he courted QAnon kooks in March.

We didn’t hear a peep when Gosar in May called the Jan. 6 rioters “peaceful patriots” and proclaimed that Capitol police “executed” a rioter as she attempted to break into a part of the Capitol where members of Congress were in hiding.

Or when he did it again in July. Now Gosar casts himself as a superhero who kills a member of Congress and appears well on his way to assassinating a sitting president.

I would say, “shame on him,” except really, he has none.

Gosar did get one thing right. He is, indeed, a cartoon character.