The Rise of Political Violence
How political violence came to be so widespread, and how political division is the culprit
Yesterday I discussed the events in the last 2 years, events that signaled a rise in violent protest in America. From the riots following the death of George Floyd, to violent actions by the pro-choice extremist group Janes Revenge, we have far departed the basic belief in peaceful protest held by Martin Luther King Jr. and the ideals of protest during the March on Washington. And in that article I posed this simple question:
“How did we come to this?”1
Well that question is an incredibly important one, and like most things it is incredibly nuanced. Also like most things, it is also incredibly political. Both the Left and the Right blame the other side for these shortfalls (liberals like to point to Charlottesville and conservatives like to point to the 2020 riots), making this issue politically divisive. There are many events that signal this shift, which you can read about here:
Now lets make one thing clear: we are not seeing open civil war as political protest. The vast majority of protests remain peaceful. According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Project (ACLED), only “6% involving reports of violence, clashes with police, vandalism, looting, or other destructive activity.”, in reference to the Black Lives Matter protests2. This is still an alarming statistic, and is only trending upward. The presence of armed protesters is rising at public demonstrations, and during the BLM protests a study found “roughly one out of every six demonstrations where firearms were present included reports of violent or destructive activity.”3.
So what exactly caused this shift to an uptick in violence? There are several places you can start, from the liberal outcry after the election of Donald Trump in 2020, including iconic lines like Madonnas “I have thought, an awful lot, about blowing up the White House” 4(Which yes, was apparently a metaphor but nobody seems to mention that), or others like Kathy Griffins famous image of holding a decapitated President Trump head. You could also say it started with the Charlottesville incident in August of 2017, where white supremacist protesters and counter-protesters clashed violently resulting in one death and over forty-nine injuries5. However, there is no one clear cause for the rise in this political violence, and it is incredibly likely that the current situation is a result of years of increasing political division and strife.
It is obvious however that this uptick in political violence is a result of increased political division. And it is no wonder why. The Left constantly calls those that disagrees with them racist or homophobic, or says the will threaten democracy, such as when Eddie Glaude Jr. said that, after being asked if he is worried for the “ability for Americans to cast their ballots this fall and beyond?” if republicans win, “I’m extremely worried”6. The Right on the other hand, claims that democrats are trying to usurp democracy and claims that they are violent. Whether or not these claims are true, they are incredibly aggressive in nature, and offer no question as to why there is political division.
However, how politically divided is the United States right now? We need to look no further to polling on recent issues. According to the Pew Research Center, 76% of republicans felt that the U.S had done a good job with COVID, opposed to just 29% of democrats (this poll if from October 2020)7. The major statistic however, is that 77% of Americans said the country was more divided after the virus outbreak than before, opposed to just 47% in some of the other countries surveyed8.
So what’s the cause of all this political division? The answer is complicated and nuanced, and truly nobody can know the full reason why. One theory is the presence of partisan media, creating a partisan echo chamber. When the Left tends to only watch CNN, MSNBC, and read the New York Times, all three left leaning sources, while the Right tends to follow Fox News, Daily Wire, and the New York Post, all three right leaning sources, it creates an atmosphere perfect for political division on a massive scale. Social media tends to do the same thing. Think about it, you only follow the creators and influencers that do things you are interested in, and when it comes to news you only follow that of which you agree with. Couple that with this study from Pew: 80% of Americans turn to digital media, things like social media and apps from news distributers (i.e. NYT, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Daily Wire, etc), to get their news as opposed to traditional media9. In reference too people aged 18-29 and 30-49, “For those age groups, digital devices are the dominant choice for news, with 67% of those 30 to 49 and 71% of those 18 to 29 getting news from a digital device often”10. The final statistic of note is that 42% of those aged 18-29 get the majority of news from social media11. This study is one I would encourage you to read into as it shows how people tend to get their news and is quite honestly eye opening, you can find it in the footnotes below and linked at the end of this post.
So how does this all tie into violence? There is a stark correlation between rising rates of political violence and violent protests and rising rates of political division in the U.S. These rates correlate so well that I dare to call it causation. Americans today are so divided on issues ranging from abortion, to healthcare, to COVID, to immigration, and to climate change that it is impossible not to say America is incredibly divided. Couple that with a stark difference in media usage, and how partisan media is these days, it is also impossible to say that people don’t live in echo chambers with agreeing ideas. We are all guilty of this, and should be aware of it.
