Political Violence: 'As American as Cherry Pie'

Townhall.com ^ | June 18, 2017 | Steve Chapman

[Kaslin]

Someday, I hope, I'll sit a couple of grandkids on my lap and tell them about the days when Americans abstained from political violence and settled all our differences peaceably through the democratic process. Or maybe I'll pick a different fairy tale. Wednesday's attack on Republican members of Congress by a gun-wielding Bernie Sanders supporter was an occasion to wonder what we have come to when political differences are seen as grounds for killing. What we have come to, in fact, is the place we have always been. Our history is spattered with the blood of people targeted for political reasons.

It goes back to the American Revolution, which we mistily remember as a noble enterprise navigated by high-minded statesmen. In fact, it incorporated terrorism against suspected loyalists, who were subjected to beatings, torture and lynchings. The goal was not merely to punish the guilty but to intimidate those who might share their views . The republic was born in political violence, and political violence has figured prominently in every chapter of our national story. We slaughtered the Indians to make room for whites. We fought a brutal civil war over slavery. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a political opponent. President William McKinley died in 1901 at the hands of an anarchist; another anarchist fired at President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, missing him but killing the mayor of Chicago. John F. Kennedy was gunned down by a communist sympathizer. His brother fell victim to a Palestinian aggrieved by Bobby's support for Israel. Martin Luther King was murdered by a white racist. Two different women with political motives tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

It's not exactly new for at least a few Americans to see violence as a legitimate way to resolve political disputes. Do you think of the 1950s as a safe, tranquil era? During that decade, civil rights activists were beaten and killed; King's home was bombed. In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the House of Representatives, wounding five members.

In the 1960s, radical leftists carried out thousands of bombings, some of them deadly. Blacks rampaged after King was killed, and various groups advocated armed revolution. Violence, announced black militant H. Rap Brown in 1967, "is as American as cherry pie."

Even in our era, it remains a feature of the landscape. Anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people when he bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Attacks on abortion clinics and doctors have long been commonplace; since 1977, according to the National Abortion Federation, there have been 11 murders, 26 attempted murders and 42 bombings.

The Anti-Defamation League recently published a study documenting 150 right-wing terrorist acts over the past 25 years. Islamic extremists have committed terrorist attacks from Orlando to San Bernardino. In 2015, neo-Nazi Dylann Roof killed nine people in an African-American church in an attempt to spark a race war. Last year, a black sniper angry over police shootings of black men killed five police officers and wounded nine in Dallas.

The case of James T. Hodgkinson, killed by police after he shot four people in Alexandria, Virginia, is shocking but not surprising. Conservatives can blame inflammatory anti-Trump rhetoric, just as liberals have faulted the president and his supporters for their often threatening tone -- both with ample cause. But our political climate has not suddenly grown conducive to bloodshed. Our political climate is perpetually hospitable to extremism. Most Americans, most of the time, have eschewed violence. But there have always been individuals and groups with a fervent faith in the purifying value of guns, ropes and bombs. And there have always been political allies willing to ignore or downplay these dangerous impulses in the interest of a common cause.

If we hope to end this habit of violence, we can't interpret it as the fresh product of new political battles. We can't take it as a response to Trump, pro or anti. We have to recognize that it has deep, tenacious roots in a political culture created over time by both the left and the right. Violence is part of our collective political DNA.

This is one of those moments when we can mourn a mythical time of innocence or acknowledge that America's good has always been liberally mixed with bad. This grotesque outbreak of political violence was a tragedy, but it was not an aberration. The first step to overcoming our flaws is to admit how deep they go.

[Kaslin]

Oops I forgot to close the /center

[Mercat]

Stupid article.

[Don Corleone]

Does that make it right?

[ClearCase_guy]

Anarchists and Leftists have used political violence as a tool for centuries. It goes back at least as far as the French Revolution of 1789, and probably further back than that. Islam has been using political violence as THE core tenet of their little death cult for 15 centuries.

In Europe and in North America, the people seeking to overturn Western Civilization think that violence is their only option, since they know they cannot win the war of ideas.

But do note that traditional, patriotic Americans have not used violence as a means of political expression. The Democrats in the South sure used a lot of violence to enforce Jim Crow, but Democrats fall under the "Anarchists and Leftists" umbrella. The people who respect the Constitution don't act that way.

We haven't changed.
They haven't changed.

But they have become more desperate as they have passed the apex of their political power.

[gaijin]

Conceived from the, “America is evil, was born of theft” leftist drivel.

Very surprised to see this claptrap, dross, dreck, agitprop in a good publication like Townhall.

[Kaslin]

Someday, I hope, I'll sit a couple of grandkids on my lap and tell them about the days when Americans abstained from political violence and settled all our differences peaceably through the democratic process. Or maybe I'll pick a different fairy tale.

Wednesday's attack on Republican members of Congress by a gun-wielding Bernie Sanders supporter was an occasion to wonder what we have come to when political differences are seen as grounds for killing. What we have come to, in fact, is the place we have always been. Our history is spattered with the blood of people targeted for political reasons.

