Political Violence and the Willful Self-Deception of the Left
This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire
By John R. Lott Jr.
Violence motivated by political differences has emerged as a defining, if alarming, feature of 21st -century American civil life. Neither side in our nation’s increasingly dangerous ideological divide has a monopoly. But one side, the Democratic Party and its allies, refuses to acknowledge the increase in mayhem from the left.
This is true even in the face of the campus assassination of beloved conservative activist Charlie Kirk – or the very public attack against a televised banquet featuring the president of the United States in a ballroom room full of politicians and journalists.
On Sunday, well after authorities released Cole Tomas Allen’s anti-Trump administration screed, former President Barack Obama posted on X that the attacker’s motive remained unclear. Actually, Allen’s writings made his radical leftist views perfectly clear, along with his rage against conservatives and President Trump himself.
This brought to mind ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel’s stubborn insistence that Tyler Robinson, the man arrested for shooting Charlie Kirk was part of “the MAGA gang.” He wasn’t, of course. His own mother told investigators that her son, who was in a relationship with a gay man transitioning to female, had “become more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.”
But willful self-deception has become a default position for liberals, who have convinced themselves for years that political violence is the province of the far right. It might still be, as some claim that might be the case of one Minnesota’s couple murder and another wounded in their homes, though the murderer had hundreds of “No Kings” flyers and was appointed to advisory boards by two different Democrat governors. But the arson and violence that accompanied many of the George Floyd riots; the Lafayette Square riot near the White House, where more than 150 law enforcement officers were injured; the fire-bombings and attacks on pro-life facilities following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision; the plot to kidnap and kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh; the 2024 ambush murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson – all came from the left.
On Sunday, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, whose own vitriolic rhetoric has been aimed at the president, whether he had any second thoughts in the wake of third assassination attempt against Trump. Raskin has repeatedly labeled Trump as “authoritarian” and exhibiting “fascism” and declared that Trump wants “to be a dictator.”
Raskin seemed surprised by the question and responded by doubling down: “The authoritarianism like we saw on display in Minneapolis where two of our citizens were gunned down in streets simply for exercising their First Amendment rights. Renee Good, Alex Pretti. And others have died in custody.”
This response not only ducked the question about whether elected Democrats’ intemperate rhetoric is spurring fringe Americans to violence, it also misstated the facts. Renee Good struck an officer with her car and ignored verbal orders from an officer. Alex Pretti put himself between officers and people they were trying to arrest, disobeyed orders from officers to stop, got into a physical confrontation with officers, and was carrying a gun.
Raskin isn’t alone. Democrat after Democrat seems incapable of discussing whether their own incendiary rhetoric has caused violence. After Saturday night’s frightening attack at the Washington Hilton, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries was asked about his comments urging Democrats to “maximum warfare” in the gerrymandering battles. “I don’t give a damn about the criticism,” he said. “Get lost.”
Even more bizarrely, Jeffries invoked the fire-bombing of the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion while Josh Shapiro and his family were home and said Republicans should get their own house in order. But Shapiro’s attacker, who pleaded guilty, cited left-wing talking points about Gaza and his motivation.
This kind of confusion comes even from those who should know better. A frequently cited source used by the media to try to show that most violence is from the “right” is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Its latest annual report claims, “This is the third year in a row that right-wing extremists have been connected to all identified extremist-related killings.” According to the ADL, between 2022 and 2024 there were 34 so-called “right-wing extremists” murderers, with 23 of them (68%) carried out by white supremacists. They say those attacks took 61 lives.
Claiming that all the extremist murders are by “right-wingers” sounds dramatic, and the ADL report received extensive uncritical news coverage in media outlets including CNN, The Economist, and PBS. But it’s untrue. None of the cases listed by the ADL involved a right-winger murdering a political target.