Political violence in a historical perspective

Jared Loughner’s attempt to kill Representative Gabrielle Giffords is tragic and completely unjustifiable. Six others died in the attempt, including US District Judge John Roll. I have no doubt that the event will become politicized as an extreme symptom of the polarized political atmosphere in the US today. I am going to eschew the histrionics that our democracy is falling apart. Sadly, political killings have long been a feature of US history. Nowhere is this more evident than in the civil rights struggle that lasted for more than 100 years, from the assassination of President Lincoln through the deaths of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X in the 1960s.

What seem relevant to me is that in the US, we do not glorify lone perpetrators of political violence. I have never met a person who admires John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, or John Hinckley, Jr. This strikes me as relevant. In the US, however strongly we may disagree, we do not condone lone violence as an acceptable as a means to political end.