The Surging News reporter Gong Siliang comprehensive report
On July 21, a man attacked New York State Congressman and Republican gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin with sharp objects during the campaign. A week ago, on July 13, a man was arrested outside the residence of Pramila Jayapal, the president of the Parliamentary Progressive Caucus, allegedly shouting "Get back to India" and other racist swear words and threatening to kill Jayappal. And in June, authorities filed federal charges against a man. The man reportedly traveled from California to Maryland with the intent to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Lee Zeldin
House sergeant at arms announced in late July that members of the U.S. House of Representatives would receive up to $10,000 in funding to upgrade security facilities in their homes to address the growing threat to lawmakers, the Guardian reported. This shows once again that American politics has entered a new phase full of danger and violence. [1] Experts warn that U.S. support for political violence appears to be on the rise, a threat that endangers the health of American democracy. But they also said the United States still has time to suppress dangerously violent words and actions if political leaders, especially Republican leaders, can stand up and condemn these worrisome actions.
The spate of violence seems to indicate that American public service has become an increasingly dangerous cause. And according to recent polls, more and more Americans are open to political violence; Although they disagreed on the types of political violence that were acceptable, respondents' acceptance of political violence increased overall. In a large survey released this month by researchers at the University of California, Davis, one in five U.S. adults said political violence was justified, at least in some cases. 3% of respondents believe that political violence is usually or always justified. The UC Davis team noted that 7.1 percent of people in the survey said they were willing to kill for important political goals. [2] In response, some political violence research experts who were not involved in the study warn that attitudes toward violence do not always translate into action; However, such an extreme attitude has still attracted the attention of relevant researchers.
Liliana Mason, a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, noted that U.S. support for political violence has indeed risen since an investigation into such issues in 2017. Mason said, "(Although) I think there are actually very few people who support violence, but the problem is that the approval rating has increased from 7% to 20%, which means that in some social spaces, the norms around anti-violence are being eroded." "In 2021, U.S. Capitol police reported a total of 9,625 threats and statements of action against members of Congress, up from 3,939 in 2017.
A temporary fence set up near the U.S. Congress
Extreme incidents are frequent and threats escalate
Among the many public officials threatened with violence, members of the House Special Committee investigating the January 6 riots, as well as those involved in the election, were the main targets. According to a 2022 poll conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice, one in six election officials has been threatened for work reasons, and 77 percent believe threats against them have increased in recent years. Jennifer McCoy, a professor of political science at Georgia State University who specializes in polarized democracy, noted that such threats and intimidation against election management officials and pollsters have never occurred before, which is very worrying.
On June 9, 2022, local time, Washington, D.C., the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee opened a series of public hearings on the capitol Hill riot investigation. From the 9th to the 23rd, the committee will hold six consecutive hearings.
After the January 6 riots on Capitol Hill, the threat to public officials grew markedly. Jennifer Dresden, a policy advocate for pro-democracy groups, said that while experts believe that the current political violence has not yet reached the point of fundamentally undermining the country's democracy, the combination of political violence and disinformation and campaign corruption still creates uncertainty about the upcoming elections and the personal safety of public officials.
In recent years, some extremists have repeatedly made physical threats to elected officials and attacked government institutions, which show the continued alienation and distrust of american democratic society and government institutions by some groups. This group has resolved to achieve political goals at all costs, even by using violent means. It is worth noting that in the past 5 years, the United States has ushered in extreme political polarization, rising public doubts about the government and democracy, gun violence, gun sales continue to rise, and the rampant spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, a series of factors that have affected each other, and some American politicians led by Trump have incited anxiety and anger in order to achieve their political goals. In the present, any sensitive social issue or incident can trigger dangerous incidents of violence.
For the far-right and some right-wing groups, the use of violence for political ends is not unacceptable. According to The New York Times, nearly 12 percent of respondents said the use of violence was at least "sometimes justified" if Trump could be returned to the presidency. When asked whether having a strong leader is more important to the United States than maintaining democracy, more than 40 percent of respondents agreed. On the other hand, more than 40 percent of respondents agreed to some degree that "in the United States, native-born whites are being replaced by immigrants," a belief in the racist doctrine known as the Great Replacement Theory. In addition, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warns that a range of divisive topics, from abortion to border management, could be a motivation for groups willing to use violence to express their grievances. [3]
On the other hand, many critics point out that the surge in political violence is also closely linked to the incitement of leaders. Trump has said his supporters staged a deadly uprising on Jan. 6, 2021, calling them "very special" and expressing affection for them. [4] Although Trump was impeached by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for his role in the January 6 riots, he was later acquitted in the Senate. In fact, the United States has historically faced political violence. The Ku Klux Klan flourished in the 1920s; Following Brown v. Board of Education, an uprising of "mass resistance" broke out in the South. In both cases, elected politicians or political candidates contributed to the normalization of violence. [5]
Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who studies governance, development and conflict in the United States, said that because Republican leaders have adopted a certain vague attitude toward political violence, extremists have constantly tested the bottom line of "political violence.". Kleinfeld argues: "Right-wing violence and intimidation began after the 2016 election cycle. As a result, during Trump's impeachment in 2016, 2018, and in different events before January 6, ordinary people used more and more reasons to use violence. There is a sense that violence is becoming increasingly politicized. ”[6]
In the conflicts of the past few years, a large number of participants have identified themselves as militias and carried out acts of violence on the grounds of supporting extremist ideas. Threats of violence undermine the right of people to exercise their freedom of expression and assembly, while threats against public officials have terrified them. Earlier, Adam Kinzinger, a member of the House Special Committee investigating the Jan. 6 riots and a Republican who had voted to impeach Trump, shared a threatening letter sent to his wife. The sender vowed to execute Kinsinger, his wife and their newborn son, who said he would not seek re-election in 2022.
