When Hateful Rhetoric Turns To Violence
The Connection Between No Kings Rallies & Violence In Minnesota
On Friday evening, the night before the “No Kings” rallies across the nation, the (supposed) local Washington County (Iowa) Republican Party Central Committee posted this egregious list of disparaging descriptions of the people who would participate in the rally. I initially wanted to just dismiss it because it is so vile, demeaning, and simply wrong. Not really worth my time or effort to write about it.
Here is a copy of the post before it was taken down:
(Note: it is likely this post was not authored by the Republican Central Committee but someone acting under their name using a false name. In either case, the Republican Party of Washington County should condemn this language and disassociate themselves with this demeaning post.)
However, early Saturday morning, Vance Boelter knocked on the door of the home of Minnesota Democratic lawmaker Rep. Melissa Hortman , and shot her and her husband, killing both. Earlier he attempted the same thing at the home of Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their home in nearby Champlin, Minn. Both are expected to survive.
In reflecting on this event I began to see a straight line between the demonizing language of Republicans and the violent actions of those who follow them. I couldn’t ignore this…it has to stop.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz called the shootings "an act of targeted political violence." At a news conference Saturday, state police said they found a list of individuals inside what they say is Boelter's vehicle. Hortman and Hoffman were on that list along with other lawmakers. Officials said they found "No Kings" flyers in the car, a reference to the anti-Trump protests that happened around the country Saturday. It is likely he would have targeted that rally too.
From all the early evidence, it appears that Boelter was a radicalized pro-Trump Republican who was targeting people with whom he disagreed. Somewhere in the molten lava of Boelter’s mind, he had internalized the belief that Democrats are evil and the anger that had simmered in his brain for so long began to boil over. Finally, he acted on what he had been told and radicalized to do…kill the evil.
Several news sources have reported that Boelter was in the past a registered Republican. His evangelical religion and his anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion stances reflect MAGA positions. Boelter’s roommate told reporters that Boelter was a “strong” supporter of President Trump.
These two concurrent events, the posting of hateful derogatory language by local Republicans and the radicalization of Boelter, represent a disturbing trend within that party. It is the constant demonization and dehumanization that allows for some disturbed and troubled people to find justification and approval to pick up a firearm and attack those “evil” Democrats.
In all honesty, after reading the local Republican party’s screed, I was extra vigilant at our Washington, Iowa rally. Where we were located on the corner of a busy intersection, it would have been easy for someone in a pickup with a Trump flag to run up on the sidewalk not more than 3 or 4 feet away from the street, and mow down peaceful protesters. I was constantly looking over my shoulder.
I also was concerned about rampant gun ownership in our county that doesn’t disallow disturbed people from gaining access to firearms. The MAGA County Board of Supervisors declared the county to be a “gun sanctuary” in 2021 when they were worried that Joe Biden was coming to take their guns. (They still have them)
We would have been sitting ducks standing on that street corner. In fact, several Trump pickups and a motorcycle rode by our peaceful protest just to disrupt it the best they could. Fortunately, nothing nefarious took place.
In reflecting on these two occurrences of Republican diatribes and invectives against their opponents and a violent shooting that was politically motivated, it is clear to me that political violence is not a coincidence perpetrated in the vacuum of a deranged person’s mind.
Violent and demeaning rhetoric promoted by people who are supposed to be responsible promotes violent actions by the unstable. For people like Boelter, it was a reasonable decision to shoot Democrats based on the rhetoric they have been digesting for a long period of time.
The Washington Republican party committee, although they took the post down later, should apologize to the residents of Washington for their incendiary and irresponsible language whether they wrote it or not.
They won’t. It wasn’t a list of reasoned policy positions to juxtapose their views with those of the protesters. That would have been a good civil conversation starter.
Instead, they chose what I would describe from years of teaching experience, as middle school level name calling and bullying. It was childish, immature, anti-democratic, and helps to further radicalize those in their party.
We were lucky this time. No one was hurt in Washington, and there was no violence. There was, however, name calling and dehumaniztion. Those opposed to the No Kings peaceful protesters stood on the other side of the street and hurled insults at the crowd. Names such as idiots and you are all Communists, which is typical jargon when one side doesn’t have actual policy positions they can rationally defend, so they revert to ad hominine attacks.
This sort of demonizing of your opponent has been going on for a long time. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) noted that MAGA has been “bathed in political violence” for the last five years. Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 rioters, including those convicted of extreme violence, “became a clear endorsement of violence committed in his name.”
Andrew Solender of Axios reported that lawmakers of both parties are concerned about their own safety as political violence increases. Even those Republicans who just aren’t MAGA enough have begun to worry.
