OP ED | USRESIST NEWS TEAM | September, 2025
At the center of all affective communities is an element of trust. There needs to be trust that you can say and write and do things without fear of a violent reprisal. Of course criticism and non-violent blowback are fair game. But murder or even messages instilling hatred and violence towards one’s opponent cannot be tolerated. These acts are the destroyers of trust as well as lives.
This is why the growing incidence of political violence in America is so disturbing. It seems that within the past decade we have witnessed incident after incident of political assassinations and attempted murders. For example there was the Congressional baseball practice shooting in June 2017;the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot in October 2020; the Brett Kavanaugh murder plot in June 2022; the Paul Pelosi attack in October 2022; the Trump assassination attempts in 2024; the firebombing of Josh Shapiro’s residence in April,2025, the assassination of Melissa Hortman and her husband in June 2025; the recent assassination of Charlie Kirk; and of course the January 2021 Capitol insurrection.
Who is more responsible—the Right or the Left? Some cite a 2023 Justice Department Report that documents the greatest amount of political violence as being attributable to Republicans. But there are those who claim that Democrats hold the preponderance of responsibility. It is foolish, we feel, to argue about which side is more responsible, and time to recognize that responsibility and accountability for political violence can be attributed to both sides.
It also is useful to note that many acts of political violence are conducted by those not associated with the Right or the Left; individuals who are mentally disturbed, who use acts of political violence as a means of exorcising their own personal demons. However our political leaders seize on these incidents and turn them into ammunition for their political diatribes.
Is it too late to stop the American trend to violence that haunts our political climate ? We at USRESIST NEWS believe it is not too late; that there are steps that those in power, as well as we citizens, can take to stem the tide. These include;
- Leaders setting the tone: The conditions for political violence usually are influenced by the attitudes and words expressed by a country’s leader. So far President Trump has not called out the dangers of political violence, and has instead said often makers accusations of Blue State and Left Wing perpetration. We are hopeful he will change his tone and condemn political violence on all sides.
- Agreement between political parties: It would be helpful for there to be a Compact between the two major political parties that calls for a moratorium on all political violence. Sadly due to the current level of hostility between the two parties it is unlikely that such a Compact will occur in the near future.
- Regulation of political rhetoric: It also is incumbent on members of both parties to moderate and scale down the sometimes violent tone of their rhetoric; reduce the incidence of hate speech; and refrain from posting hateful social media messages that demonize the other side.
- Supportive judicial rulings: Judges could include admonitions against political violence when ruling on cases with opportunities to do so. The Supreme Court especially is in a position to make decisions that establish judicial precedent for rulings related to political violence
- More effective national gun control laws: The growing incidents of political violence in part reflect the trend towards the arming of America. We are the country with the greatest amount of gun ownership and gun violence in the world. Those who use guns to settle political scores reflect the use of guns and gun violence in our community writ large.
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Politics is not religion; a lost election is not the end of the world. Many Americans fail to see things in this light, and that is a major reason for the growing incidence of political violence in our country. The point is, as the writer Yascha Monck says: ”Violence as a means of politics must always remain unacceptable in a democracy, whether it targets outspoken conservative podcasters or progressive politicians or senior judges or corporate executives. For we all stand to lose when the price of sharing one’s ideas, right or wrong, left or right, radical or milquetoast, becomes incalculable.”
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