Americans are living through an extraordinary era of political violence. For years, political violence has been on the rise across the political spectrum—not just according to anecdotal examples but also based on rigorous long-term studies of a representative sample of U.S. citizens. Indeed, support for political violence has now become “normal,” at least when people are asked about the use of violence to achieve political goals that they also endorse.
A photo collage illustration shows fractured images of political violence in Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, Brazil, and Ethiopia. At center is a silhouette of the U.S. Capitol with protesters silhouetted in front of it.
Violent populism, meaning the violent mass support for a political leader, party, political ideology, or mass movement, on both the right and left pose a grave threat to modern democracy in the United States.
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