OpenCampaign

Democracy

Political violence, intimidation, and democratic norms

Freedom House’s 2026 U.S. assessment describes rising offline political violence across the spectrum, online threats, doxing, and residual effects from January 6 prosecutions and pardons. Yale climate-communication research finds democracy and government corruption among Americans’ top worries. These national dynamics affect civic safety and trust in Illinois politics and public life.

How should Illinois respond to political violence, intimidation, and threats to democratic norms?

How important is this to you?

Sources

Freedom House — https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-states/freedom-world/2026
Meanwhile, the recent rise in offline political violence—against targets from across the political spectrum—has magnified the impact of online threats linked to political speech. These problems have been compounded by the practice of doxing, the nonconsensual release of individuals’ personal information.
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication — https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/top-public-worries-in-the-u-s
Liberal Democrats report the highest levels of overall concern, with 81% very worried about the state of democracy in the U.S. and 77% about government corruption.
Positions on this issue  ·  liberal → conservative
  1. Strengthen hate-crime and anti-doxing enforcement and expand protections for targeted officials and voters
  2. Increase resources against political violence while carefully guarding legitimate protest speech
  3. Apply existing criminal law evenly and fund civic education without new speech restrictions
  4. Focus on prosecuting left and right violence equally but avoid new limits on political speech online
  5. Prioritize free-speech protections over new doxing/speech laws and reject expansions of political-crime statutes