SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The second apparent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has political experts concerned over a normalization of political violence.
“It is very often true that violence has a contagion affect. So people are inspired by violent acts of others,” said Rachel Locke, the Director of Violence, Inequality and Power Lab at the University of San Diego.
“Are you concerned this political violence on a national level might trickle down into our local elections?”
“We should be concerned, and also we have to remember that the vast majority of Americans overall do not support political violence,” Locke said.
The USD lab has been researching harassment and threats against local officials for the last two years. From 2022 to 23 researchers found 75% of elected officials in San Diego County reported being threatened or harassed. That number dropped to 61% in 2023-24. Locke believes this isn't because there was a decrease in incidents, but because that harassment was normalized. She noted that several officials who did not report threats when surveyed, spoke about threatening encounters when they were interviewed.
“We all have to try to take the tenor of this rhetoric down, and try to have conversations that are non-accusatory non-threatening,” Locke said.
“Do you think the divisive political climate has made it more difficult for your students to voice their political views?”
“In my class, you can have any political view and nobody’s going to attack you,” said Phil Saenz, a professor of Political Science at Southwestern College for 34 years.
He often leads class discussions about current political events. He says he encourages his students to add depth in their conversations rather than citing something they saw on social media.
“You learn from discussions," Saenz said. "So you might not know everything you need to know. It’s from dialogue and discussion that we come to a better truth.”
Saenz says his students are holding a voter registration drive on campus to encourage political involvement.
