The US faces rising support for political force from both sides of the spectrum‚ based on long-term studies of citizens attitudes. Support for using violence to achieve goals has become more common - not just in random cases but shown by careful research of US population samples
Data from Robert Papes research at University of Chicago shows political violence gets backing from stable groups on right and left sides. Many Americans think politics is broken and dont trust elections to fix issues; they see top candidates as threats to democracy (which makes violence seem more ok to some)
The last year had some scary events: in mid-2024 someone tried to shoot Donald Trump at a rally (killing one person)‚ and another person planned to attack him in Florida. Other targets included:
- Nancy Pelosis home invasion where her husband got hurt
- A plot against Barack Obamas DC house
- An attempt to harm Brett Kavanaugh
- Plans against several Congress members
Mass-shootings targeting specific groups happened too - like attacks on Jewish‚ Hispanic and Black communities in the last 5-6 years. Protests turned rough sometimes: the summer-2020 demonstrations saw some violence; then the Jan-6 Capitol riot had about 2‚000 people storm the building
FBI data shows domestic-terror cases went up 357% between 2013-2021. Both far-right (49%) and far-left (40%) groups did attacks in 2021. Justice Department numbers on Congress threats jumped five times since 2017 - hitting both parties equally
The good news: 75% of Americans still hate political violence. Leaders‚ community heads and media need to support this big majority. They should move peoples anger into voting - not fighting. As Pape points out: US elections happen every two years; thats where the real fight belongs