A terrifying chart for 2024 -- and beyond
Justifying political violence.
On January 6, 2021, I saw something I NEVER even considered I would see in all the years I spent covering Capitol Hill: An armed insurrection in which the police were overrun and rioters stormed through the halls of Congress.
My natural reaction to it all was shock and disgust. And I assumed that everyone else generally felt that way too. This was the opposite of democracy. This was a violent attempt to overthrow a free and fair election.
Turns out my assumption was wrong.
A new poll from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) shines a very bright light on the fact that there are plenty of Americans — including a near majority of those who think the 2020 election was stolen — who believe that violence in support of achieving political goals is justified and necessary.
Here’s the chart that tells that story:
Consider the topline finding for just a second. One in four Americans believe that “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
ONE IN FOUR.
As PRRI notes: “[We have] asked this question in eight separate surveys since March 2021. This is the first time support for political violence has peaked above 20%.”
The data buried deeper in the poll doesn’t get any better — as it suggests that there is a considerable chunk of voters affiliated with Donald Trump and his election lies that see violence as a real solution to the problems facing the country today.
Four in ten Republicans (41%) who have a favorable view of Trump believe violence may be a necessary reaction to the current climate in America. Almost half (46%) of Americans who say the 2020 election was stolen from Trump express support for violence to save the country.
And it’s not just people telling a pollster they believe that violence may be a required response to deal with the issue in America either.
Actual real-life political violence has surged in the last few years.
The Capitol Police last year reported that they investigated more than double the number of threats against members of Congress as they did four years earlier. Driven by former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him, threats against election workers have exploded, with one in six reporting threats against them and many seasoned election administrators leaving the job or considering it.
And there’s this from Reuters:
Incidents of political violence began rising in 2016, around the time of Trump’s first run for the presidency, said Gary LaFree, a University of Maryland criminologist who has tracked such violence in a terrorism database between 1970 and 2020.
Reuters also tracked incidents of political violence — finding 213 such incidents since the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Worth noting from Reuters: “Of the 14 fatal political attacks since the Capitol riot in which the perpetrator or suspect had a clear partisan leaning, 13 were right-wing assailants. One was on the left.”
That is a very, very worrisome trend. Especially when you consider that Trump is:
a) trying to rewrite the events of January 6, insisting that many people were wrongly arrested and imprisoned
b) already laying the groundwork to claim that the 2024 election will be rigged.
And, at an event over the weekend in New Hampshire, Trump, while talking about President Joe Biden, threw several punches in the air while saying: “I dream of that. You know what I’d do with him? I’d hit him right in that fake nose. He’d have plastic lying all over the floor.”
Trump, his allies will note, was “joking.” But, he has condoned — and encouraged— violence in a political setting before.
In July 2017, speaking to a law enforcement group, Trump told police officers “please don’t be too nice” when dealing with protesters in the crowd.
In 2018, Trump praised Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte; “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type,” said the president. (Gianforte had assaulted a reporter during his campaign.)
In his speech on January 6, Trump told the crowd “you'll never take back our country with weakness.”
If all of this fills you with dread, well, I think that’s the right reaction. Trump seems entirely unaware — or unconcerned — with what impact his words and actions have on those who doggedly support him.
And those who support him are increasingly willing to see violence as an answer to the frustrations they have with the country and its leaders.
It’s a toxic brew. And with an election year just around the corner, I have real fears about what November 2024 will look like.
Trump is very aware of the power of his words and unconcerned about the results. Stop thinking anything about him that gives him a "pass" on anything. He may be, in John Kelly's words, "the dumbest sonofabitch I ever met" but do not underestimate his low cunning.
I respectfully disagree--I think that Trump is ENTIRELY aware of the impact of his words. Violence is exactly what he wants, as it will gratify his pathetic ego ("Look, these people are fighting for ME").