Opinion | Minnesotans can change the incentives and help our country

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For years now, spreading fear and vilifying one’s opponents has been an effective strategy for winning votes and gaining online followers. The modern history of genocide and civil war underscores the grisly relationship between the demonization of swaths of humanity and mass violence. But one need not look as far as Rwanda or the former Yugoslavia. The throughline between violent rhetoric and real-world harm has been clear in our country, where political violence his risen in recent years. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is the latest high-profile example. The assassinations of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the shootings of state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, have made clear that Minnesota is not immune to these trends.

But while our state is not immune, we, the citizens of Minnesota, may yet hold the cure. The vast majority of Minnesotans — like the large majority of our fellow Americans — reject political violence. The challenge before us then is to turn that rejection into a vocal majority that calls upon leaders and elites across the political spectrum to reject incitement to violence, to reject the dehumanizing rhetoric that time and again legitimizes unspeakable acts.

Americans keep telling pollsters that we want our leaders to restore civility and find common ground. But a fragmented media landscape that rewards outrage, a rigid two-party system, national elections decided by razor-thin margins — all these and more incentivize the vitriol in our politics that is driving violence.

Minnesota can change those incentives — and the change can start with the signing of the Civic Pledge for a Stronger Minnesota. The pledge is supported by a range of civic organizations, including Majority in the Middle, an organization dedicated to improving transparency, participation and civility in political and civic life. The pledge commits us to: 1) engage peacefully with our fellow Minnesotans, 2) work in good faith to resolve disputes, 3) reject political violence and rhetoric that incites violence and 4) find common ground. Hundreds of Minnesotans have already added their names, and there are more pledge-signing events — the next is in Duluth on Sept. 30. For information, see tinyurl.com/civic-pledge.

It is our hope that this pledge can be bigger than simply four points on a page. Ideally, this can become the nucleus of a movement that establishes a better standard of behavior in public and civic life. If we work together, if we bring more people into this movement — and if we have each other’s backs in the process — we can assert that to be a Minnesotan in this moment means resisting the pull to demonize.

Yet there remain lines no one should cross. Don’t engage in violence. Criticize policies, criticize your political opponents — but don’t generalize. Don’t tar whole groups as violent fascists or communists. First, this kind of broad rhetoric is factually inaccurate. Survey data make clear that partisans on both sides are less supportive of violence and anti-democratic action than their opponents believe. Second, it risks creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. The belief that the other side will harm your group increases the justification for violence. Third, nonviolent resistance is more than twice as effective as violent tactics. The pledge simply calls us to engage in politics and civic life without casting our fellow Minnesotans as enemies. That’s not too much to ask.

There are examples from conflicts around the world where communities upheld an identity that saw them rise above the fray. The city of Tuzla, in the former Yugoslavia, resisted the pull of sectarian violence during a civil war there. City leaders used the media to emphasize that to be from Tuzla meant putting aside their ethnic and religious differences, it meant uniting to keep violence out of their community. They organized joint reconstruction projects, bringing together city residents across ethnic and religious lines.

While the U.S. is not engulfed in civil war, Minnesotans can still leverage such examples to keep our state safe. It means not replying to the latest hot take on X. It means not supporting candidates for office who cast whole groups of people as threatening.

Nothing can erase the tragedy that befell our state on June 14. But over time, Minnesota has the potential to model a new standard of civic behavior, giving voters the kind of politics we say we want, while showing our nation a desperately needed path forward.