Isaac Asimov, an entertaining writer, wrote, “Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.” He was right. Where politics, patience, and respect end, violence begins. As incompetence, impatience, and self-righteous disrespect proliferate, political violence grows. We need to stop it now.
On the first anniversary – July 13 – of the first assassination attempt on President Trump, thinking about the pitch toward violence is warranted. The second was September 15. We should thank God both failed, then look closer at trends.
One of the most disturbing trends in modern politics is accelerating political violence, which started after the 2016 election, recklessly fanned by political figures, especially Democrats.
While Democrats point to unruly acts of a few on January 6, 2021, Democrat-inspired acts of political violence dwarf anything on the other side. That said, political violence is anti-American.
Recent examples include riots in 2020 that destroyed 200 cities, pre- and post-Dobbs (overturning Roe v. Wade) violence, including pitches by Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) and Senator Schumer (D-NY). They respectively pushed “venting anger” and “paying back” Supreme Court Justices, nearly costing one his life. They intended to leverage violence to chill speech – and acceptance of the decision.
Likewise, in June 2017, Congressional Republicans playing baseball were nearly massacred by a leftist, four shot, with critical injuries. Thousands of local threats on political leaders happen annually.
Putting aside national incidents, fatal and near-fatal, pause to absorb the numbers. Two months before the first attempt on Trump, one study reported “a concentration of threats” against public figures that “began to spike in 2017, corresponding with a general increase in polarization following the 2016 presidential election.” See, Rising Threats to Public Officials: A Review of 10 Years of Federal Data – Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.
President Trump won that election, shattering Democrat expectations. This appears to have been an inflection point, opening an era of political violence. Federal charges for violent political acts nearly doubled from 2013-16 to 2017-22, as local threats proliferated.
Threats on those in or running for office exploded. Democrat leaders pushed “blood to grab the attention of the press and public,” more recently, cries to abandon non-violent means. See, Bill O’Brien: Dangerous words, deadly consequences: Why Democrats must reject violent rhetoric | Op-eds | unionleader.com
Make no mistake: This is classic Marxism, “justice comes through the barrel of a gun,” and so profoundly anti-American, anti-Constitutional, would be the end of representative democracy.
Numbers are eye-popping. In 2024, the FBI made 180 arrests for threatening a public official. Others report 600 threats against public officials last year, a 14 percent jump from 2023. Then, last year, Capitol Police investigated 9,400 threats against members of Congress. See, Threats against public officials persist after Trump assassination attempt.
This is new. As are explicit threats on local political officials, school boards, to governors, and anti-Semitic attacks across the country. Time reports anti-Semitic attacks “skyrocketed by 361 percent.” That specter is especially dark, but aligns with societies deteriorating into violence.
Taken together, these trends – and others showing threats to mayors, governors, and opinion leaders – are bad. They suggest a growing sickness in the body politic – that needs fixing.
So, how do we fix shifting cargo, a listing of the ship, get those pushing violence to stop, and those able to persuade toward common ground to do so? How do we re-stabilize society?
The result of rising violence is fear and withdrawal, good people backing away from public engagement. But survival of a republic depends on civic engagement, risk-taking taking and respect.
America – and Maine itself, where I have seen near violence in public settings – is at a critical decision point. We either remember our past, retrain each other in civic dialogue, or lose it all.
Perhaps the wisest words come from our own past. Founders warned about factional violence, as did Abraham Lincoln – who fell to political violence at the end of a horribly violent civil war.
Modern thinkers, those who warn us to be our best selves, are also on that wave. Wrote Azimov: Beware the “cult of ignorance…nurtured by the false notion that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge,’” and beware where that leads.
Strong differences of opinion, what that French writer Alex de Tocqueville called “the uncomfortable face-to-face,” are what made America great. Done right, sorting out our differences until we find the truth requires competence, patience, and respect. We need to restore those soon.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).
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