Another potential cause is a difference in political ideology and general thought on politics. In the past there was a general idea that we are all looking to get to the same place, the best America can be, but disagree on how to get there. Now however, it is not so. The Right disagrees with the Left on gender ideology. The Left lambasts the Right for opinions on immigration. The two sides of the political aisle now have drastically different imaginations on the ideal America, and that only feeds into our division.
So, I leave you with some food for thought. America was founded on basic ideals that those who disagree can disagree in peace. It is becoming less so. What we as Americans need to do is to recognize that we are all human, and that we disagree on the direction the country should go in. We can retain our respect for each other without going into violence, and we can discuss topics without wanting to rip each others heads off. At the end of the day political violence needs to stop. It serves no purpose for us to run people over or destroy their business because we disagree. Riots don’t convince people to join your side, it just scares them and makes them disagree with you even more. What does get people to like you more and even potentially join your side is politeness and respect. Civilly debating topics of controversy instead of pulling out your shotgun. This will achieve two goals: less political violence (I do admit that will always exist), and less political division. At the end of the day we must remember these wise words:
“United we stand, divided we fall”12
Or perhaps the words of Mark in the Bible
“And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand”13
Division is the biggest threat to our democracy. It is not the Democratic Party. Nor is it the Republican Party. It is not China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea. Division is what could undo us all in the end. Unity doesn’t mean we all need to agree, but it does mean that we need to keep civility and respect in our public discourse.
For those who are interested here is the Pew study on where people get news:
More than Eight-In-Ten Americans Get News from Digital Devices
And if you would like to discuss this topic with others, or me, please feel free to leave a comment:
Thank you for reading this today, and I hope you take my message to heart. If you didn’t catch yesterdays article, please read it as it has much of the information about some events I referenced today. You can find it here. If you are interested in reading some of my other works, check out this article about the Overton Window or how Canada and Demark now share a land border. If you would like to see more, please subscribe. It really helps me realize my dream of becoming a writer. Also, please feel free to leave feedback in the comments below, I would love to hear how I can improve my writing. As always, thanks for reading, and have a wonderful rest of your day.
McMillen, Kenny. 2022. “The Fall of Civil Protest.” The World We Live in with Kenny McMillen (blog). July 27, 2022. https://kennymcmillen.substack.com/p/the-fall-of-civil-protest.
“A Year of Racial Justice Protests: Key Trends in Demonstrations Supporting the BLM Movement | ACLED.” 2021. Acleddata.com. May 25, 2021. https://acleddata.com/2021/05/25/a-year-of-racial-justice-protests-key-trends-in-demonstrations-supporting-the-blm-movement/.
“Armed Assembly: Guns, Demonstrations, and Political Violence in America.” 2021. Everytown Research & Policy. August 23, 2021. https://everytownresearch.org/report/armed-assembly-guns-demonstrations-and-political-violence-in-america/.
Madonna. 2017. “Remarks at the 2017 Womens March.” In-Person. Presented at the Womens March in Washington D.C, January 21.
Heim, Joe, Ellie Silverman, T. Rees Shapiro, and Emma Brown. 2017. “One Dead as Car Strikes Crowds amid Protests of White Nationalist Gathering in Charlottesville; Two Police Die in Helicopter Crash.” Washington Post, August 13, 2017, sec. Local. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/fights-in-advance-of-saturday-protest-in-charlottesville/2017/08/12/155fb636-7f13-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html.
Glaude Jr., Eddie. 2022. Jonathan Lemire interviews Eddie Glaude Jr. Interview by Jonathan Lemire. Way Too Early with Jonathan Lemire.
Dimock, Michael, and Richard Wike. 2020. “America Is Exceptional in the Nature of Its Political Divide.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center. November 13, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/13/america-is-exceptional-in-the-nature-of-its-political-divide/.
Ibid.
Shearer, Elisa. 2021. “More than Eight-In-Ten Americans Get News from Digital Devices.” Pew Research Center, January 12, 2021. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/12/more-than-eight-in-ten-americans-get-news-from-digital-devices/.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Jacobs, Joseph, Aesop, and Richard Heighway. 1966. The Fables of Æsop. New York: Schocken Books.
Lane, Dennis T, and Wayne A Grudem. 2011. ESV Student Study Bible : English Standard Version. Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway.
KENNY HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU WRITE SUCH GOOD STUFF LIKE WTF
i can hardly write my grocery list man :'C