J.D. Tucille has an insightful piece over st Reason on reducing political violence. One of the big takeaways is that recently people belong to a party not because of what the party stands for but who the party stands against.

Money quote:

If the government can reach into virtually every area of life, can grant or deny permission to make a living or enjoy pastimes, and has a documented history of abusing such authority for petty and vindictive reasons, why wouldn’t you be afraid of your enemies wielding such power? How could you avoid growing fearful and angry over their anticipated conduct once they took their inevitable turn in office? And what would you say – and eventually do – to stop them? Especially, if you were a little unhinged to begin with.

I know for this midterm elections, there were several races where I was not voting for a candidate, but against their opponent.