I
n February 2012, George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch coordinator for his gated community in Sanford, Florida, shot and killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed African-American teenager.
After initially being allowed to go free, Zimmerman was arrested, charged with second-degree murder and eventually acquitted. During and after his trial, Zimmerman became a hero of the conservative movement. Sean Hannity of Fox News, one of the most powerful voices in conservative media, called the Zimmerman trial “purely political.”
Alex Seitz-Wald wrote in Salon that Ann Coulter, tea party nation founder Judson Phillips and David Horowitz are just a few of the conservative figures who portrayed Zimmerman as the victim of a “left-wing media ‘lynch mob.’”
The most positive thing that could possibly be said about Zimmerman is that he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed a 17-year-old. Even if that is what happened, what is it about Zimmerman that made him such a conservative darling?
Unfortunately for his fans in the conservative media, Zimmerman has managed to destroy any remnants of a positive reputation that existed following his acquittal in the Martin case.
After domestic violence-related arrests in 2013, Zimmerman took his behavior to a new low last week when he allegedly threatened to kill a driver during a road rage incident in Lake Mary. The driver later called 911 to report that Zimmerman was waiting in his car outside the driver’s place of employment.
Interestingly, despite Zimmerman’s repeated arrests, none of his victims — including his girlfriend — have ever agreed to press charges. It is impossible to know the motivations of these individuals, but it seems at least plausible that their inaction stems from fear of Zimmerman.
Zimmerman isn’t the first conservative role model whose reputation has quickly gone sour.
Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher, became involved in a dispute with federal agents from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management after 20 years of refusing to pay grazing fees for his use of federal lands. Bundy quickly became a conservative symbol of anti-taxation and liberty, and his hero status persisted even after he and his supporters pointed weapons at federal agents.
Only after video footage emerged of Bundy discussing “the Negro” and asserting that black people were better off under slavery than they are today did the conservative media break off their love affair with the troubled rancher.
The point here isn’t to suggest that liberal and Democratic icons are blameless or even necessarily worthy of imitation. However, it says something about the conservative movement that the individuals it holds up as heroes, like Zimmerman and Bundy, consistently demonstrate violent and ignorant behavior, often in combination.
At the very least, conservatives should stop and evaluate these individuals more carefully and thoughtfully before erecting shrines in their honor.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 9/15/2014 under the headline "Zimmerman latest conservative icon to go bad"]
