The Rising Threat of Political Violence
Following the violent attack on Paul Pelosi, the midterms give voters the chance to rethink what kind of country they want to live in
I had thought about taking this day off, what with the realities of jet lag and the seductive pull of sleep. But then came the violent attack (read: assassination attempt) on Paul Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 82-year-old husband, and it became clear I had to push onward. The issue of political violence is too serious to ignore now.
Saturday’s attack with a hammer by a man who has been posting online pro-Trump, antisemitic and racist writings has gotten me thinking more about political violence—and particularly the rising climate of political violence that can be understood as stochastic terrorism. We have heard that the Berkeley man who broke into the Pelosi house had yelled out “Where is Nancy? Where is Nancy?” in a chilling echo of the disturbing cry by insurrectionists after breaking into the People’s House on Jan. 6.
It’s hard to avoid the alarming fact that four years of violent incitement by Donald Trump—delivered with nearly no condemnation by his party—has succeeded in infecting the minds of too many of our fellow Americans. Capitol Police have seen threats against members of Congress and their families more than double, up from 3,939 in 2017 to 9,625 last year.
Acts that may have appeared as stochastic, or unpredictably random, may now become more regular and frequent. This dangerous reality—which employs the “four D’s” of demonization, dehumanization, desensitization and denial—is driven by the power of social media and other forms of mass communication. At a time of increasingly violent rhetoric, it will be harder for Trump or Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert or a host of other self-serving extremists to distance themselves from the consequences as they attack Democrats in the most incendiary ways to grab attention and whip up crowds. Here’s how California Rep. Eric Swalwell put it:
We must draw the straight lines that connect violent political rhetoric and violent acts. The Pelosi assailant’s Facebook page looks identical to the Facebook pages of Trump, Taylor Greene, and Boebert. All three of them have glorified violence and DePape [Pelosi’s attacker] acted on it.
You may recall that Greene called Nancy Pelosi “a traitor to our country” who is “guilty of treason,” which is “a crime punishable by death.” She’s not the only one on the attack. This year, Republicans have spent nearly $40 million demonizing Pelosi in their political ads. Let’s also not forget the anime video shared by Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar last year that featured him killing New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who now relies on round-the-clock security. She and Pelosi were the target of death threats from a Florida man who was sentenced to 18 months in prison earlier this year.
If there was a time that we could just shake our heads and console ourselves with the assumption that these opportunists are not the brightest lights, that they are fringe operators that the vast majority see through, we are well past that now. The majority of Republicans have swallowed the Big Lie of election fraud and a stolen election. Since Jan. 6, a third of Republicans say that political violence is “sometimes justified.” We have every reason to worry that too many mentally unwell cultists are ready to act on this dangerous idea.
The cry of “Where is Nancy?”—repeated over and over in the minds of the deranged—no longer sounds like a question to ask but a directive to act on. Extremist leaders may deny there are direct correlations between their words and subsequent acts of violence, but the reality is that they have exploited their positions of power and fueled a political climate that will increasingly motivate the most weak-minded and desperate among us.
Jan. 6 could have been an alarm bell, a turning point to slow the violence. “There was an opportunity for the more moderate elements of the Republican Party to distance themselves from the more radical elements and marginalize them, and be the start of the end of this wave,” Michael Jensen, who studies extremist violence, told The Washington Post. “The exact opposite happened. What we saw instead was a doubling down on moving extremism into the mainstream.”
The Trumps, the Greenes and all the others of their ilk—including Arizona’s extremist-in-training Kari Lake—may still be counting on plausible deniability to ensure they are not held accountable for their hateful finger pointing and virulent rhetoric. But there is a rancid aroma around the visible pleasure they get in their violent talk that tells me that—should the Republicans win the midterms—their growing power will unleash their pride of purpose.
That portends not just more of the same, but more explicit efforts to punch down, lash out, and perhaps even relish the response when once seen-to-be-random acts of violence happen more frequently. They have been showing how fear and intimidation are powerful weapons in the toolkit of rising demagogues and autocrats.
Gone are the days when we can treat stochastic terrorism as an abstract concept. In this accelerated age of social media, it should be the responsibility of every political leader to avoid the rhetoric that can trigger radicalized individuals and lead to acts of violence or terrorism. It “should be,” but there are few signs among increasingly extreme Republicans that it will be their chosen path forward, especially as Attorney General Merrick Garland has thus far failed to show that any leaders of the violent attack on the US Capitol will be held accountable.
