Is Political Violence in our Future?

A number of headlines caught my attention recently:

• Lindsey Graham stated that if Trump were to be indicted there would be “riots in the streets.”
• Armed Antifa members showed up at a “kid-friendly” drag show in Texas to intimidate protesters.
• President Biden said that some Trump supporters are “semi-fascists” to which liberal talking heads like Joe Scarborough responded, why use the qualifier, “semi?”
• Fox News published a montage of left-leaning talking heads speaking about Republicans as if they were a terrorist organization
• Leo Terrell responds to Biden’s remarks by saying “Biden is dividing America.”

A common theme on Fox News is that progressives primarily and liberals in general think that everyone who votes Republican is a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal. A common theme on CNN and MSNBC is that Republicans pose a “threat to democracy” and that Trump’s militias are poised and ready to wreak havoc. Is there any way to narrow the divide before small clashes between Antifa and The Proud Boys become real, wide-spread violence?

Let’s take a step back and look at each side’s claims in the spirit of More Spock – more Spock and less McCoy:

Republicans are a threat to democracy? This construct was seemingly developed by Democratic strategists after a) The January 6 riot at the capital, b) legislation presented in some red states related to election security and c) chatter on right wing social media sites threatening violence.

The January 6 riots are an interesting event to attempt to analyze logically. Those on the right say it was an organic event that just happened after Trump’s speech. Conspiracy theorists on the right say that Nancy Pelosi intentionally understaffed the capital even after warnings, and undercover FBI agents actually initiated the breach. Conspiracy theorists on the left are sure that Trump planned the entire thing in advance.

Without any additional evidence, a logical person can’t be persuaded that this was a planned coup. If it was, it was the worst planned coup in history. What was the end game? Let’s say that the crowd was able to reach Mike Pence, Chuck Shumer and Nancy Pelosi. Even if they executed them like Mussolini in 1945 or Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989, what would have happened next? The U.S. is not like the French monarchy prior to 1789 or a totalitarian regime where you take out the leader and the government topples. Our constitution would have ultimately been followed, Joe Biden would have been ultimately declared the winner of the election by the newly appointed office holders, and those involved in the coup attempt arrested and tried.

Likewise, the argument that Republicans want to make it difficult for minorities to vote was legitimate in the 1950s and 60s, but a logical review of the legislation passed in Alabama, Arizona, Flor­ida, Geor­gia, Kentucky, and Oklahoma after the 2020 election doesn’t indicate that those laws do anything to reduce voter turnout. Democrats claim that these laws were a result of “the big lie” that Trump lost the election due to voter fraud. Dems are partly right in that a surprising number of Republicans do believe that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election. However, there are some right-headed people that saw how some of the absentee ballot rules that were relaxed due to COVID, could potentially be abused. While there’s been no evidence of widespread voter fraud, there has been evidence of some local abuses here and there. These abuses aren’t significant in a national race, but could effect local races and house contests. The outrage over these new rules seems manufactured.

There is no doubt that the chatter on right wing social media sites has escalated since the 2020 election. I really like Isaac Saul’s blog, Tangle. He does a wonderful job of research and trying to be balanced. However, in his blog Which Party is More Extreme, he states that studies show that right wingers are more violent. But his evidence is really based on survey results and social media monitoring than actual acts of violence. Right leaning individuals are much more likely to answer questions like “is violence against the government justified?” affirmatively than left leaning individuals. When Obama was elected there were no riots, when Biden was elected there was the January 6 riot, but no others I’m aware of. However, there were nation-wide riots when Trump was declared the winner in 2016.

Saul and Democrats seem to not consider Antifa violence on college campuses and Black Lives Matter protests which turn violent to be political violence? Left wingers established CHOP zones in Seattle and other cities in which armed leftists essentially occupy several city blocks. We haven’t seen that yet from The Proud Boys (but we might). In defense of Saul and the Dems, many of these events were responded to by right wing activists who were ready to respond in kind and violent skirmishes have occurred.

More Spock believes that the rhetoric on both sides is irresponsible. The last thing our country needs is a one-party system like China has, no matter whether that party is blue or red. More Spock hopes that each party will nominate an “adult” during the 2024 presidential primary contests. If there are enough voters like me, we won’t have a Trump, Biden, DeSantis, or Sanders on either ticket. Unfortunately, humans remain way too emotional. The way Fox, CNN and MSNBC retain viewers is the same way political candidates keep their bases excited – by making the other side seem like a real threat to their existence, even when they’re not. As this escalates, one must ask, “How long ’till the violence gets real?”