US political violence: 'Decades of polarisation have fuelled a perfect storm,’ historian says

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The man charged with killing one Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another had meticulously planned the shootings and intended to inflict more carnage against those on his hit list, driving to the homes of two other legislators on the night of the attacks, a federal prosecutor said on Monday. We speak to historian Matt Dallek, Professor of Political Management at George Washington University, about the rise of political violence in the United States.  Visit our website: http://www.france24.com  Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English  Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/France24_en

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00:00this is apropos prosecutors in the u.s. say the man accused of assassinating a minnesota state

00:09lawmaker and shooting another will face federal murder charges which could allow for the death

00:14penalty they say the 57 year old went to the homes of three other politicians before he succeeded

00:20in killing one of the targets of his carefully planned attack with the latest on the investigation

00:25here's selena sykes flowers candles and handwritten notes line the steps of minnesota state capital

00:35as locals pay their respects to democratic state lawmaker melissa hortman and her husband mark

00:41shot dead in their own home we've lost such a wonderful person in our government she was doing

00:49so much for the families of minnesota and to lose her is tragic this is not

00:55what i've grown up believing i think that we've have a respect for democracy and that

01:02we shouldn't be utilizing political violence to make our point vance luther bolter was arrested on

01:12sunday evening after a two-day manhunt and has been charged with two counts of murder investigators

01:18say the suspect passed himself off as a police officer when approaching his victims and that

01:23it was clear that he had been planning the attacks for some time belter stalked his victims like prey

01:29he researched his fam his victims and their families he used the internet and other tools to find their

01:36addresses and names the names of the family members he conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes

01:4357 year old bolter is also suspected of having shot and wounded democratic state senator john hoffman

01:50and his wife yvette the couple who are both now awake in hospital were also attacked at their home

01:55close to melissa hallman's residence prosecutor say bolter went to the homes of two other lawmakers

02:01on the same night of the shootings police officers who searched his car found a list of more than 45

02:07politicians as well as several firearms and large quantities of ammunition

02:12the attack was the latest in a series of high-profile episodes of political violence across the united states

02:19to discuss the wider consequences let's bring in historian matt dalek a professor of political management

02:25at george washington university matt thanks so much for being with us this evening are we seeing

02:32first of all more instances of political violence in the united states because it looks like if we look at

02:38the past two months alone we've seen israeli embassy staff killed in washington fire bombing of a

02:44colorado march not to mention the assassination of trump assassination attempt not so long ago

02:49on donald trump yeah i think that's right and uh you know there are a lot of ways to measure it so

02:56more than five nine thousand threats against members of congress i believe last year

03:02more than uh some serious threats against federal judges last year threats are up against uh state

03:09legislature legislators and you know remember we had one of the largest episodes of mass political

03:16violence in decades on january 6th and that was sandwiched in between attacks like the charlottesville

03:23riots and the hammer attack on paul pelosi so i think that you know the decade that we're in

03:30in the united states may be ultimately remembered as a violent decade akin to the 1960s and 70s

03:39and can you put your finger on why exactly that is you've suggested previously that the usual norms

03:45are being torn up of people who are carrying out these kinds of acts they're being influenced

03:49by the current culture yeah well i think there's a lot that goes into it so you know one theory and this

03:57i think is somewhat relevant today one theory from the 1960s is that a rise in political violence

04:03uh was correlated with increased civil strife another theory is that when people grow cynical

04:10about government they believe that it and other institutions are incapable of solving problems maybe

04:16even a source of their oppression they turn to the bullet um social media leads to this fractured

04:23reality uh donald trump who as you mentioned is a victim of violence but also an accelerant

04:28is dehumanizing uh rhetoric calling people scum uh and vermin uh his uh talk about the enemy within

04:37and then his pardon for example his actions his pardon of the january 6 writers who beat

04:42uh police officers uh i think that that those are just some of the reasons why and decades of partisan

04:50polarization has fueled um a bit of a perfect storm in which violence has become more endemic more

04:57commonplace really woven into the cultural fabric of the country yeah well does that suggest in that

05:05u.s politics it's always kind of had this violent undercurrent well yes and no i mean you know first

05:13of all politics and in this case political violence is never static it ebbs and flows so yes there has

05:19almost always been some level of political violence throughout the american past but you know the

