Tom Tiffany and his pilot lost power on final approach into Wausau Saturday night. Their Beechcraft K35 was landed on Lake Wausau, they swam a hundred and fifty feet to a sandbar, and waited for an airboat to pick them out of the water. Tiffany took twelve stitches above the eye, but both men walked out alive. God, a skilled pilot, and Wisconsin first responders did their jobs and we thank them for that. Tiffany, rightfully so, was visibly shaken up in his comments to the press. Then I opened the comments.
I was not hunting for the left’s reaction. I was simply scrolling the way anyone scrolls through social media after a local plane story hits the national news. What I found was unfortunately not a surprise. “I wish he DROWNED.” “Darn. He made it.” “Shame that plane didn’t explode on contact.” Variations of the same wish, posted under real names and real profile pictures saying horrific things about a fellow American and Wisconsinite.
Why did he deserve these comments? Tom’s our Republican gubernatorial candidate. That was enough.
I will not pretend every Democrat typed that. That would be a lie, and lies are their hobby. Elected Democrats usually have the sense to issue the sanitized statement and David Crowley managed a decent one, I appreciate that. The problem is the thousands of ordinary accounts that treat a near tragedy as a punchline and a death wish as civic participation.
It was not new when they joked about Donald Trump. It was not new when they turned Charlie Kirk’s murder into merch and mockery. It will not be new when the next conservative’s name is in a similar situation. A not insignificant slice of this country has decided that conservatism itself is a capital offense, and they will say so out loud, with their own faces attached.
America needs a serious look in the mirror. Wishing death on a stranger because of his party is not dissent. It is not edgy. It is not “just the internet.” It is dangerous territory that keeps getting louder, and the people doing it are no longer hiding in anonymous handles. They are neighbors with jobs and family photos who decided a man’s survival ruined their Saturday. If we keep treating this as normal, we should stop pretending we are a serious country.