Dehumanizing propaganda and highly politicized violence
Under the propaganda of far-right conspiracy theories, many Trump supporters have reduced their moral burden by treating the objects of their use of violence as morally corrupt and even inhuman. Kleinfeld noted that experts who have studied other countries caught up in greater political violence have found that society must go through a "dehumanization phase" before violence can be unleashed. Currently in the United States, criticism of liberals includes overt misogyny, racist monikers for certain groups, and calling Democrats "child seducers" and viewing them as pedophiles. [7] The conspiracy theory pandemic was also confirmed in a study at the University of California, Davis: About a quarter (23%) of Americans believe the country is "led by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who engage in child sex trafficking around the world." [8]
On February 14, 2022, local time, in Manhattan, New York, the United States, the local Asians broke out in a large anti-hate Asian-American march.
In addition to the outward-looking perception, threats and harassment of legislators and political candidates targeting government agencies of women and ethnic minorities are more indicative of the overlap of political violence and extremist ideas. According to The Guardian: A study of online messages sent to 2020 congressional candidates found that women, especially women of color, are more likely to be targeted for abuse. Of all the candidates reviewed, Ilhan Omar, a progressive congresswoman of Somali-American descent, received the highest percentage of abusive messages on Twitter. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive congresswoman of Puerto Rican-American descent, received a highly insulting insult on Facebook. These women of color serving in Congress have spoken openly about the threats they face that have become part of their lives on Capitol Hill. Jahana Hayes, a black congresswoman, said last year: "I remember that at the beginning of the 116th Congress (2019), we focused on and highlighted the diversity of the upcoming Congress. But then, at every caucus meeting, our members receive death threats every day. ”
In addition, political violence perpetrated in the United States is unevenly distributed within the ideological spectrum. According to a study conducted by the Anti-Defamation League, right-wing extremists account for about 75 percent of the 450 political murders that have occurred in the United States over the past decade. By comparison, religious and left-wing extremists commit 20 percent and 4 percent murders, respectively.
After studying the attitudes of different groups across the country toward political violence, Barbara Walter, a professor of political science at the University of California, San Diego, noted: "Violence often stems from injustice, inequality and insecurity. Among those who expressed a willingness to use violence to achieve political goals, there was also a lack of belief that "Biden stole Trump's election victory in 2020"; "(It is necessary for people) to maintain an American way of life based on Western European traditions"; and groups that agree that "in the next few years, there will be a civil war in the United States." Their views accurately reflect "injustice, inequality and insecurity".
The far right, on the other hand, captures these negative feelings and encourages followers to use extreme behavior to vent their grievances. In response, Kleinfeld said that the percentage of Americans who support violence is rising; In extreme cases, specific groups may resolve political differences through violent means. Kleinfeld pointed out: "If the anti-democrats in the United States win, then the current escalation of violence will continue." But if they show decline, then they build up a lot of hatred, including great distrust of the system, and then the violence loses their control and even triggers a rebellion. ”
Although including Walter and Kleinfeld proposed a series of measures to reduce political violence: including improving the credibility of elections and reforming the electoral process; Reform policing, establish fairness and accountability, and improve the quality and fairness of public services; "Prevention" of recruitment by extremist ideological groups; Respond more effectively to the grievances of groups considering extremism, etc. At the same time, however, the researchers stress that in the absence of political leaders to condemn violence, political violence will be further normalized and even intensified.
Citations:
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/31/us-political-violence-threats-against-lawmakers
[2] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/19/one-in-five-us-adults-condone-political-violence-survey
[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/20/us/politics/political-violence-survey-united-states.html
[4] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jul/31/us-political-violence-threats-against-lawmakers
[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/
[6] https://thehill.com/regulation/3561521-growing-support-for-political-violence-raises-alarms/
[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/11/gop-political-violence-militias-jan-6-democratic-breakdown/
[8] https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3573053-political-violence-and-the-future-of-democracy-take-a-look-in-the-mirror-america/
Editor-in-Charge: Han Shaohua
Proofreader: Yan Zhang