Last year, the Brennan Center for Justice, a policy think tank, released a report saying nearly half of the state lawmakers surveyed had experienced threats or attacks in recent years. At the federal level, the U.S. Capitol Police has documented a spike in threats against members of Congress.
The entire Minnesota delegation to the U.S. Congress issued a joint statement on politically motivated shootings. Democrats and Republicans (to their credit) together wrote:
Today we speak with one voice to express our outrage, grief, and condemnation of this horrible attack on public servants. There is no place in our democracy for politically-motivated violence. We are praying for John and Yvette’s recovery and we grieve the loss of Melissa and Mark with their family, colleagues, and Minnesotans across the state. We are grateful for law enforcement’s swift response to the situation and continued efforts.
Trump’s initial comments about the shooting seemed unequivocal as he condemned the shooting. However, the next day after a gunman shot two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in their homes, Trump’s online account posted more demonization and derogatory comments toward Democrats and protesters:
[W]e must expand efforts to detain and deport Illegal Aliens in America’s largest Cities, such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York, where Millions upon Millions of Illegal Aliens reside. These, and other such Cities, are the core of the Democrat Power Center, where they use Illegal Aliens to expand their Voter Base, cheat in Elections, and grow the Welfare State, robbing good paying Jobs and Benefits from Hardworking American Citizens. These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities—And they are doing a good job of it! There is something wrong with them.
(bold emphasis mine)
“Sick of mind?” “Hate our country?” When a President uses such hateful language instead of developing his own argument or position, it is heard by the millions of hard-core followers, stoking their anger and hatred.
When that anger is mixed with those who have a religious world view, which is the core of Trump’s base, it feeds into mental binaries such as “good v. evil,” “us v. them,” along with the dose of divine authority and justification, which accelerates radicalization. Now, violent action is somehow justified by God who wants them to eradicate God’s enemies.
This seems to be the case of Vance Boelter. Friends and former colleagues described Boelter as a devout Christian who attended an evangelical church and went to campaign rallies for President Donald Trump. He was an “ordained” preacher who even traveled to Africa where he sermonized against abortion and the “moral decay of the churches back home.”
For such a person receiving a constant barrage of hateful messages from Trump and others in the Republican party, it becomes almost certain that this binary religious mindset will become fodder for taking hateful actions.
The connection between hateful rhetoric and violent action is not just a theory. There are plenty of studies that link the two. Here is a list of some of those studies:
Northwestern University (Nov. 2024) - Conclusion
The 6 January Capitol insurrection provides a distinctly informative case study of collective violence. Our analysis found new evidence of direct, indirect and reciprocal predictors of the duration and level of violence and weaponry use. The findings are broadly supportive of claims that social media can provide an instantaneous means of communication that is directly associated with subsequent on-the-ground actions, including violence.
How hateful rhetoric connects to real-world violence - Brookings Institute, 2021 This article cites several studies. The study offers this important advice:
There is a deceptively simple answer to the problem of incendiary rhetoric: Politicians should exercise restraint themselves and condemn their fellow leaders when they cross the line that separates inspiring their followers from encouraging violence. Unfortunately, this advice is unlikely to be heeded. President Trump succeeded politically in part because he broke political taboos and a host of would-be successors are eager to capitalize on the energy of his base.
United Nations - “Hate Speech & Real Harm” - historical precedents showing that hate speech can be a precursor to atrocity crimes:
In recent years, the world has witnessed several mass atrocities. In many of these cases, hate speech was identified as a “precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide”. While the use of social media and digital platforms to spread hatred is relatively recent, the weaponization of public discourse for political gain is unfortunately not new. As history continues to show, hate speech coupled with disinformation can lead to stigmatization, discrimination and large-scale violence.
Hate Speech and Political Violence - Columbia University Press, 2024 Brigitte L. Nacos, Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, and Robert Y. Shapiro trace the escalation of a strain of extremist rhetoric in right-wing political discourse after the inauguration of Barack Obama.
Ultimately, this book shows, the increasingly violent rhetoric of right-wing extremists spilled over into real-world political violence. Revealing the path the Tea Party blazed to Trump and the insurrectionists, Hate Speech and Political Violence provides timely new insights into the threats facing American democracy.
Evidence is clear that demeaning and violent rhetoric increases the likelihood of violent action. Everyone…Democrats and Republicans, need to move quickly to reduce the hateful rhetoric…before more people are killed.
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I always question how sincere someone is in their principles when they post shit & then take it down. If you believe something, claim it, own it, and stand by it. If your opinion has changed, fine. Tell us why. Dont be a taco.
And what Dump said about Gov Walz after the shooting was appalling & unforgivable, like everyyhing else he does.