The attack on Paul Pelosi should be a moment of national reckoning

Police block the street in front of the home of Nancy and Paul Pelosi after the attack. ‘Such an extreme act should shock the conscience of the nation.’ Photograph: Eric Risberg/AP

Much of American life has gotten coarser, uglier and crueler in the years since Donald Trump won the presidency in 2016. Even with Trump out of office, his legacy persists, and it erodes American life every day.

On Friday, in a grisly act of political violence, a man broke into the home of the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, one of the US right’s most vilified political figures, and attacked her husband with a hammer, fracturing his skull and leaving him with serious injuries. The attacker, 42-year-old David DePape, was reportedly carrying zip ties and duct tape and yelling: “Where’s Nancy?”