A kidnap, murder plot targeted Gretchen Whitmer. That's no coincidence | Opinion

Was it because she's a woman? 

Of course it is. 

This is a governor who had to fight for her place on the ticket; male Democrats lobbied until just months before the election to replace her with someone more electable, more accomplished, more male.

This is a governor Republican lawmakers raced to constrain after she handily won that 2018 election, passing laws that would limit her executive powers even before she was in a position to exercise them.

This is a a governor whose first State of the State address made headlines not for the policies she proposed, but for the fit of her dress.

This is a governor who has been called "emotional" and "batshit crazy" by the men who lead the state Legislature. 

This is what it is to be a woman in public life, and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has navigated these waters as well as any woman could, focusing on the tasks before her, ignoring most of her male detrators' provocations, understanding that what she does now helps clear the path for the women who will follow.  

Plots like the one revealed Thursday may be underway in other states, just as the protests that initially targeted Whitmer spread to other states and other governors. 

But it's no coincidence that Whitmer has become the first target of this hateful violence. 

The revelation that a group of domestic terrorists planned to kidnap Whitmer and try her for treason, or simply murder her, feels shocking, a new level of degradation and horror when it seemed we'd already plumbed rock bottom.

But there is also something familiar about it. Inevitable, almost.

The plot to kidnap and kill Whitmer began this summer. The FBI says the men arrested planned to abduct the governor from her family's northern Michigan vacation home, blow up a nearby bridge to delay police response, take her to Wisconsin, and put her "on trial" — or just shoot her at her front door.

More:These 13 men were charged with conspiring to kidnap Whitmer

More:Wolverine Watchmen members plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer: Here's what we know

The members of this self-styled militia were incensed that Whitmer had used her executive authority to declare and extend a state of emergency in Michigan and issue a string of executive orders intended to contain the coronavirus pandemic. The 1945 law she cited as authority for her orders had stood intact for 75 years when four Michigan Supreme Court justices decided last week that it delegated legislative power in violation of the state constitution. Some of the men arrested in the plot participated in protests at the state Capitol earlier this summer; at least one has been identified in a photograph of armed protesters in the gallery overlooking the state Senate chambers. 

It's true that Whitmer moved aggressively in the COVID-19 pandemic, following the recommendations of the nation's top public health officials. And she's been largely successful in containing the virus and slowly re-opening Michigan’s economy. Many other governors across the country have followed the same game plan; Republican governors who initially scoffed at strict guidelines saw the virus and death toll mount in their states, and by the fall most had imposed tougher restrictions on businesses and public gatherings.

What I'm saying is that what Whitmer has done here is not materially different than what governors across the nation, Democrat and Republican, have done.

But it's Whitmer who has drawn homicidal rage. 

I've read the criminal complaint. The men who targeted Whitmer were serious. An FBI informant recorded a series of meetings chronicling regular field exercises, the purchase of weapons, surveillance of the governor's northern Michigan vacation home, increasing determination to act before the election, and a litany of threats and complaints that centered on Whitmer's gender and authority:

"Tyrant bitch."

"Knock on the door and when she answers it just cap her."

"Grab the bitch." 

“She f--king goddamn loves the power she has right now.”

"She has no checks and balances at all. She has uncontrolled power right now.”

That, it seems, is the problem. 

Whitmer's critics have reveled in gendered insults, calling her a scolding schoolmarm or a nagging mother. One Wayne County man who attended protests at the Capitol brandished a nude Barbie doll with its neck in noose; the man, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the state House of Representatives, freely admitted to reporters that the doll represented Whitmer. 

More:Feds: Domestic terrorists plotted to attack Capitol, kidnap Gov. Whitmer and target cops

More:Michigan Supreme Court rules against Whitmer on emergency powers but effect unclear

That a woman held such extraordinary power, for some, seems a bridge too far. 

And let's be very, very clear on this: That hysterical response was driven not just by a radical fringe, but by Republican legislative leaders and conservative media. President Donald Trump vilified Whitmer as "that woman in Michigan," and, after the kidnap plot became public, suggested that it was her fault. House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, encouraged this summer's protests. Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey, R-Clarklake, appeared on stage at a rally this summer with one of the men arrested, according to MLive this week. I'm sure that neither Republican leader knew of the plot. But both have consistently painted Whitmer as out-of-control and unlawful, somehow less legitimate than her male peers.

This is a dangerous thing.

The connection between the alt right and misogyny is well-documented.

"While it’s true that the movement is most frequently described in terms of the self-stated, explicit white supremacy that defines many of its corners, for many of its members, the gateway drug that led them to join the alt-right in the first place wasn’t racist rhetoric but rather sexism," the online magazine Vox wrote in 2016. 

A 2018 Anti-Defamation League report exploring the link between misogyny and alt-right extremism, concluded that expressing hatred toward women is often a precursor to violent action — that wishing violence on women is wishing violence on humans. 

For women, the threat of kidnapping is particularly visceral: Every few years, news breaks that an abducted woman has escaped some basement or attic, held in prolonged captivity by a man willing to do anything to curtail her autonomy and deny her personhood. 

What I keep coming back to is Whitmer, speaking to the press on Thursday, somber and composed, calmly explaining how a group of men hoped to hurt her, thanking the law enforcement officers who stopped them. I wonder what it felt like to learn this plot existed. I wonder how close they came, circling Whitmer's vacation home in the dark of an up-north summer.

I wonder when it will stop. 

Nancy Kaffer is a columnist and member of the Free Press editorial board. She has covered local, state and national politics for two decades. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com. Become a Free Press subscriber here.