In September of 1963 — as the Civil Rights Act and nationalized desegregation reached inevitability — the Ku Klux Klan perpetrated one of the most despicable acts of domestic terrorism in American history when they bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., murdering four Black girls. Two months after the attack, John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
In 1971, the Weather Underground radicals set off a bomb in the U.S. Capitol in opposition to the Vietnam War, sending a chill through the nation by striking at its seat of power.
The terror attacks were committed by groups with wildly different ideologies, but the reason was the same: our democratic system had rejected their beliefs and left them furiously marginalized. One was a group of reactionary racists and the other was fanatical Marxists. The Klan opposed the policies of a Democrat president; the Weather Underground targeted a Republican. Both chose violence within the same tumultuous period in our history.
And, of course, today marks four years since a violent mob invaded the Capitol in pursuit of a political objective on Jan. 6, 2021 to overturn a fair and free democratic presidential election.
The political pendulum swings predictably in our country from left to right like a metronome, marking time — but sometimes it swings much faster than others. And, when it does, the pendulum can become a scythe.
We have swung from Obama/left to Trump/right to Biden/left and back again in the space of eight years, and each time the pendulum has picked up speed. The acceptable rhetoric became increasingly hotter. The frustration with the system angrier. Belief in it shakier.
And the shakier our belief in the system, the more emboldened people feel to topple it.
We have reached another point in our history when words no longer seem to work. We are in an era of action now. But will it bring constructive disruption or destruction?
In the past, Americans literally took to the streets to express their outrage. Protesters filled the National Mall and occupied buildings. And while we have seen versions of that in our recent history — Occupy Wall Street, the George Floyd marches, anti-Israel encampments — the rage is increasingly online — and that makes this particular precarious moment all the more dangerous.
It is well-documented that online rage breeds real world violence as addiction to anger intensifies and the anonymous and virtual nature of the Internet more easily allows for dehumanization. Mix that with constant feeds of false information masquerading as news and you get a deadly stew. And while there isn’t much we can do about the ingredients, we can at least attempt to lower the temperature so it doesn’t boil over.
Aside from increasing investments in programs that train people to identify and report or deescalate antisocial behavior, our leaders must take proactive steps to engage and listen to marginalized members of their communities, and to moderate their own rhetoric with humility. News organizations should do the same, focusing more often on the issues and not the war of words; on common ground and not extreme views. And as individuals we must make one of our New Year’s resolutions a commitment to understanding others in our daily lives.
All of this is much easier said than done. Inevitably, the issues dividing our country are so intense that they will need to be addressed by generational leadership.
President Jimmy Carter, who we lay to rest this week, was a model to follow. He inherited a country with low confidence in itself and its institutions following political scandal, economic strife driven by inflation, and disagreement over our approach to conflicts in the Middle East and Asia. Sound familiar?
In his inaugural address, Carter said “Let us create together a new national spirit of unity and trust. Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.”
Of course, Carter was a one-term president, and the pendulum swung back to the right after just four years of his leadership — but it swung more slowly thereafter. The country still had plenty of problems and division, but the subsequent period was not quite as chaotic and our confidence increased. Prosperity followed.
This year we will choose that virtuous path or one much more terrifying. The era of action is here.
Thies is a Democratic political consultant and the co-founder of Pythia Public Affairs.
