The Thinking ‘Kat: The Violence of the Political Spectrum
In a prior post, I examined whether or not there was any truth to Republican claims that Democrats are more inclined to engage in violence, following the murder of Charlie Kirk.
Based upon literally no more than five minutes on Google, it seems that broadly-speaking, Republican states are more violent, but both Tom of Citizen Tom, and someone by the name of Liz (who has left comments on Tom’s posts, and subsequently one of mine) have disputed this, albeit not via the provision of actual evidence.
In light of these comments, I thought I would take a deeper dive into both current and historical trends of violence in the USA. Is there any truth to the firebrand statements from Republicans that Democrats are inciting violence?
Utilising the above link, from a Reuters post, we can learn that back in the 1970s there were more instances of political violence perpetuated from the left. These were usually directed at property as opposed to people. More recent history reveals that most deadly violence is perpetuated by the right. To serve up a direct quote:
Incidents of political violence began rising in 2016, around the time of Trump’s first run for the presidency, said Gary LaFree, a University of Maryland criminologist who has tracked such violence in a terrorism database between 1970 and 2020.
Political violence surged for nearly a decade starting in the late-1960s – 1970 alone saw more than 450 cases, LaFree said. But it had become relatively rare by 1980. There were a few spikes in the 1990s, including the 1995 Oklahoma City federal building bombing that killed 168 people, in what the Federal Bureau of Investigation describes as the nation’s worst act of homegrown terrorism. Political violence started to climb again in 2016, LaFree added, and “it doesn’t seem like we’ve hit the top of the wave yet.”
This wave differs in both its aims and its means.
In the early 1970s, American political violence was perpetrated more often by radicals on the left and focused largely on destroying property, such as government buildings, said Rachel Kleinfeld, who studies political conflict and extremism at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank. “There were many, many bombings, but usually at night, or after called-in warnings,” she said. “The goal was not to kill people; it was to affect decisions” by policymakers.
In contrast, much of today’s political violence is aimed at people – and most of the deadly outbursts tracked by Reuters have come from the right. Of the 14 fatal political attacks since the Capitol riot in which the perpetrator or suspect had a clear partisan leaning, 13 were right-wing assailants. One was on the left.
From this link, further research provides further evidence of the right being responsible for more recent, and more violent, acts of crime:
Political violence has a long history in the United States. Since the late 1960s, it was carried out byintensely ideological groups that pulled adherents out of the mainstream into clandestine cells, such as the anti-imperialist Weather Underground Organization or the anti-abortion Operation Rescue. In the late 1960s and 1970s, these violent fringes were mostly on the far left. They committed extensive violence, largely against property (with notable exceptions), in the name of social, environmental, and animal-rights causes. Starting in the late 1970s, political violence shifted rightward with the rise of white supremacist, anti-abortion, and militia groups. The number of violent events declined, but targets shifted from property to people—minorities, abortion providers, and federal agents.
What is occurring today does not resemble this recent past. Although incidents from the left are on the rise, political violence still comes overwhelmingly from the right, whether one looks at the Global Terrorism Database, FBI statistics, or other government or independent counts.3 Yet people committing far-right violence—particularly planned violence rather than spontaneous hate crimes—are older and more established than typical terrorists and violent criminals. They often hold jobs, are married, and have children. Those who attend church or belong to community groups are more likely to hold violent, conspiratorial beliefs.4 These are not isolated “lone wolves”; they are part of a broad community that echoes their ideas.
To quote from yet another resource:
Right-wing extremist violence has been more frequent and more lethal than left-wing violence. The number of extremist groups is substantial and skewed toward the right, although a count of organizations does not necessarily reflect incidents of violence.
High-profile political violence often brings heightened rhetoric and pressure for sweeping responses. Yet the empirical record shows that political violence remains concentrated within specific movements and networks rather than spread evenly across the ideological spectrum. Distinguishing between rhetoric and evidence is essential for democracy.
Trump and members of his administration are threatening to target whole organizations and movements and the people who work in them with aggressive legal measures – to jail them or scrutinize their favorable tax status. But research shows that the majority of political violence comes from people following right-wing ideologies.
So, the pattern is clear. All the available information points to one conclusion: recent political violence in the USA is perpetuated by the right. Those who lean to the right, and vote for right-wing, conservative Republicans, should be asking what it is about Republican rhetoric that has inspired this trend. However, my sad experience is that they will attempt to hand-wave away the evidence, in favour of the dogma they repeat from the likes of Trump. It seems internal critical thinking is not something the right is particularly into.
It isn’t merely political violence either.
A Broad Trend
Not only have Republican states been worse for murder, assault and rape rates in recent times, there is an historical trend for the red states to be more violent. States which voted for Trump over Biden in the 2020 election experienced higher murder rates, and it seems that this forms part of a 20-year pattern. To quote:
- The red state murder rate was 33% higher than the blue state murder rate in both 2021 and 2022.
- 2022 was the 23rd consecutive year that murder plagued Trump-voting states at far higher levels than Biden-voting states.
- 8 out of the 10 states with the highest murder rates in 2022 voted for Donald Trump in both 2016 and 2020.
- From 2000 to 2022, the average red state murder rate was 24% higher than the average blue state murder rate.
- Red states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama are America’s murder capitals and have had the highest three murder rates for 15 of the last 23 years.
- The excuse that sky high red state murder rates are because of their blue cities is without merit. Even after removing the county with the largest city from red states, and not from blue states, red state murder rates were still 20% higher in 2021 and 16% higher in 2022.
So, for all the arguments coming from Republican figures that lefty violence is a scourge, it seems it is in fact the right that needs to get its own house in order. Whether or not those of a conservative-leaning are prepared for some meaningful introspection on what the facts are remains to be seen.
