HARNESSING OUR POWER TO END POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Ordinary people have always made it clear: together, we are powerful, and political violence ends here.
The HOPE guide is designed to help people across the United States counter political violence. It aims to empower individuals and strengthen communities to make political violence backfire against those who incite, threaten, and enact it.
Community responses to political violence can both support victims and impose costs on those who incite and engage in abuse. We need to stand up to those who want to silence our voices, who try to deny us our rights, and who aim to bully their way into political influence through intimidation and violence.
Protecting Our Communities from Threats, Intimidation, and Physical Violence
5 PRINCIPLES
Making Political Violence Backfire
The goal of the “backfire” model is to make sure that when any kind of political violence takes place, perpetrators face high costs for their actions.
When their actions are counterproductive for them,
their actions can be said to backfire.
HOPE-PV is an initiative for individuals and groups across the US who are fed up with Political Violence.
It’s for people who recognize the dire stakes that political violence and threats create for our country, and who want to work together nonviolently to protect our communities and uphold democracy. A key to doing so is by making threats and political violence backfire against perpetrators and those who encourage them. We need to stand up to those who want to silence our voices, who try to deny us our rights, and who aim to bully their way into political influence through intimidation and violence.
Each of us has the power to make a difference. When we join together with others from all walks of life, we can make our communities places where everyone is safe and we have what we need to thrive. No matter who we are or where we’re from, we should all feel the freedom to participate in the decisions and policies that affect our lives.
For too long, a few people have tried to incite fear, make threats, and even enact physical violence to stop ordinary people from participating in democracy. All of these actions are meant to silence us and keep us divided so a few can benefit while our freedoms are stripped away.
The vast majority of Americans believe that political violence is never okay. For generations, people have joined together to stop political violence, from students leading lunch counter sit-ins to neighbors proclaiming that “Love Lives Here!” in the face of Neo Nazis. Artists, teachers, grandparents, people of faith, veterans, military families, and more have found creative ways to protect each other and uphold democracy.
We hope you will join us on this journey to harness the power of your community to put an end to political violence.
END POLITICAL VIOLENCE
END POLITICAL VIOLENCE
Johnny Silvercloud, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons