Not that I want it to happen, but it's a bit surprising it isn't happening...

I have to walk a fine line here:  political violence is never to be encouraged, but I do wonder about this a lot lately...

Left wing political radicals (of "the revolution is just around the corner" kind) in the US used to be seen a real threat in terms of targeting Right wing politicians for assassination, and the wealthy for kidnap and ransom.    Now, no one on the Left seems to be on the radar as possibly thinking about doing things that would make a real political difference in the US - targeting conservative Supreme Court judges, for example, or (of course) Trump himself or McConnell.   It's a similar thing for environmentalism - I often get the feeling that radicals in the late 60's and into the 70's, if they knew about global warming and corporate and political reluctance to do anything about it, would have been willing to risk death in blowing up an oil pipeline, or a coal field train track.  

Did the economic collapse of the Soviet Union and the obvious economic (shall we say) under-performance of Cuba or other socialist regimes in countries around there deflate the whole idea of success for radical Left wing revolution so much that they just lost all motivation towards highly targeted political violence?     Was it the military draft that radicalised them so much, and without it, Lefties can't get as motivated to threaten violence now?  Or is it that it became obvious that threats of direct violence against politicians never worked in the big picture?   (And yes I know:  trashing businesses, targeting police buildings, and street violence is a form of violence.  But it's not the same as very targeted kidnappings, threats to kill or bomb that used to seem to be the radical Left's idea of how to influence things.) 

These days, it's obvious that the risk of some kind of very serious political violence is more real from the Right in the US.  It's quite the turnaround.  And worrying because it attracts bigger numbers of armed, semi-organised nuts than the radical Left ever had,  spinning out on their own fantasy of how the world is and how it should.  

Yet, observers on the Right are so self-gaslite they think that it's the Left that is the "real danger" to political and social stability in the US.   

The other "funny" thing is that the blatant authoritarian and anti-democratic statements of Trump and Barr - seeking to encourage a fake crisis of election results credibility amongst their followers - means that Left wing threat of violence, if aimed at preserving democracy, would actually be more rational than ever.    Let's face it, if Trump was shot, everyone would condemn it, while about 60% of the US population would say under their breath "well, you know, if ever a President provoked an assassination attempt, it was him."