By Guardian-Adam Gabbatt - Mon 16 Dec 2024 13.00 GMT

Fox News and rightwing pundits are railing against ‘Marxist brutality’, but the suspect’s beliefs were far from leftist. Republicans and rightwing commentators have done their best to tie Luigi Mangione to the political left in recent days.

Luigi Mangione and the tens of thousands of people who have come forward with their own criticisms of the healthcare insurance industry are all Democrats: “liberal wackos” and “violent revolutionaries” who are committed to “Marxist brutality”.

The truth is less straightforward. Mangione, who was charged last week with the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, had political beliefs that spanned the left and right, criticizing America’s healthcare system in one breath, railing against “wokeism” in another.

Rather than mobilizing Democrats and progressives, the 26-year-old appears to have actually achieved a rare feat – uniting both Democrats and the pro-Donald Trump Maga crowd in a way rarely seen in modern politics.

Luigi Mangione is the median American voter

“I don’t think that we’ve necessarily seen Americans express any kind of cross-political line solidarity in decades,” said Corryn Freeman, executive director of the progressive organization Future Coalition and an advocate for healthcare expansion.

“But I’m not shocked, because healthcare is an American issue, that regardless of political affiliation, race or gender, it’s an issue where, unless you have a certain amount of money, you feel … whether you are middle class – even upper-middle class – poor, Black, female, male, trans, health insurance overall is an issue. And the vast majority of Americans have, if not been personally impacted by denials of insurance, seen it happen to our family members.”

Trump, with his undeniable knack for tapping into the anger and concerns of his supporters, has noticeably been silent on Thompson’s killing. But other Republicans have been desperate to portray Mangione, and the people supporting him, as left wing. Ted Cruz, the Texas senator, claimed Mangione’s alleged actions showed that “leftism is a mental disease”. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican representative, claimed that Thompson’s shooting was indicative of how the US has seen “the left push for socialized medicine for years”.

The New York Post, a rightwing tabloid, characterized Mangione as “an anti-capitalist Ivy League grad”, while Ben Shapiro, an influential rightwing podcaster, took a similar tack.

Mangione’s social media feeds, however, suggest he isn’t particularly aligned with Democratic politics. On X, the alleged gunman reposted several tweets that railed against “wokeism”, the rightwing cause célèbre. The Post wrote that Mangione had reposted a Wall Street Journal article titled Obstacle to Deficit Cutting: A Nation on Entitlements. The Journal, which like the New York Post is owned by Rupert Murdoch, is known for its conservative stance; the article, written in 2010, critiqued the number of Americans who were on food stamps or receiving unemployment benefits.

In one post on X, Mangione expressed opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which aim to increase diversity in the workplace and other public spheres. In another, Mangione praised Tucker Carlson, the rightwing firebrand, as having “brilliant insights”, and followed Robert F Kennedy Jr, whom Trump has nominated to run the department of health and human services. But he also follows Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the progressive Democratic representative.

The vast majority of Americans have, if not been personally impacted by denials of insurance, seen it happen to our family members

Corryn Freeman, Future Coalition

Nothing in Mangione’s public postings match the claims by the right that Mangione was driven by left-leaning politics. And despite Republican claims that the people who have supported Mangione are all Democrats, that also isn’t the case.

Shapiro, one of the most influential figures on the right, found this out the hard way after he posted a video to YouTube titled The EVIL Revolutionary Left Cheers Murder! Shapiro claimed that people who had expressed sympathy with Mangione’s actions were engaging in “Marxist, leftist, radical evil”.

His viewers, who are normally in sync with Shapiro’s dogma, disagreed.

“Rightwinger here, you are wrong ben, this man [Thompson] denied 35% of claims. One was my dead parents heart surgery we couldn’t afford. He opted to die instead of give us the debt,” wrote one user, in the top liked comment under Shapiro’s video.

“I’m not buying this “left vs right” shit anymore Ben, I want healthcare for my family,” read another post. One person wrote: “According to Ben I went from Trump voter to revolutionary leftist in the span of a month.”

On Truth Social, the Donald Trump-owned social media website almost exclusively populated by rightwingers, the shooting sparked a similar debate, users lamenting that health insurance companies “want to play god all the time to save a buck” and complaining that “our healthcare is completely broken”.

“This is not a right or left issue. It is a right and wrong issue,” said Nina Turner, a progressive politician and senior fellow at the New School Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.

“It is a moral issue. It is a human issue. This is an issue that just being a human being we have in common. And unfortunately, the polarization in our politics forces people to see themselves as a Democrat or Republican. That not only benefits the elites, but we should see ourselves as working class people in a hegemonic nation who have been failed by public policy.”

It is revealing that Trump, the arch-populist, has stayed silent. The incoming president, so good at riding the waves of public opinion, has at times been a fierce critic of healthcare companies himself.

This is an issue that just being a human being we have in common ... the polarization in our politics ... benefits the elites ...

Nina Turner

“For years, patients have been shocked to receive unexpected bills for thousands of dollars in medical services they never agreed to. The first America First Healthcare Plan bans this deeply unfair practice. We will end surprise medical billing. The days of ripping off American patients are over,” Trump said in North Carolina in 2020, announcing an ultimately doomed effort to rein in the likes of UnitedHealthcare.

It wasn’t the first time Trump had criticized the industry.

“We’re stopping American patients from just getting – pure and simple, two words, very simple words – ripped off. Because they’ve been ripped off for years. For a lot of years,” Trump said in 2019, as he introduced a proposal which would require insurance companies to show patients their expected out-of-pocket costs.

While none of Trump’s promises came to pass – and instead of protecting Americans’ right to healthcare, millions of people could lose access in Trump’s second term – Trump apparently felt he had tapped into the concerns of his supporters.

“President Donald J Trump is very shrewd, and he understands what is happening here. He understands that it’s his base too. So he’s going to be very calculated,” Turner said.

American’s dissatisfaction with the country’s healthcare is clear. A poll by Gallup in November – before Thompson was shot – found that almost 80% of Americans are unhappy with the cost of health insurance. A survey by KFF, a not-for-profit organization focussed on health policy, found that 96% believe health insurance companies deserve “a lot” or “some” of the blame for high health costs.

“Americans have known that our healthcare system is broken for many, many, many years now,” Freeman said.

“Beyond race, class, gender, and political ideology, the vast majority of Americans are learning and understanding that there are the haves and there are the have nots, and that this system is so broken. And I think it is a wake up call to our politicians, that people are tired, and they’re not seeing change.”

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