The US is at war with itself and it could get worse before it gets better

As the United States comes to terms with a wave of right-wing terror, some are pondering whether the modern birthplace of constitutional democracy is on the brink of witnessing an unprecedented level of mass political violence or even another civil war.

In the past week alone, a string of pipe bombs were sent to the leadership of the Democratic Party, individuals identified with the left, and the international cable news giant CNN, while on Saturday a right-wing extremist walked into a Pittsburgh Synagogue, declaring, “All Jews must die” before massacring 11 Jewish worshippers.

A swallow or two certainly does not make a summer, and nor do a series of bombs and a mass shooting constitute Armageddon, but there’s little doubt the US finds itself confronting a violent fascist movement, which not least threatens to morph into a bloody insurgency. What makes it more worrying, is that it is primed and led by the current sitting president of the United States.

On Monday, bombs were sent to former president Barack Obama, former vice president Joe Biden, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, former attorney general Eric Holder, former FBI director John Brennan, former head of the Democratic National Committee Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, billionaire philanthropist George Soros, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), and actor Robert De Niro.

Significantly, all of the above have been vilified by Trump with conspiracy theories, racist tropes, and outright falsehoods at his rallies in recent times, a fact conveniently ignored by the president when he called for “unity”, while giving a vague condemnation of “political violence”.

Yes, the same guy who calls immigrants “rapists” and “drug dealers”; who smears black athletes who silently protest injustices in the criminal justice system as “sons of bitches”; and who mocks Gold Star families, the handicapped, and the appearance of women, is now calling for “unity”.

And the same guy who said the "2nd Amendment people" (gun advocates) would “take care” of Hillary if she, instead of him, won the 2016 election; who calls journalists "enemies of the American people"; praised a congressman who assaulted a reporter; warned of widespread violence if he were impeached and praised attendees at his rallies for beating up protesters, is now condemning “political violence”.

If these realities aren’t enough to make a mockery of Trump’s typically hollow words, then consider that the US President put out a tweet fewer than 24 hours after the foiled pipe bomb attacks blaming the news media, one of the attacker’s intended victims.

Moreover, this was a deliberate attempt to take out the leadership structure of Trump’s political opposition and terrorise his media critics, a fact intentionally obfuscated by Trump and his political allies on the right, which only makes these tumultuous times even more dangerous and deadly.

While the fact the US finds itself more politically polarised today than at any other time since the Civil War of the mid-19th Century has been well documented, what is reported less, however, is the fact that right-wing terrorism has spiked since Trump announced his candidacy in 2014.

Is Donald Trump radicalising Americans?

A new report shows that two-thirds of terror attacks in the US during the past 12 months were tied to groups and individuals aligned with right-wing politics, including those who espouse racist, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitic, anti-government and xenophobic motivations. 

Moreover, the report shows a surge in political violence, with domestic terrorism attacks spiking to 65 in 2017, up from six in the previous year, the last year of the Obama presidency.

Right-wing extremists have carried out terrorist attacks on mosques, anti-racist protesters, gay bars, and political organisations associated with left-leaning politics, while right-wing mobs have attacked people in the streets of major cities and death threats to journalists and liberal politicians have become commonplace.

All of which brings us back to the question of whether the United States finds itself on the brink of another civil war?

When I asked Peter Singer, a conflict analyst and author of Like War: the Weaponization of Social Media, about the likelihood of another conflict on US soil, he told me: “I think the worry that many people in the research and national security community have is that underlying factors that we have seen fuel larger violence in other nations are scarily popping up in ours. 

“When looking at security risks in other nations, we look for things like weakened political institutions, rule of law under threat, free media attacked, physical violence encouraged by politicians, civil-military relations poisoned, etc. All of these are in a worse place in US history than in decades, we have a president who is breaking all sorts of norms of behaviour.”

It’s also poignant to consider that there was no Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, or Instagram when battle lines were drawn across the continental United States more than 150 years ago. Poignant because social media acts as somewhat of a force multiplier, a reality underscored by the fact a heavily outgunned and outnumbered Daesh essentially took the Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014 via a coordinated barrage of terrifying and threatening Tweets and Facebook posts.

“Social media has shaped everything from news to dating, and it has already been influential in the violence we've seen,” warns Singer.

“For example, since the rise of the ‘alt-right’ in 2014, 43 people have been killed and more than 60 injured by young men whose social media use evinced a similar ideology. 

“More broadly, what social media has done is both bring us all together, but also risk tearing us apart, as, well, the people using it to exploit and hate are ahead of the game right now.”

To this end, Trump is the first US president to govern by Twitter. His Twitter storms not only direct media discourse, but also rile up his most ardent supporters, many of whom are willing to use violence against those Trump has identified as the dangerous other: journalists, intelligence officers (“Deep State”), political opponents, immigrants, and liberals writ large.

Words not only have consequences, but all wars begin with, well, words. 

A reality lost on Trump, and a reality that has put the country’s comparative peaceful and cohesive stability under threat through forces mobilised by the words of the President of the United States.

Whatever one makes of the past week or the first two years of the Trump presidency, there’s no disputing the fact the current US president has awoken and unleashed a violent fascist movement, one that promises to get far worse before it finds its end.