Hate is a powerful, deeply motivating emotion. It can be all consuming, taking up all available

space in our minds and in our hearts. It can hijack otherwise good intentions. We often can't

regulate the way in which hate manifests within us, but most of

us can control what we do with it. Do we use our hate-fueled motivation for good? Or do we use it for

violence? Do we let rhetorical hate breed violent hate? Hate is consuming America right now. Often

valid political criticism and disagreement for some morphs quickly

into hopelessness or rage, and too quickly that rage and hate mutates into violence. In large

part, because we are an empirically heavily armed and violent society, but with some key

exceptions in American history, political violence has been a rarity on the fringe. It's now commonplace.

Violent attacks and assassinations, both attempted and successful, against those with

opposing viewpoints, have become part of everyday American life. And if we accept this as a new

normal, the very foundations of this democracy stand to crumble. Over the last 15 years or so, there has been a

surge of high-profile politically motivated acts of violence in America against members of both

major political parties. The victims have been politicians and public figures with all different

points of view. Going back to 2011, when the Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was shot and gravely wounded at an event with her constituents, 18 others were shot and six were killed.

Giffords survived a gunshot wound to the head and has suffered aphasia as a result. She's now a fierce advocate for common sense gun laws.

In 2017, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise was shot and wounded

at a congressional baseball practice. In 2020, a group of men plotted and came dangerously close

to kidnapping Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. On January 6th, 2021, a violent mob of Donald Trump

supporters who accepted his big lie about the stolen 2020 election

stormed the U.S. Capitol. Five police officers died in connection with the attack. More than 1,500

people were charged and 1,270 were convicted, and all of them were either fully pardoned

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