PRAGMATIC ISSUES

I first started noticing the cracks during the Obama years. A creeping rhetoric that cast political opponents not as rivals but as enemies, forums online that went from harmless hobby talk to fever swamps of conspiracy, and a media ecosystem willing to monetize rage. At the time, pointing out that America was showing signs of radicalization sounded alarmist. Today, it feels obvious.

The Department of Homeland Security’s 2025 Homeland Threat Assessment calls domestic violent extremism one of the nation’s top homeland threats, not foreign actors, not cyberattacks, but Americans radicalized against other Americans.

The Government Accountability Office has tracked a surge in ideologically motivated violent incidents over the last decade, showing the threat is structural, not episodic.

In Colorado, we’ve already seen militia groups using our mountains as training grounds, threats against election workers in Denver and Jefferson counties, and armed standoffs in rural towns where politics bleeds into paramilitary theater. The state’s own Division of Homeland Security has issued quiet but clear warnings about extremist activity here, warnings that too often fall below the media radar.

This isn’t just about numbers on a page.

Public opinion polls now show a majority of Americans believe heated political rhetoric is directly linked to rising violence. Researchers at the National Institute of Justice have documented how online ecosystems accelerate radicalization by turning grievances into identity, and identity into action.

From Grievance to Violence

The pattern is clear.

• Algorithmic amplification rewards the loudest, angriest voices.
• Echo-chamber forums reframe personal struggles as political betrayal.
• Charismatic micro-influencers provide the roadmap from “they’re against you” to “you must act.”

This is the radicalization pipeline and it’s increasingly domestic. It’s not imported ideology, it’s homegrown grievance sharpened into a weapon.

Why Prevention Fails

The U.S. has no real prevention playbook. Programs are underfunded, often politically toxic, and lack the community-level resources to intervene before anger turns into action. By contrast, billions are spent after the fact on prosecutions, prisons, and security theater. Prevention is cheaper, smarter, and harder to sell.

Polarization is at a fifty-year high. Pew Research finds Americans now see the opposing party as not just wrong but dangerous. That’s the emotional terrain where radicalization thrives.

We cannot pretend this is cyclical or temporary.

It’s systemic.

Hate begets hate, every time one side or the other points the finger at the opposite side, places blame or makes threats, it feeds the fire of radicalization.

The Path Forward

America doesn’t need another warning report, it needs urgency:

• Transparency from tech platforms about how algorithms amplify grievance.
• Community inoculation programs to build resilience against extremist narratives.
• Serious funding for prevention, not just post-incident law enforcement.

If we fail to act, the next decade won’t just feature more “lone wolf” headlines. It will normalize political violence as part of civic life.

And once normalized, it doesn’t roll back.

We saw this coming.

Some of us wrote about it, got on stages and spoke about it, when it was a whisper.

The whisper has become a roar and we’re running out of time to listen.