Now let's see a breakdown of threats per party. I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and hypothesize that Democrats received far far more than Republicans.
Yes, you're both right. The key party difference is in who is sending the threats rather than who is receiving them -- Republicans are threatening Dems AND Reps. (Some Dems are threatening Reps & Dems too, just not to the same degree.) All that said, data are sparser on perpetrators than targets.
Yeah, I'm Canadian, but we've had a smidge of the same dynamic up here - especially during the Freedom Convoy nonsense. My Tory MP is a family friend and they had one hell of a tough few weeks when he spoke out in Parliament against the desecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Solider during that.
Capitol police don't report either stat, though, so we learn the balance from surveys of other elected & appointed/hired gov't officials rather than Congress and Congress anecdotes.
Cosign this. I'd like to see, even further, the breakdown by gender and even per member. My suspicion is that it would be against protocol and dangerous to release individual numbers, but everything else about America and this moment would suggest women reps of color get the most threats.
Fascinating how severity parity moves. D insults against R much higher than R, but lower credible(?) threats. Could read that as Ds being hot air, Rs looking to act.
It's hard to say how much of the stats are intra-party strife. I've certainly seen insults being hurled between Dems across the ideological spectrum (big tent after all), while in the GOP it's basically a way to shut down any perceived opposition to MAGA.
(Where by "fascinating" I mean "scary". Unhinged Dems may be unhinged but inert; unhinged Republicans are looking for blood and supported by individuals, organizations, governments.)
Related, I've collected public opinion survey data showing that Dems are more likely to socially disengage -- unfriend, reduce contact, avoid political discussion -- with Reps, while Reps are more likely to insult Dems rather than disengage.
Comments
Link opens PDF report:
https://www.civicpulse.org/_files/ugd/753449_23937267f1b64a58b4b222411f1106da.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10584609.2023.2270539