Political Violence

For what seems like the 1000^th time, I heard just yesterday another politician shaking their fist while declaring flatly that there is simply no room in America for violence. One may gather that this specifically includes a particular type of violence, the kind motivated to either achieve or hinder some political end goal.

While there is nothing funny about violence, declaring there is no room for violence in America is indeed quite laughable. And while the sentiment may be the correct thing to say as a leader, one cannot help but think oh, sweetheart, there is plenty of room.

I won`t indulge the reader in a history lesson, or ask the reader to take a look around–I think America’s long and dense history with violence is fairly self-evident. But considering relatively recent events, we see the term political violence in much more common usage.

The conversation about political violence, as all conversations surrounding politics these days do, typically devolves into a finger-pointing battle between the left and the right, each declaring that it is not their side responsible for all the chaos, after all.

This lowly state of discourse is a hallmark of our current political landscape. One gets the sense that those who lead our very dysfunctional discourse are held hostage by the stakes of the game, which are so high that nobody can budge, nobody can concede a valid point, nobody can indulge the other side in intellectual honesty, self-criticism, or a glance in the mirror.

Of course, the assassination attempt of President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, in 2024, as well as the assassination of Charlie Kirk just this last September, are still fairly fresh in our minds and have become prime exemplars of violence ostensibly stemming from leftist ideology.

Also, earlier this year, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark Hortman, were assassinated. In the same violent spree, John Hoffman and Yvette Hoffman were also shot and seriously injured by a man impersonating a police officer, and with a hit list of 45 politicians and legislators. The victims of the spree shooting that occurred on the morning of June 14^th, 2025, as well as the ones on his kill list, were all Democrats.

For whatever reason, this politically motivated spree has not pierced the public’s curiosity in the same way that the events previously described, concerning conservative commentator Charlie Kirk and President Trump. Perhaps it was the relative obscurity of their names, or that the violence itself was not done in the public sphere.

Whatever the case, the murder of Melissa Hortman and Mark Hortman and the attempted murder of John and Yvette Hoffman, ostensibly stems from right-wing ideology. I say ostensibly, because for those who are keeping count of such atrocities, and using that tally for political blame and talking points, will invariably see these events through the political binary we are all accustomed to.

(NOTE: The events above are quite recent, and are mentioned merely as examples among countless others.)

Violence aimed at Republicans is waged by Democrats.

Violence aimed at Democrats is waged by Republicans.

It will likely matter very little the personal politics of the assassin, or the political aims of any organization, or, if in fact, the individual was just insane.

Violence aimed at Republicans is waged by Democrats.

Violence aimed at Democrats is waged by Republicans.

Also, relatively recent political events such as the summer of George Floyd, where chaos and destruction engulfed the nation in coast-to-coast rioting must be mentioned. Those demonstrations proved to cause innumerable instances of looting, arson, violence, and even death. The responsibility of these events sits, of course, squarely on the shoulders of Democrats.

Then, on January 6^th, 2021, a belligerent army of right-wing Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in another (political) violent event of which I am sure we are all, by now, quite familiar. I can already hear the protestations of those who would deem such events incomparable, from whichever political leaning they currently sway. Clearly, those people on the other side are the ones causing all the ruckus these days!

A great many commentators from the left say research proves that the majority of political violence comes from the right, while conservative commentators, of course, declare the majority comes from the left. Well, show me one statistic that says one thing, and you are likely to find a statistic that says the opposite. In some way, I am quite uninterested in that verdict, because I believe the finger-pointing is useless, at times embarrassing, and most of all, extremely short-sighted.

For one, I don’t truly believe that anyone actually wants the violence to tamper down. These events give one side or the other the ammunition to say everything they have always wanted to. What we are supremely interested in are the events that prove us right and them wrong. In any event, that might be cause for concern for one’s own political leanings can ultimately be downplayed with a wave of a hand and a shoulder shrug.

The declaration that political violence comes mainly from one side, as I mentioned, is extremely short-sighted. The two political parties are, by and large, held hostage by the most extreme examples within their camp. Neither party can wrangle them back into civilized discourse. What one individual from one ideology does today, another individual from the other ideology does tomorrow.

I don’t see how one could put that much trust in the future behaviors of their extreme political colleagues. When watching the footage of the summer of George Floyd, or the footage from January 6^th, I find no clear ideology to indict more than the other. I believe that extreme is extreme, and in some cases, crazy is just crazy. I suppose one takeaway that bears mentioning is that America, nor humanity as a whole, has outgrown the use of violence to achieve political means.

What would be more useful is some introspection regarding our own political affiliations and how we can muster the courage and intellectual honesty to point the finger at ourselves when needed. Simply throwing the guilt onto our adversaries with a glimmer in our eye, and with a small dose of pleasure in doing so, is productive for nothing.

The political reality of today is a violent one. The political reality of tomorrow is surely to be violent as well. In the meantime, we can surely dispense with the notion that America is better than violence, and surely do away with the notion that there isn’t any room for it.

JSV
2025

Wrong Speak is a free-expression platform that allows varying viewpoints. All views expressed in this article are the author’s own.