I got tired of waiting for the American free press to provide an analysis of political violence in the country. It is a huge omission in day-to-day discussions of the coarsening of American politics. I was prompted to think about it as I was out driving around today listening to stories of election officials being threatened and manipulated as the federal election approaches, some to the point that they will no longer do the work that they have been doing for years. In a long-standing democracy why is this not front-page news? Where is the analysis of the problem? Who has an interest in suppressing the vote and why are they continuing to do this? At the same time, I heard about a poll today saying that most Americans will not trust the election results – even though they are the most secure at any time in history and there is no evidence of suspicious activity.
Elections are not the only places where political violence
is acted out in the US. Abortion clinics
– even during the days of Roe were places where women were harassed and doctors were shot and killed. Schools, teachers, librarians, and school
board members are targets for similar politics with threats, work exhaustion,
and ultimately moral injury when they are shouted down and threatened for doing
the work that they are trained and licensed to do. Public health officials are attacked for
providing the best possible public health advice just because some politicians
don’t like it or need to cover their own incompetence. Since when is it acceptable for politicians
to be inciting this level of violence against competent citizens with high
levels of competence – who are just doing their jobs?
Before proceeding I will define what I mean about
violence. The same people who incite it
frequently minimize it after the fact using the rhetorical sleight of hand: “It
is free speech and I can say whatever I want to say.” Without invoking the famous Supreme Court
quote – let me provide a little detail about definitions. First, violence or aggression does not
require physical act. Aggression has
components that occur on a strictly verbal level and aggression toward property
or inanimate objects as well as self (2).
If you have ever witnessed any of those forms of aggression, you know
why it is important. It has a direct
impact on you that can be long-lasting. Threats alone can significantly affect
your sense of physical and mental well-being. Many states have terroristic
threat statutes that can result in legal action before any physical contact
occurs (see Minnesota statute below). Threats alone are a signal that physical aggression may occur and in
many states it can result in visits from the police, orders for protection, and
in the case of mental illness – involuntary holds and civil commitment.
Interestingly, the political violence I described typically results in the
victims trying to protect themselves.
What does interpersonal violence look like? On a verbal basis it can be angry shouting
like we have seen many times in televised school board meetings. That can include name calling, personal
insults, and profanities. As the verbal
aggression increases the insults gets worse to the point of threatening physical
violence. That is evident in routinely televised road and customer rage
incidents. Whether it culminates in
physical violence or not is not the point. For years the police tended to ignore
verbal aggression and operated on the basis that the only type of aggression
that counts is physical aggression. Over
the past 20 years there has been a more enlightened approach since verbal
aggression is harmful and predicts physical aggression. That has been associated with domestic violence and terroristic
threat statutes. In the main areas I
have discussed the violence has increased to the point that the Department of
Justice is aware of it and successfully prosecutes cases (3,4,5).
From a political standpoint, this violence and aggression is
often rationalized as “free speech” and it is not. Violence is often rationalized as the absence of physical contact. That really minimizes the impact of significant unprovoked threats that can include threats to bodily integrity. The current elimination of gun laws makes some
of these situations even more dangerous.
To cite one example, there was an armed protest in front of a director
of public health’s home and in this case the police did nothing. How would anyone feel about have a group
armed with assault rifles outside of your home saying there will be no
violence “for now” because you are doing your legal job.
What I find missing from most of these discussions is the
overall cause. I do not think there is
any doubt that it originates with one party or more specifically movement and
their aggressive rhetoric essentially because they have no useful policy. That
is as obvious as the continued denials of the 2020 Presidential election
results and the high percentages of people polled within that party (88%) that have
doubts about the current election. We
have seen the effects of their propaganda, repeated lies, and political violence
on these systems and it is completely unnecessary. It also causes significant degradation of these systems when long time competent professionals leave because of the threats and harassment.
Political violence in the US is quite literally the elephant
in the room. And it is time to start
talking about it that way. Where is the press with this analysis?
1: Meghna Chakrabarti. On Point.
"Elections officials endure protests, death threats. Here are their
stories." https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510053/on-point
This is the radio program I heard this afternoon.
2: Yudofsky SC,
Silver JM, Jackson W, Endicott J, Williams D. The Overt Aggression Scale for
the objective rating of verbal and physical aggression. Am J Psychiatry. 1986
Jan;143(1):35-9
3: USDOJ Election
Threats Task Force: https://www.justice.gov/voting/election-threats
4: USDOJ. Justice Department Addresses Violent Threats
Against School Officials and Teachers
5: Fraser MR.
Harassment of Health Officials: A Significant Threat to the Public's Health. Am
J Public Health. 2022 May;112(5):728-730. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2022.306797
