How much of a sense of a threat is needed to justify a preemptive strike? The sense of peril doesn't have to be based on any actual impending danger for it to inspire violent action. Imagined danger can be as motivating as the real thing. The conviction that an enemy is ready to attack cannot be endured passively for long. Doesn't the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Russian invasion of Ukraine tell us as much?
How much longer can the political right in America tell themselves that Democrats, liberals, socialists, communists, whoever, are too grave a threat to be allowed to continue making their diabolical preparations to kill and imprison conservatives, the "real" Americans? How long can the fires of anxiety, fear, and hate be stoked, not just by ordinary citizens, but by leaders of the nation at the highest levels? How long before those on the right conclude that restraint seems like suicidal foolishness in the face of a malevolent force?
Donald Trump has pumped up the threat level again by claiming in a fundraising email that his enemies, specifically President Biden, was “locked & loaded ready to take me out” during the 2022 search for classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Nothing could be further from the truth! "FBI agents specifically sought to avoid a confrontation with Trump, choosing a day when Trump would not be at the property and giving the Secret Service a heads-up," the Washington Post reported. The agents were not poised and ready to "take out" Trump.
Trump has repeatedly accused Biden of weaponizing the Justice Department to go after him. There is no basis for the claim. But that doesn't stop Trump from saying whatever he thinks will benefit him. Trump also wrote Tuesday on his social media site, Truth Social, that “Joe Biden’s DOJ, in their Illegal and UnConstitutional Raid of Mar-a-Lago, AUTHORIZED THE FBI TO USE DEADLY (LETHAL) FORCE.”
There is no shortage of political supplicants to echo his ridiculous claims and even push them further. So Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), writing on X insisted that “The Biden DOJ and FBI were planning to assassinate Pres Trump and gave the green light.”
These sorts of statements are far from rare. Daily Trump bemoans his so-called "persecution," while repeatedly telling his followers since his first indictment, "In the end, they're not coming after me. They're coming after you — and I'm just standing in their way." Trump wants to instill a sense of threat and insecurity in his followers, so that, on the one hand, they will look to him as their savior, and, on the other hand, they will view Biden, Democrats, and the "deep state" as a clear and present danger to their own freedom and very lives.
Are conservatives -particularly MAGA conservatives- who have been told their lives are on the line going to just stand around waiting for the attack they fear is coming? Troubling, polls have indicated growing support for political violence. Evangelicals, among the most reliable of Trump's supporters, have been telling each other for years that ungodly liberals intend to persecute them, imprison them and worse.
Given their sense of threat, it should be no surprise that the most recent PRRI’s annual American Values Survey reveals that white evangelicals -at 31%- are the group that is most likely to agree with the statement, "Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country." These are the people who are most likely to be "locked and loaded."
Political violence is already worst than it has been since the 1970's and according to the FBI the vast majority of the violence has come from the right. Likewise, the politicians who have made threats or statements the appear to sanction political violence are overwhelming from the right. Recently, Kari Lake, Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona, urged her supporters to "strap on a Glock on the side of us" because "the next six months is going to be intense."
Yes, there has been political threats and violence from the left but it has been exceptionally rare in recent decades. Many people anticipate that what we have experienced so far is just a hint to what is coming. Despite the fact that the threats and political violence has been almost entirely directed at the left by the right, it is the right who persistently claim they are the ones in danger of having their freedoms and lives taken by their adversaries on the left. Even though their sense of threat is a product of their imaginations, that in no way diminishes the impulse to destructively respond to prevent from happening what they misguidedly envision. Preemptive strikes are increasingly possible.
We can't control the baseless fears and anxieties others inflict upon themselves. All we can do it not add to them. Kari Lake is certainly right in saying that "the next six months is going to be intense." But she is totally wrong about how we should respond to that fact. Instead of strapping on weapons, it is crucial that we not add to the threats. As counter intuiative as it may be, we may need to heed the words of ancient wisdom: "Bless and do not curse" (Romans 12:14). No, that is not going to fix the problem. But at least it won't exasperate it.