Politics

Government Shouldn't Be Important Enough To Fight Over

America’s political factions hate each other and torment each other when in power. Violence results.

J.D. Tuccille | 4.29.2026 7:00 AM

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(Jason Dick/CQ Roll Call/Newscom)

Government shouldn't be important enough to motivate people to kill others to gain control. Moreover, people willing to engage in violence to seize the means of governance have no business exercising political power. These are points we should be drumming home after the latest in a series of assassination attempts against President Donald Trump and other administration officials at a time of surging political violence in the United States.

You are reading The Rattler from J.D. Tuccille and Reason. Get more of J.D.'s commentary on government overreach and threats to everyday liberty.

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A Violent Mission Amidst a Rising Tide

Cole Tomas Allen's apparent attack at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner was almost unremarkable for the banality of his manifesto and because, thankfully, injuries were limited to a Secret Service agent whose vest stopped the round. Allen's grievances were the bog-standard political verbiage seen these days at political protests. He complained that he was "no longer willing to permit a pedophile, rapist, and traitor to coat my hands with his crimes," clarifying that he himself is "not the person raped in a detention camp. I'm not the fisherman executed without trial. I'm not a schoolkid blown up or a child starved or a teenage girl abused by the many criminals in this administration." He could have been at a "No Kings" demonstration—instead, he armed himself to attack attendees at a dinner. Unfortunately, while still a small minority, too many people are making similar choices.

Quantifying political violence and........

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