Has Politics Become Violent?

I may be wrong, but the last time that someone pushed their way into the home of a public figure (read: politician) and was going to whack the politician over the head was on April 14, 1865, when a guy named Lewis Powell attempted to shoot Secretary of State William Seward.

The gun used by Powell misfired, so he charged into the bedroom where Seward was lying in his bed and hit Seward over the head with the butt of the gun. He then stabbed Seward several times before running out of the house.

Seward recovered from his wounds and Powell ended up in the picture above. What Powell attempted to do to Seward was successfully done by Booth against Lincoln the same night.

Threats are one thing — physical assaults are something else. For all the talk about how political rhetoric in this country has become so violent, the bottom line is that for the most part it’s just talk.

In my state — Massachusetts — I don’t believe there has ever been a single, physical assault on a public figure or even a threat of such an assault. Now you would think that in Massachusetts, where a Republican (to steal a phrase) can’t get elected dog-catcher unless he or she sounds like a conservative Democrat, that the few nuts who stand around on weekends in various public spaces with their signs warning against abortions, or immunizations would sooner…