The Alarming Normalization of Political Violence in America
Political violence in America is no longer a bug, but a feature.
It used to be shocking.
My congressional classmate Gabby Giffords was shot at a constituent event in 2011. In 2014, a Molotov cocktail was tossed through a Congressman’s window. Pipe bombs were mailed to CNN in 2021. Two assassination attempts were made on President Trump during his campaign. And who can forget the Capitol insurrection on January 6? Then there’s this past weekend, in Minnesota, where State Representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated, and Senator John Hoffman and his wife were shot and nearly killed by a man wearing a fake police uniform and carrying a kill list of 45 public officials.
Today, political violence is no longer shocking. It’s expected.
This phenomenon was perfectly captured by The New York Times reporter Lisa Lerer:
The statements of shock and condolences streamed in eerily one after another on Saturday after the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband, and the attempted murder of another lawmaker and his wife.
“Horrible news,” said Representative Steve Scalise, who was shot at a baseball game in 2017. “Paul and I are heartbroken,” said former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose husband was bludgeoned with a hammer in 2022. “My family and I know the horror of a targeted shooting all too well,” said former Representative Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in 2011.
Still more came from Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania (arson, 2025), Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan (kidnapping plot, 2020) and President Trump (two assassination attempts, 2024).
Violence today isn’t just tolerated by the shadowy political extremes anymore. It’s being justified, memed, rationalized, and even celebrated publicly. What was once the hidden fringe is now cloaked in the language of justice and “resistance by any means necessary.”
We are witnessing the mainstreaming of murder as we saw with the internet’s glorification of Luigi Mangione. The man who killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is publicly celebrated with t-shirts of his handsome face and now, a sold-out musical in San Francisco. What type of message are we sending when political violence is treated as virtuous?
Over the past year, America has seen a surge in political violence so frequent, so ideologically twisted, and so brazen, that it’s hard to keep track. What was once fringe behavior has crept into the mainstream. It’s no longer coming from the shadows. It’s on social media.
Enter Hasan Piker
With over 4.5 million followers on Twitch and YouTube, and another 1.3 million on Instagram, Hasan Piker is one of the most influential political streamers in the country—arguably the left’s most viral voice. But beneath the Gen Z swagger and thirst traps lies a deeply troubling pattern.
He has said “America deserved 9/11,” described Jewish victims of October 7th as spreading “rape fantasies,” and downplayed Hamas’s atrocities as “resistance.” He has publicly declared he has “no issue” with Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, and gave a platform to a member of the Houthis—another U.S.-designated terror group.
All this has been documented in Congressman Ritchie Torres’ formal letter to Twitch and Amazon executives condemning Piker.
We’ve reached a point where people don’t just want to win the argument. They want to punish the other side in ways that are, at best, dehumanizing and grotesque, and at worst, incite violence.
If we don’t make a collective effort to change the culture, we surrender to a new normal in which violence replaces debate as another political tool.
American Jews Have Become a Target For Violence
Just this past month, Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were murdered in broad daylight outside the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C. Why? Because they attended an event hosted by the American Jewish Committee. It didn’t matter that their program was on providing humanitarian aid to Gaza and seeking interfaith solutions. Their killer was hailed online as a “freedom fighter” by some of the staunchest anti-Israel advocates.
About a week later, in Colorado, a group of Jews calling for the release of Israeli hostages was firebombed with Molotov cocktails.
A few months earlier, during Passover, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence was set on fire while his family slept inside.
Each of these attackers claimed they did it for Gaza. In case there was any confusion on whether attacking random Jews will make lives better for Palestinans, the answer is a resounding no. That hasn’t stopped conspiracy theories from taking aim at Jewish communities, though. The ADL cites a 360% increase in antisemitic incidents since the start of the October 7th Hamas massacre of Israelis.
None of this is activism. It’s domestic terrorism.
Sadly, yet unsurprisingly, the deaths of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky were not met with universal condemnation.
Instead, swaths of the anti-Zionist activist world responded with glee and justification. One far-left group, Unity of Fields, distributed a printable zine praising the killer. Stickers were made. TikToks posted. Influencers with millions of followers defended the murders as “resistance.”