In just eight days, we will learn what direction Americans have chosen for at least the next two years. We can hope that the attempted homicide of Paul Pelosi—and the probability of growing political violence if the Republicans take the majority—will cause at least some voters to pause and rethink which leaders to choose and what kind of country they want to live in.
America, America is a reader-supported publication. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if you’re not already.
Thanks for not taking the day off. I needed to hear your words today as I have been tortured all weekend by the attack on Paul Pelosi. Friday the press kept asking when Kevin McCarthy would make a statement. His office finally reported that he had called Nancy Pelosi and expressed concern for her husband's well being and wished him a speedy recovery. It took another day before McCarthy would speak in public. I guess he was afraid that denouncing the violence in public would insure the wretch of Trump and force him to go down to Mar-A-Largo and kiss the ring again. And as Swallwell said, and as Biden also said, it is not enough to condemn the violence, we must also condemn the rhetoric that incites the violence. Because if the rhetoric is still out there, those who need little inspiration to go violent, will take that rhetoric and run with it. And yet Greene keeps doubling down on her rhetoric. Using the word "treason" as an attack against Nancy Pelosi. Has she ever explained what she thinks the Speaker has done that could be defined as "treason". On the other hand, the cultists who follow 45 (you know I can't say his name) have no clue that their violent rhetoric is inciting violence. Or if they have a clue they don't care. Do they even recognize that the "Where's Nancy" when the intruder attacked Paul Pelosi mimicked the cries of the insurrectionists on Jan 6, and many of them, though not yet enough of them, have been convicted of crimes. Do any of the GOP elected officials who are either too afraid to say anything that might upset 45, or else have not achieved an adult level of ethical development (per my studies of Kohlberg as an undergrad and grad student, understand the laws of the US and understand what qualifies as treason. And each day I feel more and more stress, as we get closer and closer to the midterm elections. You tried to make me feel optimistic the other day with your "baker's dozen"; but then the Pelosi attack happened and I lost the little bit of optimism that your writing had given me. So, if/when the GOP take control of the House, are they going to bring charges against Pelosi, and Dr. Fauci, and Merrick Garland? And anyone else who they feel their cult leader wants them to impeach? And is Merrick Garland staying quiet because it's so close to the election; and will he bring charges immediately afterward, before the cultists take over Congress and totally ruin our country and destroy our domestic security as well as our international security. And how much leeway does free speech give these GOP cult people to speak in a way that is tantamount to yelling fire in a crowded theatre.
This is an outstanding commentary, Steven, about how America has been driven off the rails, by an ever- obsessing Republican engine, continually being stoked by the flames of anger and discord. I have less interest in media that covers politics of any stripe. Watching the History channel illustrates just how enterprising and resourceful Americans were, despite personal challenges, Wars and other events. It is time to rekindle that lost spirit. What seems to characterise these current times is the malice and ill will that people display towards each other, largely with no consequence. The attack ads by political parties should ALL be banned. Violent rhetoric leads to violent action. Power is the GOP's drug of choice, and apparently the most extremist among them are more than happy to stand at the bully pulpit, and disseminate their mantra of hate to the masses. This self-serving mindset is for the benefit of their political careers, at the expense of America, and all it stands for. The extremists are virtual emissaries of Trumpism; the front men and women who enjoy mobilising aggrieved individuals to act out, as in the case of the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband. If the outliers were capable of self-analysis, they would realise they have weakened the foundation upon which their country was built. If it fails, so too will they. America's decorum, integrity and status on the World stage has been swept aside by quasi 'action figures' who seek political victory, at any cost. And once again, the social media giant Facebook, with its lack of checks and balance, continues to allow so much hate and misinformation to proliferate on its platform. It took an Insurrection at the American Capitol for Mark Zuckerberg to FINALLY ban Trump from his platform, and by then, so much irreparable damage had been done. META requires more official oversight and stringent regulation; with any Karmic luck, it will self-destruct. When a disingenuous businessman and former TV Reality Show actor, with no credentials to lead a Nation became President of the United States of America, it was a harbinger of what was to come.