Let’s get the obligatory but very short list of left wing political violence out of the way. James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, Ill shot up the Republican congressional baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia, wounding Republican Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana. There was the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. I will never call him “president.” And in March of this year, an alleged arsonist torched the Republican Party headquarters in New Mexico.

Unlike left-wing violence, MAGA violence is rooted in ideology

And, as I will show, this MAGA ideology is consistent with the kind of ideology that has powered the longest-running, bloodiest conflicts in world history.

Remember “Second Amendment remedies?” Plainly rooted in the ironic right-wing canard about gun ownership being a bulwark against tyrannical government, Second Amendment remedies imply the potential use of firearms against government and government officials.

This was the rationale that Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle provided in 2010 when she mentioned possible “second amendment remedies” as a last-resort “cure” for “Harry Reid problems.“

In 2022, MAGA candidate Eric Greitens ran a campaign ad that suggested gun violence against people: “Join the MAGA crew … Get a Rino hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit, and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.” In 2010, MAGA candidate Pamela Gorman created a campaign ad that glorified the discharging of firearms. Imagine how MAGA would react if that were a campaign ad for a Black Lives Matter candidate.

In an April 2013 newsletter published by the Republican Party of Benton County, the husband of Benton County’s GOP Secretary made it clear: “We need to let those who will come in the future to represent us that we are serious. The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives. … [W]e have to have something, something costly, something that they will fear that we will use if they step out of line. If we can’t shoot them, we have to at least be firm in our threat to take immediate action against them politically, socially, and civically if they screw up on something this big. Personally, I think a gun is quicker and more merciful, but hey, we can’t.”

“Second Amendment remedies.”

Some MAGA feel so comfortable and justified in calling for political violence that they put their real names and addresses out there for all to see. One of the targets of that MAGA-incited violence was the Tucson office of then-Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. Yeah, that Gabby Giffords — the Gabby Giffords who was shot not long after Sarah Palin circulated a campaign graphic consisting of targets drawn on a map and Democratic lawmakers named. The entire blog is loaded with imagery of political violence.

A few more representative snippets shown below appeared here:

“God gave us this land”

A widespread belief among MAGA is that God gave them this land — the United States — that should be made into a new “Christian Holy Land” that belongs to them and them alone.

The far right Claremont Institute asserts that “By definition the notion of Election implies a special relationship between God and the United States of America.” The American Heritage Education Foundation argues that theocracy was an underlying precept of the entire founding of this nation: “These principles and values stem from, among other sources, the colonial and state constitutions, the Great Awakening, select Enlightenment-era thought, the Declaration, and the Bible. In these particular sources, colonial and founding-era Americans, as well as the political philosophers they read, adhered to a Creator-oriented, Bible-based worldview with certain understandings of truth, morality, and humanity. As such, their views ultimately shaped the laws, practices, and design of their Constitution.”

All of these roads lead to the same place: MAGA believes that this land belongs to them and to them alone, to be ruled by their God and theirs alone.

The belief that God gave an entire nation or region to a single group of people has an invariably bloody history. In the case of the United States, this belief has inspired some to justify the genocide of Native Americans: “In all the discussions about the European settlement of the New World, one feature has been conspicuously absent: the role that the superstition, savagery and sexual immorality of native Americans played in making them morally disqualified from sovereign control of American soil.”

Notice that, with MAGA, it is always about sex. Always. The author of that piece seriously argued that sexual “sin” justified the slaughter of an entire people.

So the “divinely inspired” political violence and murder continues

1. The plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. (The cluelessness of much of the media is evident in the headline’s extremely inaccurate description of the perpetrators as “anti-government.” Fascists are not anti-government. Fascists are extremely pro-government. Fascists are in favor of total government, unlimited government, and unaccountable government with no avenues for redress of grievances.)
2. The attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband by David DePape. Fascist Charlie Kirk pleaded for an “amazing patriot” to bail Paul Pelosi’s attacker out of jail.
3. The double murder and double attempted murder of Democratic lawmakers in Minnesota.
4. The January 6th insurrection, some of whom came with premeditated murder in mind — inspired in part by MAGA’s belief that God gave this land to them and to them alone.
5. Republican Congressman Paul Gosar, who even looks like a walking, talking booking photo, circulated an anime video of himself killing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Only two Republicans voted to censure him.
6. More than a dozen election workers have received death threats.
7. Threats to teachers and school officials have nearly tripled since 2020.
8. And the above is just a tiny, tiny sampling.

MAGA’s most extreme elements will stop at nothing, and resort to whatever violence it takes to achieve their total control, not only because MAGA is a full fascist movement, but because MAGA believes that God gave this land to them, and to them alone.