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Political violence is like a drug that, once taken, is very hard to quit. Once the taboo is broken, it becomes very difficult, if not impossible, to pull people back from the brink and convince them to seek justice through lawful and peaceful means.
You can gain much insight into the political climate of a nation by seeing what heroes it celebrates.
That’s why it’s deeply concerning to see the lionization of Luigi Mangione, the alleged murderer of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
Since Mangione was caught by police at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania, the Internet has seen a broad outpouring of support for the suspected assassin. His fans have visited outside his prison, bringing “cards, gifts and dance parties,” according to the Daily Mail. Others have tattooed his face on their bodies or placed it on merchandise, and some have even raised more than $100,000 to help with legal fees.
Others, ironically, have placed hagiographic posters of the suspected killer looking like Jesus Christ — as if the Messiah would have engaged in cold-blooded murder.
His supporters aren’t limited to memesters and online radicals.
Several political figures, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have made “yes, but” statements condemning Thompson’s murder but trying to justify it by pointing out alleged problems with America’s healthcare system.
And therein lies the reason for all the rallying around Mangione. His alleged manifesto claims that “these parasites [health insurance CEOs] simply had it coming.” Some of Mangione’s fans have claimed that the murder of one CEO doesn’t compare to the crimes of health insurance companies, whose denial of claims supposedly causes many more deaths.
This article will not attempt to combat the claims that such people make against America’s healthcare system. The point here is that cold-blooded political violence is not the answer — no matter what the issue is.
America has already shown worrying signs that it is heading down this path — from the attempted assassination of Representative Steve Scalise in 2018 and the 2020 riots in response to the death of George Floyd that caused a historic $2 billion in damages to the threats against the Supreme Court in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision and the two failed assassination attempts on President-elect Donald Trump.
The trouble with political violence is that it multiplies — once the taboo is broken, it’s incredibly difficult to turn back without matters spiraling further out of control. In a normal period of peace, people think it’s unimaginable to try to murder a high-profile figure for political motives. Then they hear about it happening once, twice, three times, or more, and suddenly the unimaginable becomes increasingly more plausible — especially when maniacs see how they might be lionized by those who share their goals.
This is what happened in the leadup to the American Civil War. Northerners and Southerners on both sides of the question of slavery, for example, flooded Kansas to turn it their way politically. The result came to be known as “Bleeding Kansas,” a four-year-long internecine conflict that saw the deaths of 55 Americans and further inflamed the tensions that would explode at Fort Sumter a few years later.
Political violence is like a drug that, once taken, is very hard to quit. Why bother with the hard work of congressional debates, advocacy for causes you believe in, and winning elections? Not only do such things take time, but they also don’t always guarantee ultimate success. After all, elections can be lost and bills might fail to pass. Isn’t it much easier to simply find a high-profile target representing the “other side” and shoot them in the back?
Already, Mangione’s assassination of Brian Thompson has triggered worries over copycat killers attempting similar acts. A vile road sign was recently spotted in Seattle with the message: “one less CEO, many more to go.”
The people who boast about murdering CEOs presumably would not be happy if, instead of Thompson’s murder, the assassin would have gunned down Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood. Such a hypothetical killer could have claimed he was doing it to protest the almost 400,000 babies that the abortion giant murders every year.
They also would be equally outraged if conservative activists started murdering abortionists or shooting down Marxist professors or firebombing universities.
And they would be right to be horrified. But that’s the point: Once you start appealing to a philosophy of “might makes right,” there is no higher legal procedure you can appeal to, no lofty constitutional principles that will pull people back from the brink and convince them to engage in peaceful problem-solving.
No, as history shows, engaging in political assassination and vigilantism only kicks off a spiral of violence that could, God forbid, ultimately lead to Americans shooting each other in the streets in a second Civil War.
So let us pray that Americans heed this warning and return to the recognition that justice is best pursued in a court of law, not on the street.
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