Are Progressives Being Violently Targeted in the United States?

And if so, who is to blame?

I recently stumbled upon an article by Rob Henderson (“Two Murders—and the Cost of Luxury Beliefs”) suggesting that the American elite is insulated from—and largely ignorant of—the violence that low-income Americans experience on a regular basis. Sadly, this is really not news, especially as it pertains to violence against women and people of color.

The author goes on to discuss his theory of “luxury beliefs,” which he defines as “ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.” An example of this is the move—in the wake of horrific police murder of George Floyd and other Black men and women during the COVID-19 pandemic—to “defund the police.”  

I always thought calling to “defund the police” was a wrong-headed approach, and did the movement to constrain police violence no favors. We need to be a bit more nuanced than that—though the phrase is certainly catchy.

I’ve always thought that was a wrong-headed approach, and did the movement to constrain police violence no favors. Reform the police? Re-train police to de-escalate dangerous situations? Divert a significant chunk of existing police funding to community-based social and psychiatric services? There are so many better ways to go about this kind of reform. But defund the police? Get rid of policing, even or especially in neighborhoods plagued with violent crime? I think we need to be a bit more nuanced than that in our approach (though “defund the police” is definitely catchy.)

But I digress. What has my attention for the moment is the secondary focus of this article, whose sub-head is: “The death of two progressive activists shocked the nation. And that says everything about crime and class in America.” The article goes on to reference the murder on October 4 of a high-profile supporter of “justice reform” in Brooklyn. Then it mentions that hours earlier, activist and journalist Josh Kruger was shot and killed in his Philadelphia home. It also says that “two Democratic lawmakers who voted to ‘redirect funding to community-based policing reforms’ have been recent victims of violent crime,” and that Rep. Henry Cuellas (D-TX) was carjacked by three armed men just blocks away from the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. earlier this week (though luckily he was unharmed).

The connecting thread is that the aforementioned targets of violence were all left-leaning liberals or progressives. Are liberals now under literal violent attack in America?

What Henderson failed to note was the thread connecting all of these incidents: the fact that the targets of the violence were all left-leaning liberals or progressives.

Some of these incidents may have been random.  But the real question this all raises in my mind is this: Are we now living in a country where it is dangerous to espouse left-leaning beliefs? Are liberals under violent attack in America? Have we actually gotten to the point where it is dangerous to express beliefs that are even mildly critical of government, powerful people or the status quo?

Given the unceasingly violent rhetoric of the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president—and the very real violence that same person unleashed on January 6, 2021—this is no surprise. And of course it’s not just activists who find themselves under attack. Generals, judges, prosecutors, lawmakers, election workers, witnesses, journalists, whistleblowers, even a judge’s law clerk … all of these and more find themselves in need of special security to protect themselves against death threats just for doing their jobs and their civic duty.

I grew up during the Cold War, when American schoolchildren were taught that people were only targeted for their beliefs—or for doing their jobs when that threatened those in power—in repressive, authoritarian societies.

It certainly gives one pause.