Shinzo Abe’s assassination shocked the world, not only because he was such a towering figure, but also because violence is rare in Japan. If such an action could happen there, could it also happen here? It is a certainty. Increasingly, the question appears not if but when.
The United States is no stranger to political violence. More than half a century ago, a wave of political violence tore the fabric of American society. Assassins murdered President John F. Kennedy, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.
Shock and grief riddled the nation.
While the threat of assassinations receded, it never fully faded away. John Hinckley Jr. shot President Ronald Reagan, but his motive was less politics than a desire to impress actress Jodie Foster. Mental illness or personal grudge rather than politics likewise motivated subsequent attacks, for example, against San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, former Rep. Allard K. Lowenstein, or the attempt against former Rep. Gabby Giffords.
The 2017 attack on House Minority Whip Steve Scalise and the GOP congressional baseball team by a deranged supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), however, highlighted the growing threat of political polarization. Polemical politics, self-reinforcing information and social bubbles, and a culture that encourages self-righteousness create a perfect storm. Successive presidents have poured fuel on the fire. Barack Obama famously likened policy opponents to Iran’s terrorist Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Donald Trump incited a riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Delegitimization is the political strategy of the day. Rather than accept losses gracefully, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams both questioned the legitimacy of their losses years before Trump did the same. This does not excuse Trump. Rather, it just shows that neither party’s leaders have a monopoly on virtue.
Even more corrosive than delegitimizing elections are the growing efforts to delegitimize the Supreme Court and its conservative majority. For too long, the political Left has sought to use the court to make an end run around the legislative process. As the court turns, it is unwilling to accept the strategy’s unraveling. Not only have confirmation hearings become trials by slander, but also, in the wake of the leak that the court would overturn Roe v. Wade and then after the court delivered its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling, liberals have taken to protesting justices at their homes, shattering a longtime redline to protect civility. Such an atmosphere is escalatory. Last month, police arrested an armed man outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home. Kavanaugh was ambushed by protesters at a Washington steakhouse on Thursday evening. It probably won’t be the last time, all the more so as the court begins to tackle long-simmering social debates.
If activists convince themselves that officials are illegitimate despite election or confirmation, then they lessen the threshold to political violence. Messiah complexes may lead some activists to conclude that they are heroes, serving the common good and rescuing tens of millions of people by killing a justice or a senator in a tightly divided Senate.
The political class need not be helpless, however. Nor should it be reactive. Rather, it behooves both Democrats and Republicans to pledge that they will never allow such violence to work. This means that President Joe Biden and the Democratic majority in the Senate will pledge that they will not reward an assassin seeking to change the court’s composition by nominating a figure with a different perspective. Republicans should make the same pledge. The same holds true with governors. Should an assassin strike down a sitting senator, his or her state’s governor, if of the opposite party, will appoint an acting senator from the party of the victim rather than his or her own choice.
Rogue regimes seize and ransom hostages because it works. States sponsor terrorism for the same reason. Political assassination is a cousin to terrorism. It cannot be allowed to work here. It is time for Democrats and Republicans to voice a pledge now: Assassination will never work. It will set back political aims. It will never achieve them. Political violence to change the composition of the Supreme Court or Congress will never stand.
Michael Rubin (@mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential. He is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
