Major party perspective differences

I long time Republican friend suggested I read the excellent article by Rita Hart published on November thirteenth. After seeing that this was only one of two articles written by the Chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties I was a bit surprised until I had carefully read both of them. The first sentence in Ms. Hart’s article was, “Why can’t we all just get along?” The rest of the article continued along this line of reasoning with no attacks or allegations against anyone or any group. This is markedly different from Mr. Kaufmann’s where the title is, “Political violence isn’t symmetrical. It’s escalating on the left, and political leaders must call it out.” The first two sentences in his article are, “We keep hearing calls to ‘encourage thoughtful discourse’ and ‘discourage violent rhetoric.’ That’s true, and I have.” Then he spends the next several paragraphs attacking the left by mentioning some specific examples. These examples are very important at their face value but need careful examination.

First, all violence and terrorist are bad and need eradication but without context some may be misconstrued. Take for example Mr. Kaufmann’s comments about the recent report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies that left-wing terrorist attacks are on the rise and have reached their highest levels in decades, surpassing those from the far right. Mr. Kaufmann’s are correct but he has ‘cherry picked’ the information he got from this report and therefore mislead the readers as to the real significance of the CSIS report. Maybe he thought no one would be intelligent enough to check his statements for truthfulness but this writer did just that. Therefore, it is important to present some important information from this report so that the readers can get a better understanding.

While the left-wing attacks are on the rise a comparison of the number of the right- and left-wing attacks cannot be ignored as shown by the CSIS report figure below. It shows that in the 30 year time frame between 1994 and 2024 the right-wing attacks were more than 10 times the left-wing attacks for almost every year. The number of people killed in these attacks are almost 10 times more in right-wing attacks. Only in 2025 has this behavior reversed and the CSIS reported several possible reasons for this change:

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1) Although it is impossible to definitively prove the link between the policies of and positions championed in Trump’s second term and the decline in right-wing terrorism incidents in the United States, it is probable that at least some extremists do not feel the need to act violently if their concerns are being addressed.

2) Most notably, the administration has aggressively targeted immigrants, with high-profile efforts to identify, detain, and deport them. Anti-immigrant sentiment is one of the most important violent extremist motivations in recent years. The Trump administration has also warned of “deep state” abuses, criticized and abolished programs involving diversity, promoted some conspiracy theories, and hired individuals who openly embraced white supremacy.

3) Trump’s victory temporarily ended many concerns about a Democrat-orchestrated “stolen election.”

4) Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys leader and a convicted seditionist whom Trump pardoned, recently summed up the president’s potential psychological effect on the violent far right: “Honestly, what do we have to complain about these days?”

5) Left-wing attacks are remarkably less lethal overall than jihadist or right-wing attacks. [Writer’s Note: Such as the attacks in Charlotte, North Carolina] … the typical target selection, scope, and weapon selection of left-wing attackers reflect an intent to signal opposition or cause disruption rather than inflict mass casualties.

In the CSIS conclusion, “What Is to Be Done?” it is stated, ”Finally, although leaders are not responsible for extremists in their midst, they are responsible for how they behave toward extremists. U.S. political leaders and activists need to lead by condemning violence on their side and calling for calm when it involves violence on the other side. The American Muslim response to jihadist terrorism offers a useful model. … Many leading Democrats have vehemently condemned the Kirk shooting. Similarity, for their part, many prominent Republicans also immediately condemned right-wing attacks in recent years … But the track record is far from perfect. The celebrations among some on the left of Luigi Mangione is a failure to undermine support for left-wing violence. Similarly, the failure of some conservative leaders to condemn white supremacists and other violent extremists is a major problem, allowing these extremists to believe they are carrying out the will of a broader political movement.”

It can now clearly be seen that Mr. Kaufmann’s statements were, while technically true, highly misleading for the average reader. For all who read carefully read a variety of news accounts the misleading character of Mr. Kaufmann’s article of many on the right considering that our President, in his first term was documented as having made 30,573 false or misleading claims as president. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/how-fact-checker-tracked-trump-claims/2021/01/23/ad04b69a-5c1d-11eb-a976-bad6431e03e2_story.html) It is also important for all readers to note that the Washington Post Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network code of principles. All voters or just political supporters of a political candidate should not allow themselves to be a mental lemming by just believing everything said by the candidate but should verify any important statement made by a non-partisan source which is difficult but VERY important.

Bob Roddy, Washington