"Things look a little different in the US these days. Leaves are turning, the football stadiums are full, and children are planning their trick-or-treating routes; there are also masked men snatching people off the streets, while the US military has had boots on the ground in four major cities, another state, and the nation's capital. Last week, Illinois governor JB Pritzker went on national television and suggested federal immigration agents can be held legally accountable for how they conduct themselves."
"Elected officials such as Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia have spoken openly about a " national divorce." It's impossible to look around and not wonder whether the US is teetering on the brink -though of what, is the question. Ordinary, reasonable people are openly talking about whether the country is on the verge of something comparable to a slow-rolling civil conflict, if not something worse."
"Familiar frameworks, like the US Civil War or the Troubles in Northern Ireland, probably present too square a peg for the present round hole. "I'm creating a new hole for the peg," says Robert Pape, a professor at the University of Chicago who has been studying political violence for the past three decades. Since 2022, he's been working on a new concept he calls "violent populism," which he thinks could better represent the country's current moment."
Unusual public safety incidents and visible military deployments in multiple cities and the capital coexist with routine seasonal life. Political actors have publicly proposed radical solutions, and state officials have suggested legal accountability for federal immigration enforcement. Increasing numbers of ordinary people express concern about the country approaching a slow-rolling civil conflict or worse. Historians warn that familiar conflict models do not fit current dynamics. A new concept, termed "violent populism," is proposed to describe a middle ground between full-scale civil war and ordinary nasty politics, reflecting growing acceptance of political violence.
Read at WIRED
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