U.S. political violence is landing on the doorstep now, with deadly effect

The recent fires to the houses of the state legislators of Minnesota, which left two dead, are a “dark stage” in current history of American political violence.

It was the evaluation of analyst Riley McCabe, who helped compile a full report On this subject published at the end of 2024 by Washington Think-Tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The shots saw the Democrat lecturer of the Chamber, Melissa Hortman, and her husband, Mark, killed by gunshots at their Brooklyn Park, in Minnesota, June 13. The senator of the Democratic State John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, survived in a way despite the fact that this would have been shot several times in their residence in a separate district.

Vance Boelter, 57, accused of murder, attempted murder and infringement of hunt, would have sent an SMS to his family “Dad went to war last night”, according to a federal criminal document. Several Democrats, even from outside the state, said the police told them that their name was found in the suspect’s private writings.

Although he was early in the investigation, the Minnesota suspect could adapt to a CSI phenomenon has been following more and more over the past decade, McCabe has told CBC News, “a partisan attack targeting members of the opposite political party.”

Moreover, unlike the Very publicized shot from the republican Steve Scalise Almost exactly eight years on the day of Hortman-Hoffman shots, there was no uniform calls through the aisle for unityor for Rachet in degrading language.

More personal threats

While a major majority of attacks between 1991 and 2004 were inspired by General Animus to the federal government, reports CSI, inspiration has often become more individualized or specific in recent years.

Between 2016 and 2023, the reflection group documented 21 “terrorist attacks against civil servants motivated by partisan political beliefs”, against only two in the previous two decades. Fortunately, the vast majority did not lead to death.

“In recent years, elected officials have received a much higher number of threats,” said Lilliana Mason, who co-wrote the 2022 book, Radical American supporter: cartography violent hostility, its causes and the consequences for democracy.

“The Capitol police report a greater number of threats to the people in the congress, and the judges are more threatened if they disagree with [President Donald] Asset.”

And democrats are not alone in being targets of violence. The day Mason spoke to CBC, it was announced that a man of Georgia was be charged with violent vocal messaging threats Directed against republican senators Ted Cruz and Deb Fischer.

Residential attacks

Although the United States is aberrant among the nations of the G7 in terms of armed violence, it is important to underline the uniqueness of last week’s attacks, even in American history.

Tommy Burks of Tennessee was, in 1998, the last state legislator specifically targeted in a political and killed attack. While the South Carolina legislator, Clementa Pinckney, was killed during a mass shooting in 2015 in a church, nothing indicates that the white supremacist shooter was motivated by his political function.

Federal politicians are evolving and Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, forced to withdraw from the US Congress after a 2012 shooting, were attacked in public spaces. But Minnesota shots are part of a recent group of disturbing violence in residences.

This year, a man was accused of criminal fire and other offenses After a fire at the residence of the Governor of PennsylvaniaWhile a former republican candidate was convicted of an assortment of accusations After hiring men who shot the political houses of New Mexico a few years ago.

In the meantime, A 29 -year -old child will be sentenced Later this year after having traveled in the supreme street of the supreme judge Brett Kavanaugh in Maryland in 2022. The armed Californian did not commit violence, After spotting two federal marshals Near the Kavanaugh residence.

Judges in highly publicized cases have been doxxed via unlined pizza deliveriesWhile the police responded several times to a residence belonging to the republican member of the Chamber Marjorie Taylor Greene to make calls, Once, inadvertently causing the death of another person.

Rhetoric

Public personalities of the State or premises cannot afford in a realistic way the level of security provided to a judge of the Supreme Court, and even at the federal level, there are limits to what can be done, Congress members at DC said this week. Former American senator and commercial director Mitt Romney said one day to a journalist that he had spent $ 5,000 a day per day in security after the Capitol 2021 riot.

This makes the rhetoric of leaders very important, explains Mason, who is also a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. Since 2017, Mason and Nathan Kalmoe, associate professor of political communication at the Louisiana State University, have conducted more than a dozen investigations of 1,000 and 3,000 Americans To probe opinions on political violence, in partnership with Yougov.

While Mason and Kalmoe stressed, there is little evidence that all the very small slices of the population would make a violent attack of a politicized nature, the surveys suggest an increasing opening to the idea of ​​political violence.

Mason and Kalmoe report that, in their surveys, support for a statement that the opposing party is “downright evil” increased from 40 to 59% between 2017 and 2021. At the beginning of November 2020, 39% of Democrats and 48% of Republicans agreed that political violence could be justified if the opposing party was first, but in June 2024.

Contrast, in 1978-1979 surveys carried out by two political scientists and Later summarized in a bookOnly six percent said that violence was sometimes necessary to achieve a political goal.

The soothing words of good people could have a positive impact, even on the most passionate supporters, according to the researchers.

“We have had an experience where we have just read people at a quote from Joe Biden or Donald Trump who disowned political violence, and even this short little thing, the people who read who approved less violence than people who have not read anything,” Mason told CBC.

‘Ugly policy’

The universal conviction and the calls to the commission seen after the scalizing shot in 2017, unfortunately, no longer seem to occur, although this week’s response from Maga undoubtedly did not reach the derision of 2022 when Donald Trump laughed at Paul Pelosi’s attack in his house in San Francisco. The Canadian striker sought to face Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who was in DC, but Attacked her husband viciously.

Only a few hours after the minnesota man hunt was made public, the senator from Utah Mike Lee and Elon Musk spread without proof of the theory that the suspect came from the “hard left” or “Marxist”.

“A large part of what we see in the aftermath of these attacks is the attempt on both sides to push the author in the [other party’s] Camp, which, I think, is a ugly policy, frankly, “said McCabe, associate member of the war program, illegal threats and terrorism to the CSI.

Perceive was taken aside By Minnesota, senator Tina Smith, who called several unpleasant positions. Lee, with more than 600,000 x subscribers, finally removed the messages, but they were live for a few days.

Jon Stewart The Daily Show was less circumspect in his language That Smith, taking Lee on the task for “Edgelord Shitposting” at a time of the tragedy.

“Why should I call it?”

While Trump called on the attacks last weekend “horrible” in an article on social networks, he does not seem to have contacted state officials to underline support or express condolences.

“I think the Governor of Minnesota is so complicated. I don’t call him. Why should I call him?” He said on Tuesday.

Trump continued his habit of using dehumanizing language on Thursday – which, in the past, included words such as vermin, traitor and betrayal – referring to the former managers of the Biden White House as “foam”.

Trump’s combative approach remains unchanged even after the assassination attempt of his own life last year, with an arrest according to weeks later of an armed man with known anti-top views. In addition, Trump’s first mandate saw a supporter of his pipe bombs sent – inoperable, fortunately – to the residences of several liberal or democratic personalities in 2018.

Joseph Thompson, American lawyer for the minnesota district, said on Monday that he hoped that murders could at least be “awakening everyone that people could disagree with you without being bad”, but part of this message is not received where it could be the most important.