US elected officials avoiding topics of abortion and gun control over fear of threats
Tens of thousands of state legislators and elected local officials are avoiding hot-button policy issues such as abortion and gun control because they are fearful of the backlash of intimidating abuse, a new report has found.
A major survey by the Brennan Center for Justice released on Thursday warned that the spate of extremist intimidation that has been seen nationally in the US, epitomized by the attack on the Capitol building on 6 January 2021, is also sweeping local and state politics. In the fallout, elected individuals are limiting their interactions with constituents and narrowing the contentious topics they are prepared to take on.
Some are even contemplating quitting public life altogether. Such chilling of public discourse poses a threat to the functioning of representative democracy at every level of government, the Brennan Center, a non-partisan authority on law and policy, concludes.
The center conducted a survey of 350 state legislators and more than 1,350 local officeholders working in towns, municipalities and county government. It found that more than 40% of state lawmakers had experienced threats or attacks in the past three years, while almost one in five local officials faced the same abuse over 18 months.
Almost one in 10 state legislators reported that they had been intimidated by a person wielding a weapon. Many others faced death threats, including one state lawmaker who said they had received a message that provided granular detail down to the date, time and precise location where an attack would take place.
The abuse is often directly related to the policy positions that elected individuals have adopted over contentious issues such as gun control and abortion. That in turn is having a withering impact on the democratic process, the Brennan Center warns.
Some 39% of locally elected officials and more than one in five state lawmakers said they were less willing to advocate for contentious policies for fear of abuse. When those figures are extrapolated for all public servants in state and local government, many tens of thousands of officials are affected.
At a time when the US is experiencing record numbers of mass shootings, gun regulations were repeatedly mentioned as an area in which lawmakers were holding back for fear of attack. Kelly Cassidy, a Democratic representative in the Illinois legislature, told the researchers that she decided not to lead bills that would introduce safety controls on firearms because “my kids were too little, the threats were too common and too on point”.
Public service is being distorted in other ways. Many officials said they are now less likely to participate in public events, post on social media, visit public spaces when off-duty or bring their family members with them, or make media appearances.
A similar pattern has been seen on the national stage, with politicians becoming increasingly wary of confronting controversial subjects. Liz Cheney, the former leading Republican in the US House of Representatives who was herself forced out of her Wyoming seat in retaliation for her criticisms of Donald Trump, has alleged that some of her party colleagues voted not to impeach Trump over his role in the Capital insurrection because they were afraid for their lives.
Concern for the safety of elected individuals has become a top priority for the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, as the country enters the 2024 presidential election year. On 5 January he convened a meeting at the justice department to discuss increasing protection for all public servants, from law enforcement personnel, members of Congress and judges, to election workers.
Garland said the country was seeing “a deeply disturbing spike in threats against those who serve the public”. The abuse threatened “the fabric of our democracy”.
Kristine Reeves, a Democratic lawmaker from Washington state, told the Guardian that as the first Black woman elected to the state house in 2016 she now has to think carefully before addressing hard political topics. She recently introduced a bill that would disqualify anyone convicted of acts of insurrection from running for state office under the 14th amendment of the US constitution.
The blowback has been extreme, she said. “White men have come online and told me that I need to be hanged. They have called my office and suggested that me and my family need to watch out because we’ve got what’s coming to us. It’s one thing to take those risks on for yourself; it’s completely another to do so knowing that you’re putting your family in harm’s way.”
Reeves belongs to a demographic group that is bearing the brunt of the incipient political violence sweeping the US. The Brennan survey shows that women – and women of colour in particular – are disproportionately likely to endure severe abuse, often of a sexual nature and frequently with the threats extending to their families including children.
Reeves and her election campaigns team have been forced to limit contact with the public. They have curtailed the canvassing of citizens during elections – a bedrock of US democracy – with door knocking increasingly replaced by phone banking, mail outs and virtual events.
When canvassers do go out, Reeves encourages them to travel in pairs and to avoid knocking on doors alone. “It sounds crazy to say this out loud as a woman of colour, but if we have a Black man going out, we encourage him to go with a white counterpart, just to ensure that there’s a de-escalation opportunity.”
Canvassers are also handed pepper spray in case of attacks. Reeves herself was abused on a doorstep recently when she was called the N-word.
As the election year unfolds, the volatile language and imagery used by Trump at his rallies and in fundraising communications is raising concern about what might lie ahead. Trump has taken to calling convicted rioters from the January 6 insurrection “hostages”.
In a recent fundraising email the Trump campaign offered supporters free “Make America great again” knives, with “razor-sharp, 3.5[in]” flick blades. The knives are recommended for “military personnel”, “tactical enthusiasts”, and “law enforcement” and are described as a “symbol of patriotic pride” that are perfect for “self-defense”.
If we have a Black man going out, we encourage him to go with a white counterpart
Kristine Reeves