The Struggle Between Light and Dark
The rising attraction to political violence must not dent our belief that a better America can prevail
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden traveled to Arizona to announce a new national monument of nearly a million acres near the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s great natural wonders and sacred cultural site for over a dozen Indigenous tribal nations. “Today marks an historic step of preserving the majesty of this place,” Biden said, noting that the designation will “help right the wrongs of the past and conserve this land of ancestral footprints for all generations.”
“That very act of preserving the Grand Canyon as a national park,” he continued, “was used to deny Indigenous people full access to their homelands—to the places where they hunted, gathered; to precious, sacred ancestral sites. They fought for decades to be able to return to these lands, to protect these lands from mining and development, to clear them of contamination, to preserve their shared legacy for future generations.…Preserving these lands is good, not only for Arizona but for the planet. It’s good for the economy. It’s good for the soul of the nation.”
On Wednesday, Biden headed to New Mexico and a wind farm plant to talk about climate-related investment, the challenges we face because of the climate crisis and the economic benefits emanating from his climate agenda. “I’m not here to declare victory on the economy. We have a lot more work to do. But we have a plan. And it’s turning things around.”
Then it was on to Salt Lake City, Utah, and a scheduled Thursday morning speech about health care benefits for veterans exposed to toxins in military burn pits. This marked the one-year anniversary of the PACT Act, legislation which has already led to nearly 459,000 claims and provided free screenings for toxic exposures to 4.1 million veterans. Biden himself has said he believes his son Beau’s deadly brain cancer may have been connected to his exposure to burn pits while in the military.
These are the kinds of daily commitments expected of a president who understands the productive role that government can play in improving lives—and righting wrongs—and not just for the richest among us. They can be easily missed, or minimized as just the everyday machinations of a president running for reelection.
Yet the same day Biden traveled to Salt Lake City to talk about veterans’ benefits, FBI agents fatally shot a 75-year-old man in Provo, Utah, at his gun-filled home while seeking his arrest. A self-described “MAGA Trumper,” who was wearing a hat emblazoned with “TRUMP” when federal agents questioned him previously, he had threatened to kill President Biden during his visit, posting his plan to “clean the dust off” his sniper rifle.
But that’s not all: He also threatened to assassinate Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James, among others. (“First Joe then Kamala,” he wrote.) He had described his guns on social media as Democrat eradicators. In one post, he described a “wonderful dream” of standing with his gun over the dead body of Merrick Garland, “AS SHIVERS OF LIBERTY AND FREEDOM SWELLED IN MY HEART FOR OUR AMAZINGLY GREAT COUNTRY.”
Also on Wednesday, Trump, out on bond, appeared on Newsmax and attacked Georgia’s Fulton County DA. “She is not a capable woman,” he said, and lobbed insults at her to feed doubt about her fair-mindedness. This follows, of course, days of ugly attacks against Special Counsel Jack Smith and his family.
Such stochastic incitements—that can trigger the fevered, troubled mind of a man in Provo, Utah—are delivered against a backdrop of rising support for political violence. According to a new survey by the University of Chicago’s Project on Security & Threats, an estimated 18 million Americans believe force is justified to restore Trump to the White House. This is an increase of roughly 6 million in just the last few months. The researchers report that 68 percent of the 18 million believe the 2020 election was stolen and 62 percent believe the prosecutions are intended to harm Trump’s 2024 presidential bid.
This “Dangers to Democracy” survey notes a significant increase in support for violence just since April. “The public is more radicalized than it was in April and it’s really quite significant,” Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor and the survey’s lead, told the Guardian. “We’ve been tracking this quite a while, and this is a really big bump.”
This is America in 2023. A president trying to move the country forward with inclusive policies meant to expand opportunity and benefit those who have suffered its inequalities and transgressions, even dating back to before the nation’s founding. And a felonious ex-president exploiting his continuing hold on millions of Americans to stir hatred, reject facts, and do anything to avoid or delay accountability.
I’d like to imagine that focusing on the current president’s accomplishments could be enough to change minds. But we are way beyond that when a growing number of Americans believe violence is the answer to the lie of election fraud and the key to reinstalling Trump. It’s hard to see how there won’t be more episodes like the one in Provo, nor should we doubt that the likely announcement of a fourth indictment by DA Willis will intensify the malignant one’s violent urgings.
Yet the strong win for democracy in Ohio this week—when an August turnout of over 3 million Ohioans and 57 percent of these voters rejected a GOP attempt to make it harder to amend the state’s constitution to protect abortion—is one sign that the ballot box remains a powerfully viable location to address what ails us. That democratic passion bodes well for the elections of 2024.
But in the struggle between light and dark, between those who yearn for greater equality and a better America and those driven by grievance and the need to scapegoat the most vulnerable among us, the next year promises more violence fueled by irresponsible leaders determined to exploit peoples’ worst instincts. That may be our treacherous, near-term fate, but it doesn’t mean justice and the rule of law won’t finally prevail.
This conflict is unavoidable on the road to repair. And maybe, just maybe, as the wheels of justice grind on, some of those Republicans who advocate violence now will figure out that they don’t really want leadership fueling more chaos and crime.
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Thank you, Steven, for this great read. It lifts me and saddens me; may we have what it takes to move in the direction of betterment for all.
I do see all the signs of political violence in the coming months. I will not be surprised if the National Guard is called out in some states to guard polling places & places where votes are counted.