The Ideological Roots of Leftist Political Violence

What’s behind the alarming spike in leftist political violence?

In the past two years, President Donald Trump has faced three assassination attempts, with the most recent one arguably coming Saturday night at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Members of his administration have also faced violent threats. Last year saw the assassination of Charlie Kirk, one of Trump’s most prominent supporters, and some on the left have celebrated the assassination of a health care CEO, Brian Thompson.

Just last week, leftist podcaster Hasan Piker suggested in a New York Times interview that Thompson deserved to die because he “was engaging in a tremendous amount of social murder.” Piker argued that “the systematized forms of violence, the structural violence of poverty, the for-profit, paywalled system of health care” justified the assassination.

Also, last year, Virginia elected Jay Jones as attorney general, despite the fact that he previously sent messages fantasizing about shooting Republican former Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates Todd Gilbert. Jones stated at the time that he wished Gilbert’s young children would die in their mother’s arms, and he justified this death wish by saying, “Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” Jones later apologized for the texts after they were made public during his campaign for Virginia attorney general.