05:28country also transfers power peacefully most of the time and the level of violence from the 1960s and early

05:3670s was quite different from what the country experienced in the 1990s or the 2000s so uh right now i think

05:45we're in a a time where the violence is more pronounced it's got its own set of factors that are

05:51are playing into it that are factoring in but uh certainly the country's experienced greater degrees of

05:58violence such as the civil war or the three assassinations of leaders in the 1960s and matt

06:05statistics suggest that the vast majority of more recent political killings there they've been committed by

06:12the right wing extremists how do you explain this and also what can be done about it

06:16yeah well i do think more of the violence in the current era is coming from the far right than the

06:23far left although there's certainly are acts of violence coming from the left um well what explains

06:29it i think the conspiracy theories that have become that have become popularized on the right

06:35um i mentioned trump's role um as uh an accelerant he's really in a sense condoned violence at times

06:42he's condemned it occasionally but he condones he condones it more uh than he uh condemns it and um

06:50and you know the the i think the you know the january 6 attacks the big lie about the election

06:58has um sewed um sewed a kind of culture of violence on the right that doesn't quite exist in the same

07:06way on the left in terms of what can be done about it um you know that's obviously extremely difficult

07:12i imagine it's a kind of generational uh struggle of some kind um restoring faith in institutions

07:19regulating social media um uh having leaders that uh are far more aggressive about um sending

07:30bipartisan signals but condemning violence um making more attempts at unity um and uh ending the

07:38warps too in the middle east which is also fueled some of the violence here at home in the united states

07:44so those are a few things those are obviously all each of those is of tall order but

07:49um you know this is the work probably of years or decades not uh overnight and man apart from the

07:55rhetoric that's being used by the likes of donald trump how does his administration the actual

08:00policies that it's implementing how does that play into all of this he's closed down for example

08:04specialist units focusing on investigating white supremacist extremism while pushing this anti-immigrant

08:12agenda yeah well that's a really good question um look first i don't want to uh suggest that the trump

08:22administration is in any way associated with the attacks in minnesota we just don't you know we

08:27don't know enough but it seems unlikely uh that there's any kind of direct link um but having said that

08:33sure um you know trump is not interested in tracking uh what are probably the like most i think

08:40security experts considered a greater domestic threat which is the threat of uh right-wing extremism

08:46um if anything he pardoned members of the proud boys and the earth keepers um you know the aggressive

08:53use of of the national guard and even sending marines into los angeles during the recent anti-immigrant

09:00protests i think the heavy-handed ice crackdowns um you know provoking some people into violence which

09:07of course it's horrific on the right or the left but i think we're seeing a more aggressive use of

09:12state power that also uh provokes uh uh kind of reaction from extremists uh on the left who are

09:21willing to do violence so i think there are different uh uh acts um that have been taken but you know we're

09:29only six months into the trump's second administration it's still uh quite early and um you know we we don't

09:37know exactly how all this is going to shake out and matt after many of these attacks what we tend to

09:43see is people being divided along political lines about who exactly was to blame why is there this

09:49polarization in the united states yeah well that actually i think you you put your finger on one

09:56of the most disturbing elements which is that an act of violence happens and rather than you know most of

10:02the country coming together figuring out a common fact pattern understanding it um in a you know having

10:09a shared reality and then condemning it it's the opposite so it splits apart um you know it's very

10:16easy on social media for for individuals to spew conspiracy theories um they can take one shard of

10:24information and spin it up into something that is untethered to reality i think that um different people

10:32see political gain in uh blaming the other side uh and um and wanting to paint the other side as a

10:42greater threat to the country and because you know politics to answer your question politics has become

10:48more apocalyptic it has become more existential and when it becomes more apocalyptic um the rhetoric

10:57gets out of control and it is uh easier for each side especially i think in this case the far right

11:03to twist reality to kind of turn it upside down and um and weaponize uh some of these events as opposed

11:12to after january 6th for example saying you know this was horrible i never intended this and uh these people

11:19need to be prosecuted so i think that there's a political advantage that um some political leaders see

11:26in exploiting these events uh even if the events the facts themselves have nothing to do or almost

11:33nothing to do with reality matt thanks so much for that analysis and for your time in the program

11:38this evening that is matt dalek he's a historian also a professor of political management at george

11:43washington

11:44you

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