Politics

How Much Worse Is This Going to Get?

Political violence poses an existential threat to our nation and our freedoms—but it’s not too late.

First published in The Atlantic on July 7, 2025

by Adrienne LaFrance, The Atlantic

July 10, 2025 | reading time: 13 Min.

You would be forgiven for not knowing which lesson, exactly, Americans ought to take from the bloody morning of September 13, 1859. On that day, in the mouth of a clearing by Lake Merced, in the hills of San Francisco, two men decided to settle an argument the old-fashioned way: with a pair of handcrafted .58-caliber pistols and a mutual death wish.