The Anti-Defamation League documented it all in a new report. “We ain’t condemning shit,” one group posted. Another wrote, “What Elias Rodriguez did is the highest expression of anti-Zionism.”
The ADL report documented another incident where a DSA-affiliated caucus—the so-called “Liberation Caucus”—endorsed these sentiments, quoting Maoist slogans about rebelling against “the enemy” and reposting images glorifying the killer. The DSA’s national office later issued a short, vague disavowal, but only after public pressure mounted.
A Shared Delusion
We’ve built entire online ecosystems around this. Ragebait headlines. Viral videos calling people “Nazis” or “terrorists” for voting a certain way. T-shirts that say “Kill Your Local Fascist.” AI-generated media meant to fan the flames of hatred.
It's all a joke. Until it isn’t.
Ask yourself:
Have you ever self-censored online, not because you feared backlash, but because you feared violence?
Have you felt that the angriest, most hateful voices are the ones running the show?
You’re not imagining things.
This is the world we’ve built by rewarding rage with relevance.
And unless we reverse course, it’s only going to get worse.
This Shouldn’t Be a Partisan Issue
You don’t need to be a Democrat to condemn arson. You don’t need to be a Republican to denounce assassination. You just need to be a decent human being and have a smidge of political courage.
We don’t have to vote the same to agree that:
Murder is not a political tactic.
Firebombing a Tesla dealership is not making a domestic policy argument.
Impersonating a cop to assassinate a state representative is not activism—it’s terrorism.
If you've ever scanned a crowd at a protest wondering if someone brought a gun, you sadly know this feeling.
Sadly, I do too.
In 2010, after casting my vote in favor of the Affordable Care Act, I started receiving death threats.
I’d come home to Bucks County, worried about the safety of my kids, Maggie, who was 4, and Jack, just 1.
At the time, I was one of the least wealthy members of Congress; I’m still paying off my student loans. Every night in DC, I slept on an inflatable mattress in my office.
One night, after saying goodnight to my kids from the phone, I was startled awake by back-to-back-to back phone calls from a number I didn’t recognize. When I finally answered, all I heard was “Is this Patrick Murphy?!? You’re dead when you come back to Bucks County. Do you hear me?!? You’re dead when you come back to Bucks County!”
Being a former Army paratrooper, I couldn’t help but to answer, “Who the fuck is this?”
Believe it or not, he actually shared his name. So, I made it clear, “If you ever call me again, I’m coming to your house and I’m going to break your face! Have fun talking to the FBI, that’s my next call!”
Then I hung up and called the Capitol Police.
And if you're starting to feel like this country is being held hostage by the loudest, most hateful people in the room, you're not alone.
The left isn’t all extremists. The right isn’t all fascists. But the volume knob is broken.
How we fix our broken culture
This is beyond politics. This is a cultural problem. Which means it requires a cultural fix.
Talk to someone you disagree with, and actually listen.
Demand better from your party. Yes, yours.
Vote with your values, not your vengeance.
We are still a country that chooses its leaders with ballots, not bullets. But that only holds if we insist on it.
Spirited debate is what separates us from other countries that limit freedom of speech.
Politics will always be messy. But it should never be lethal.
The Honorable Patrick J. Murphy is a Wharton lecturer, Vetrepreneur, and the 32nd Army Under Secretary after earning the Bronze Star for service in Baghdad, Iraq as an All-American with the 82nd Airborne Division—@PatrickMurphyPA on Instagram and Twitter.
Peter Fox is a member of the American Jewish Committee’s ACCESS NY board. From 2022-2024, he chaired its interfaith and intergroup relations committee and co-led the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council. He previously served on the Next Gen board of the Anti-Defamation League of NY/NJ, where he was also a Glass Leadership Institute Fellow. You can follow him across social media @thatpeterfox.
 | A guest post by
|
This wasn’t just politically motivated it was the product of a Right-wing Christian Nationalist dogma. The same type that has murdered abortion doctors and bombed clinics.
You write wisely, and with a voice clear in its appeal to compassionate reason.