Farah Siddiqi, Producer
Friday, June 20, 2025
Ohioans can't help but feel the emotional weight of political violence after last weekend's assassination of a top Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota, and the shooting of a fellow legislator.
Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were killed in their home. State Sen. John Hoffman and his wife were wounded. They're the latest example of rising political violence, including this spring's arson at Pennsylvania's governor's mansion.
Hamline University political science professor David Schultz compared the current climate to the turbulent 1960s.
"Once violence starts to occur, people get used to violence, or it becomes part of the 'game,'" he said, "and that seems to be where we're degenerating right now."
Schultz pointed to last year's assassination attempts on President Donald Trump and to increasing threats against election officials, including Ohio poll workers who have faced fentanyl-laced mail, bomb scares and online harassment.
Schultz said many in society have grown used to a more isolated way of life. Making matters worse, he added, political messages spread through social media fuel misinformation and radicalization.
"Falsity travels more rapidly, more deeply than truth, and the relative anonymity or distance of the social media also emboldens people to radicalize," he said. "Put all that altogether, that gets us part of the recipe of where we are in our society right now."
While he said he's encouraged that younger voters may reject divisive politics, Schultz doubts political tension and violence will end any time soon.
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