Stop acting like they aren't serious about violence
Take it from me...they are
We are sleepwalking into a dangerous place
I don’t know what to tell you. Time after time we are hearing Donald Trump call Americans enemies. Time after time we are hearing his supporters promise retribution for the perceived attacks on him and their allies. It is only a matter of time until they are acting on those promises.
They already did. We all watched it on January 6th, 2021.
We are seeing the same rhetoric now but this time they are listing their enemies, they are filing frivolous lawsuits, and putting out plans to alter the government to make it perfectly legal if Trump takes back the White House.
Even if he doesn’t you’ve got people like Dan Bongino putting out these kinds of promises:
“We are not forgetting about shit. Do you get that? We are going to find everyone of these people accountable. If we can’t get find politicians that will do it than we will find someone else. There is zero percent chance we are going back to normal.”
I know because I am on those lists. My friends are on those lists. We have been sued. We have been doxxed (multiple times). We have had the mysterious vehicles lurking outside our homes at night. We get the messages delivered to us daily with our addresses in them.
None of this is to say we are scared or will back down from this fight but it is to say that those who aren’t being targeted need to take it seriously because we are nothing more than the first round. Movements that hunger for violence don’t stop with the first set of names. They must feed the beast. They must have more enemies and it is a very short trip from opponent to target.
The numbers aren’t reassuring
We are fortunate to have researchers willing to take a look at these issues. The Violence Prevention Research Program at UC-Davis has been examining gun violence for years but since 2022 began surveying American attitudes towards political violence. The results aren’t going to help you sleep at night.
The paper, “Views of democracy and society and support for political violence in the USA: findings from a nationally representative survey, ” was published in Injury Epidemiology in September 2023. The author of the project, Dr. Garen Wintemute, recently won the prestigious Jess Kraus award for the work and he is my guest on my show this week.
We had a chance to talk about the factors at play in rising support for political violence, what drives this trend, and what shocking attitudes about a potential civil war in the country mean and how it could play out. Fortunately, he has also examined ways to turn the tide and reduce the likelihood this could happen in a widespread way in the U.S.
I don’t often say that a show is a must watch or that it will shock you but this one is a must watch and it will shock you. It’s personal to me as well. This weekend NPR’s award winning show and podcast, ‘This American Life’ will air an episode focused on those in the crosshairs of a second Trump administration’s calls for retribution including myself, my friends the Vindman’s, and others. I hope you can catch it.
In the meantime, watch or listen to this latest episode of ‘On Democracy with FPWellman’ to understand the scope of what we face.
The show
Dr. Garen Wintemute
Dr. Garen J. Wintemute is a renowned expert on the public health crisis of gun violence and a pioneer in the field of injury epidemiology and prevention of firearm violence. He is the director of the Violence Prevention Research Program at the University of California-Davis which recently published a highly regarded study on American attitudes about political violence and is in the midst of an updated survey. He has testified before Congress and served as a consultant for the National Institute of Justice; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms; and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. You can learn more about his work at https://health.ucdavis.edu/vprp/ and read the entire study for free at https://injepijournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40621-023-00456-3
The latest ‘In the Hot Seat’
New episodes of ‘In the Hot Seat with FPWellman’ continue to post on the MeidasTouch Network. I had the pleasure to speak with Representative Lisa Blunt Rochester this past week. She is the Democratic nominee for Senate in Delaware and has built a life of continuous public service like few I’ve seen both in and out of government and elected office. One of my favorite interviews to date.
Help if you can provide it
If you are able I would appreciate your support for our legal defense fund to fight back against the lawfare being waged by Michael Flynn and his allies with seemingly endless supplies of money. We have been spending all of the money raised to maintain our legal team as this case drags into its 6 month without relief from the federal courts. Any help is appreciated and will be put to use.
Thank you for all of your support.
I’m not sleepwalking into anything, I KNOW they’re serious. They’ve already shown us they are serious. MULTIPLE times. Honestly it’s not me or other voters that need to be taking this serious, it’s law enforcement. It’s the FBI, the Secret Service, Homeland Security & multiple other agencies. And not only within their agencies, they need to ramp up public warnings & their visual presence! It’s insane that we’ve come to this place in time but here we are. The punishments for the J6 participants have been laughable & mostly directed at pawns. Not one person in power, not one person who is ACTUALLY responsible for J6 has been indicted let alone tried & convicted. Oh we are in for a wild & dangerous ride that’s for certain. And that’s no matter what the outcome of this Nov election is.
Hope that the FBI has infiltrated the usual suspects. Hope they catch all the creeps that threaten you.
So far, DOJ has not enforced 18 USC §2385. Advocating overthrow of Government:
Whoever knowingly or willfully advocates, abets, advises, or teaches the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying the government of the United States or the government of any State, Territory, District or Possession thereof, or the government of any political subdivision therein, by force or violence, or by the assassination of any officer of any such government; or
Whoever, with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of any such government, prints, publishes, edits, issues, circulates, sells, distributes, or publicly displays any written or printed matter advocating, advising, or teaching the duty, necessity, desirability, or propriety of overthrowing or destroying any government in the United States by force or violence, or attempts to do so; or
Whoever organizes or helps or attempts to organize any society, group, or assembly of persons who teach, advocate, or encourage the overthrow or destruction of any such government by force or violence; or becomes or is a member of, or affiliates with, any such society, group, or assembly of persons, knowing the purposes thereof—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
If two or more persons conspire to commit any offense named in this section, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both, and shall be ineligible for employment by the United States or any department or agency thereof, for the five years next following his conviction.
As used in this section, the terms "organizes" and "organize", with respect to any society, group, or assembly of persons, include the recruiting of new members, the forming of new units, and the regrouping or expansion of existing clubs, classes, and other units of such society, group, or assembly of persons.