It’s never reassuring to begin the New Year with a right-wing insurrection against an elected government. Much was disturbing about the January 6 Capitol riot, including the possibility of more antidemocratic, white supremacist mayhem yet to come. But especially terrifying were the threats on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s life, and the news that the democratic socialist congresswoman may have come close to assassination.

Describing the events of January 6, AOC said on Instagram, “I can tell you that I had a very close encounter where I thought I was going to die.” She said that she couldn’t say much more about it for security reasons, but elaborated, “I did not know whether I was going to make it to the end of that day alive. Not just in a general sense, but in a very, very specific sense.”

The far right has been obsessed with AOC since her election in 2018. Its scary fixation on her reflects its terror of women and people of color holding power, of course, but these hard-rightists are also — as fascists always have been — deeply triggered by socialism.