In an era of polarization, candidates posing with guns and using extreme language about opponents threatens more violence
On 25 April, the former Missouri governor Eric Greitens, now running for US Senate, posted a video on Twitter of him and Donald Trump Jr, firing semi-automatic rifles at a range.
“Striking fear in the hearts of liberals everywhere,” the former president’s son said.
In the accompanying post, Greitens wrote: “Striking fear into the hearts of liberals, RINOs, and the fake media.”
But it’s also part of a significant increase among politicians – largely Republicans – in recent years in references to guns and threatening language in campaign ads, according to researchers.
That rhetoric contributes to polarization in our society and can translate to physical violence, they say.
Since Donald Trump became president in 2016, the number of threats against members of Congress has soared, according to data provided by the Capitol police to news organizations. That year, there were 902 threats against the lawmakers. In 2021, there were 9,600.
Trump and other Republicans are using threatening language to tap into anger about the shifting demographics of the United States and the sense that a Christian way of life is coming under threat, according to political scientists.
Given the charged political climate, the academics say more violence like – or worse than – the January 6 Capitol riot is inevitable. Piazza said this wave of divisiveness and polarization is reminiscent of the time before the civil war when “you had similar politician rhetoric to mobilize voters and to demobilize and demonize the other side that resulted in political violence”.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/13/missouri-republicans-violent-rhetoric-eric-greitens