'Officials at highest levels of military' warn political violence could 'escalate for a generation'

The violence at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Western Pennsylvania on July 13 marked the first time since John Hinckley Jr.'s attack on President Ronald Reagan in March 1981 that someone who had been a U.S. president survived an assassination attempt. But it was hardly the only political violence that occurred in the United States in recent years.

The U.S. has been rocked by everything from the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol Building to the Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in 2018 to the Mother Bethel AME Church slaughter of 2015. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was the target of a kidnapping plot by far-right militia extremists.

In a think piece published on July 23, The Atlantic's Adrienne LaFrance addresses fears that political violence will "escalate" in the U.S. in the months ahead.

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"These are poisonous days in our nation," LaFrance laments. "It is reasonable to worry that the attempt on Trump's life represents not the end of a cycle of violence, but an escalation in an era that has already seen a congresswoman shot in a supermarket parking lot, a congressman shot while playing baseball, and the U.S. Capitol stormed by insurrectionists."

LaFrance warns that a period of political violence could rock the U.S. for "a generation."

"Officials at the highest levels of the military and in the White House told me repeatedly that they believed the United States would see an increase in violent attacks as the 2024 presidential election drew near," LaFrance explains. "Other experts talked about pronounced danger in places where extremist groups had already emerged, where gun culture is thriving, and where hardcore partisans bump up against one another — especially in politically consequential states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia."

The journalist adds, "Clearly, they were right in their warning. They further predicted that the current wave of violence would take a generation or longer to crest."

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Adrienne LaFrance's full essay for The Atlantic is available at this link (subscription required).