Donald Trump and maga Republican are flat out wrong to point fingers at the causes of deadly political violence

Echo opinion published in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper by Anita Chabria.  How Much More Political Violence are Americans Going to Tolerate❓

We are going to hear politicians, commentators, bloggers and others remind us that political violence is never OK. There is no room in a healthy democracy, or a moral society, for killings based on vengeance or beliefs — political, religious, whatever.

I would add President Abraham Lincoln (b. 1809- d. 1865) 

But herein is the sad reality. Our democracy is not healthy and violence is a symptom of that. Not the make-believe, cities-overrun violence that has led to the military in our streets, but real, targeted political violence that has crept into society with increasing frequency.

Our decline did not begin with the horrific slaying on September 10th, of Charlie Kirk, a 31-year-old father, and conservative media superstar, and it will not end with it. We are in a moment of struggle, with two competing views for where our country should go and what it should be. Only one can win, and both sides believe it is a battle worth fighting.

The painful and hard specter of more violence to come has less to do with far-right or far-left than extreme fringes in either political direction. Occasionally, it’s ideological, but more often it isn’t MAGA, communist or socialist so much as confusion and rage cloaking itself in political convenience. Violence comes where hope is ground to dust.

A few months ago, we saw the horrible political massacre in Minnesota, aimed at Democratic lawmakers. 

Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed by the same attacker who shot state Sen.  John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, and attempted to shoot their daughter Hope. 

On June 14, 2025, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman was assassinated in a shooting at her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, in the United States. Hortman, the leader of the state House Democratic caucus, was killed alongside her husband, Mark.

Authorities found a hit list of 45 ❗ targets in the killer's possession❗ (Hmmm ❓Is it coincidental that MAGA cult leader Donald Trump just happens to be the 45th president of the US❓)

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was a victim of political violence when his Harrisburg home was firebombed this year on the Jewish Feast of Passover. 

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer faced a somewhat bumbling kidnap plot in 2020. In 2017, a shooter hit four people at the congressional softball game, including then U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and U.S. Capitol Police officer Crystal Griner.

Despite the fact that these instances of violence were aimed at both Democrats and Republicans, we live under a Republican government at the moment, one that holds unprecedented power.

Already, that power structure is calling not for calm or justice, but retribution.😟😰

“We’ve got trans shooters. You’ve got riots in L.A. They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. They are at war with us,” said Fox News commentator Jesse Watters shortly after Kirk was shot. “What are we going to do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And that’s the question we’re just going to have to ask ourselves.”

“It is extremely important to caution U.S. policymakers in this heated environment to act responsibly and not use the specter of political violence as an excuse to suppress nonviolent movements, curb freedoms of assembly and expression, encourage retaliation or otherwise close civic spaces,” a trio of Brookings Institution researchers wrote as part of their “Monitoring the pillars of democracy” series. “Weaponizing calls for stability and peace in response to political violence is a real threat in democratic and nondemocratic countries globally.”

The slaying of Charlie Kirk is reprehensible, and his family and friends have suffered a loss I can’t imagine. 💙😢Condolences don’t cover it.

But the legacy of his death, and of political violence, can’t be crackdowns — because if we do that, we forever damage the country we all claim to love.

If we take anything away from this tragic time in our history, let it be a commitment to democracy, and America, in all her chaotic and flawed glory.

Anita Chabria is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, based in Sacramento.