How Political Violence Went Mainstream on the Right
Hate-filled rhetoric rises during election season, and the outcome is obvious.
FTA: The public’s willingness to support partisan violence in America now approaches levels recorded in Northern Ireland at the height of its troubles.
... violence has been mainstreamed on the right.
[Our old "friend", stochastic terrorism (about which I first heard in connection with Trump) remains a problem]
... Many people who support violence would never actually commit it themselves. But when language that simultaneously depicts people as a threat and less than human becomes common, more aggressive and unbalanced individuals will act. Approximately 3 to 5 million Americans are willing to consider committing political violence, according to a poll conducted in the spring of 2022. Numbers like these mean that America is now at the point of what experts call stochastic terrorism — a situation in which one can’t predict who will commit violence, or exactly where or when, but it’s highly predictable that someone, somewhere, will take the bait and act against the target. While in the past, words directed at a long-standing punching bag such as Nancy Pelosi (or a new one like the FBI) remained rhetorical, now, the same ire can result in bloodshed.
[Republicans are ramping-up for a civil war, one they are likely to win given (a) the statistics on who owns guns in the US (mostly RWNJs) and (b) the proclivities of the American Military. Think the military will quash a violent revolution? Think again.]
But even more pernicious to our democracy is that targets now include neighbors and local leaders. Election volunteers, school board members, public health officials, mayors — they are now part of a rolling group of targets whose lives can be ruined by a tweet depending on the latest conspiracy. Local office holders are often paid nearly nothing, while being asked to give long hours away from family to take part in endless meetings among haranguing neighbors. Add in death threats against oneself and ones’ children, and who will be left to tend to the everyday offices that a democracy needs?
Regular Americans won’t escape the growth in violence...
[Here's a key point:]
... Political violence is, by definition, inspired by politics. To roll it back, Americans need to disincentivize it. Right now, 90 percent of congressional races are so safe that they fear only a threat from their own ideological side. That’s driving extremism. We need to get rid of primaries in favor of ranked choice and other voting systems that force candidates to cater to the whole electorate. [Emphasis mine. The point: The two-party system drives extremism.]
But institutional changes won’t help if regular Republicans vote for MAGA candidates who normalize violence. Most are holding their noses and voting for their party because they are too polarized to vote for Democrats, especially progressive ones. They need to instead draw a line against violence and create a pro-democracy conservative identity to fight the MAGA faction. The business community particularly benefits from the rule of law, and it should be eager to back a conservative, non-violent type of GOP.
[Ain't gonna happen. GOP voters have been engineered to be stupid. But we on the left bear some responsibility as well:]
Democrats are not driving today’s political violence. But they are at least partly responsible for driving many people into the arms of the far right. Fear is a major cause of violence. As America undergoes immense change, from a fourth industrial revolution to remaking the concept of gender, many Americans are struggling to understand why they feel unmoored, anxious and behind. Snake-oil salesmen like Tucker Carlson offer the racist Great Replacement Theory as an explanation. Rather than provide a better story, the progressive left calls people names if they can’t march to a radically new tune fast enough. No wonder that even people of color moved in 2020 toward a right that offers understanding and a sense of community.
[No one likes to be criticized, called a racist, or called stupid (even if they are). It makes them defensive. Perhaps we on the left need to work on a better way to show those on the right a better path.]
#Politics #Extremism #RightWingExtremism #Violence
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/07/political-violence-mainstream-right-wing-00065297
