Violence is getting real

Lee Drutman was quoted in Politico discussing the rise of political violence in the United States.

It’s probably time to stop pretending violence is an aberration in our political square, or that Trump is a one-off.

“We’re just so desensitized to this violence,” said Lee Drutman, a senior fellow at New America whose warnings about political violence before the 2020 election turned out to be prescient. “It’s really an incredibly scary time.”

How scary is up for debate. During Trump’s presidency, and especially after Jan. 6, some historians compared the current state of unrest to the pre-Civil War era. And even if that is going too far, the trend line isn’t good. The proportion of Americans who say political violence is acceptable in at least some situations varies widely by poll. But even modest estimates — of about 1 in 10 — add up to millions of people. And the feeling appears to be on the rise, especially on the right.

“The point to make,” Barbara Walter, the author of “How Civil Wars Start,” told Nightly, is that “supporters of each party in the U.S. now see the other side as an existential threat to their vision of the future of America.”