From death threats against previously anonymous bureaucrats and public-health officials to a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor and the 6 January 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, acts of political violence in the United States have skyrocketed in the last five years.

But we can’t miss the bigger picture: when fear becomes the default setting of politics, everyone loses. When people expect threats as part of public life, they withdraw from school board meetings, from city councils, from running for office. That withdrawal is the point. Violence is not just killing people; it is shrinking the public square until... See more

These are dark times for the United States of America. Political violence has been normalized. There are more guns than people in this country. And the most consequential and divisive election of our lifetime is less than four months away.

Whoever the shooter was, whatever their motive may have been, once again, American democracy is the loser.

ne side has built an entire political brand around permission for violence. When leaders call immigrants “invaders” and political opponents “vermin,” they aren’t just talking but issuing an open contract for someone, somewhere, to act.