Violence—and the threat of violence—has long been a solid staple of “conservatism.” From the Civil War to the present day, one of the most consistent defining characteristics of right-wing dogma has been the implicit or explicit threat of inflicting violence on other Americans in order to get their way. Often that violence has been directed at people unable to defend themselves; think of  Klansmen and White “Rifle Clubs” terrorizing southern Blacks in the wake of this country’s aborted attempts at Reconstruction, or braying white crowds spitting their venomous hatred at Black children sitting at lunch counters or trying to walk into a school. Because attacking or killing people who have little or no recourse to defend themselves is the easiest type of violence to inflict, it’s also been the most prevalent, visible type of violence in our country’s history. But the last five years have seen a radical, new embrace of violence by the right, one egged on by the ubiquity of social media. It’s a violence directed not only against marginalized and minority communities who they disdain, but now against their political opponents as well. The election of Donald Trump, who constantly channeled violent feelings among his supporters toward immigrants, the press, and liberals, normalized that violence for them and made it acceptable. Following Trump’s lead, the Republican Party has now wholeheartedly embraced employing the threat of violence as a useful, legitimate political tactic. One of the key ways they’ve managed to do this is by convincing millions of American men that threatening violence is an acceptable way of expressing and defining their ”masculinity.” As a natural consequence of this deliberate glorification of male-centric violence, many of the targets of this tactic turn out to be women. Read more