It goes back to the American Revolution, which we mistily remember as a noble enterprise navigated by high-minded statesmen. In fact, it incorporated terrorism against suspected loyalists, who were subjected to beatings, torture and lynchings. The goal was not merely to punish the guilty but to intimidate those who might share their views.

The republic was born in political violence, and political violence has figured prominently in every chapter of our national story. We slaughtered the Indians to make room for whites. We fought a brutal civil war over slavery.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a political opponent. President William McKinley died in 1901 at the hands of an anarchist; another anarchist fired at President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, missing him but killing the mayor of Chicago.

John F. Kennedy was gunned down by a communist sympathizer. His brother fell victim to a Palestinian aggrieved by Bobby's support for Israel. Martin Luther King was murdered by a white racist. Two different women with political motives tried to assassinate President Gerald Ford.

It's not exactly new for at least a few Americans to see violence as a legitimate way to resolve political disputes. Do you think of the 1950s as a safe, tranquil era? During that decade, civil rights activists were beaten and killed; King's home was bombed. In 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists opened fire in the House of Representatives, wounding five members.

In the 1960s, radical leftists carried out thousands of bombings, some of them deadly. Blacks rampaged after King was killed, and various groups advocated armed revolution. Violence, announced black militant H. Rap Brown in 1967, "is as American as cherry pie."

Even in our era, it remains a feature of the landscape. Anti-government extremist Timothy McVeigh killed 168 people when he bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Attacks on abortion clinics and doctors have long been commonplace; since 1977, according to the National Abortion Federation, there have been 11 murders, 26 attempted murders and 42 bombings.

The Anti-Defamation League recently published a study documenting 150 right-wing terrorist acts over the past 25 years. Islamic extremists have committed terrorist attacks from Orlando to San Bernardino. In 2015, neo-Nazi Dylann Roof killed nine people in an African-American church in an attempt to spark a race war. Last year, a black sniper angry over police shootings of black men killed five police officers and wounded nine in Dallas.

The case of James T. Hodgkinson, killed by police after he shot four people in Alexandria, Virginia, is shocking but not surprising. Conservatives can blame inflammatory anti-Trump rhetoric, just as liberals have faulted the president and his supporters for their often threatening tone -- both with ample cause. But our political climate has not suddenly grown conducive to bloodshed. Our political climate is perpetually hospitable to extremism.

Most Americans, most of the time, have eschewed violence. But there have always been individuals and groups with a fervent faith in the purifying value of guns, ropes and bombs. And there have always been political allies willing to ignore or downplay these dangerous impulses in the interest of a common cause.

If we hope to end this habit of violence, we can't interpret it as the fresh product of new political battles. We can't take it as a response to Trump, pro or anti. We have to recognize that it has deep, tenacious roots in a political culture created over time by both the left and the right. Violence is part of our collective political DNA.

This is one of those moments when we can mourn a mythical time of innocence or acknowledge that America's good has always been liberally mixed with bad. This grotesque outbreak of political violence was a tragedy, but it was not an aberration. The first step to overcoming our flaws is to admit how deep they go.

[super7man]

Ok... and what is your second step?

[Kaslin]

No it doesn’t, but I was really surprised. Normally Chapman does not have a good word about President Trump

[super7man]

Oops.. first line was supposed to be.

The first step to overcoming our flaws is to admit how deep they go.

Ok... and what is your second step?

[Vaduz]

Radical leftists never change just like chimps.

[McBuff]

“Better (for Chapman) to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

[TalBlack]

This article is a lying calculated deception. it uses examples which have little to do with the subject at hand. It is an example the typical shotgun tactic leftists use in place of an argument.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Hey I thought the conservative thing was to blame the acts of nuts on nuts (though in reality a local confluence oof factors can help a nut arise, which still isn’t the same as blaming a whole society).

[rightwingcrazy]

America had murder and rape since its beginning, too. Are those also “cherry pie”?

[HiTech RedNeck]

No its just the pits

[HiTech RedNeck]

Good point... The scope of consideration is inappropriate. But it’s illustrative.

[DoodleBob]

Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune, and has been a member of the Tribune editorial board since 1981. He came to the Tribune from The New Republic magazine, where he was an associate editor. He has contributed articles to several national magazines, including Slate, The American Spectator, The Weekly Standard, Reason, and National Review. He has appeared on numerous TV and radio news programs, include The CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, and National Public Radio's Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation and On Point.

A cursory review of Señor Jackwagon's output shows a cornucopia of "conservative" articles from the David Brooks wing of the GOPe.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Gross overgeneralizations are still wrong to do.

And that’s a fault found all over the political spectrum. It makes liberals illiberal and conservatives profligate.

[ronnie raygun]

since they know they cannot win the war of ideas. This sez volumes. Change by force is thier only option therefore we need to know that we may have to fight fire with fire