For decades now, political pundits and analysts have been making the same observation over and over and over again: that being that somewhere along the line American politics became meaner than it once was. These people completely misunderstand American politics; they know nothing of the political history of this nation and, either mistakenly or intentionally, they are misinforming you. America’s politics have always been violent, which is probably one of the reasons so few people enjoy talking about politics in America. You have to have a bit of a taste for the profane as an American political observer. People who say such silly things will always try to find one distinct causes of American political violence; the conservatives point to defund the police, while liberals point to Trump supporters. But there is an overall trend in both sides of the political spectrum toward violent rhetoric. This makes sense considering the fact that early American colonizers committed a genocide on the Native population of this country and did not even bat an eye about it. Still today there are Americans who refuse to even recognize that the aforementioned mass killing even took place or who exclaim at the top of their lungs, “get over it or get out of my country!” The same thing is often said about slavery. Today Americans are so ready to forget that slavery ever took place that they are more than ready to ban the teaching of it in school altogether! They are doing this because they refuse to admit to their ancestors’ violent history and, in so doing, they are bolstering, encouraging and promoting the same violent history. The Salem witch trials are another perfect example of America’s willingness to engage in violent acts (in this case the mass drowning, burning and torture of its own citizens) in order to solidify political power. After the mass genocide of the Native population, America then proceeded to kidnap Native children from their homes and hold them captive in “schools” where torture was inflicted upon them in order to prevent them from practicing their culture in public. It does not get much more politically violent than that. We also should not forget that it was once commonplace to ruthlessly beat women both at home and on the job. We also often forget the mass use of child labor in the United States. Children worked under awful conditions and were often injured or killed on the job during the industrial revolution. The barbaric practice of forcing children to work ten hour days with little rest did not end in America until the 1930s. Then there was the internment of the Japanese, not to mention the brutal treatment of Chinese railroad workers. Chinese workers were paid less and hundreds lost their lives in squalid conditions that no American today would accept. Fast forward to today and homeless people meander through the street; they sleep on the sidewalk in front of luxury stores while bleeding from the head. Cops come along and thaw corpses off of park benches before the day’s work begins. Veterans, who risked their lives for this nation, sleep in tent cities. Countless people were simply tossed out of their homes because they lost their jobs through no fault of their own. People with serious disabilities are refused checks because America’s wallet has tightened just as much as its heart. And what of America's secret love affair with domestic violence? According to the NCADV, intimate partner violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime in the U.S.A. 10 million people in a year suffer from domestic violence, that amounts to a shocking one in four woemen and one in nine men. Is this not ruthless? Callous? Is this not violence? Is it not violent to call for the killing of elected officials or celebrities? It was when they did it to AOC, Mike Pence, Liz Cheney, Josh McDermitt, Anna Gunn, and Adam Kizinger. But it is not new, just ask JFK, RFK, FDR, Malcolm X, John Lennon, Jodi Foster, and many, many more.