Geneva native Matt Otto is involved in various Democratic campaigns, works as a progressive activist and is a current student at the University of Kentucky’s master’s of public administration program.
Former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a lead Republican primary challenger to Donald Trump in 2016, argued in a Sept. 18 Dispatch guest column that the root cause of rising political violence is our inability to see one another as neighbors.
There’s truth to his claim — polarization has eroded our sense of shared civic identity — but to then absolve government leaders of responsibility for the rhetoric that inflames and radicalizes is naïve at best and dangerously misleading at worst.
Deliberately stoking fear to justify retaliation is dangerous
Vice President JD Vance joined the Charlie Kirk podcast as head host after Kirk’s unacceptable assassination.
During that podcast, JD Vance proclaimed: “While our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies, it is a statistical fact that most of the lunatics in American politics today are proud members of the far left.”
Vance is incorrect. There has almost been four times as many acts of political violence by right-wing provocateurs, according to a CATO institute study, a right-leaning libertarian think tank.
CATO even lists Tyler Robinson, Kirk’s alleged killer, as an example of left-wing violence, despite no confirmed evidence of his political affiliation.
Vance’s claim is not a mistake — it is part of a pattern.
During the 2024 election, he admitted to “creating stories so that the media will pay attention,”
This is referencing spreading the now-debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were eating cats and dogs in Springfield.
When someone with a history of openly lying to advance an agenda now insists that left-wing violence is the greater threat, we should assume he knows better and that he is deliberately stoking fear to justify retaliation and keep his base mobilized.
Neighborly love isn’t enough
Which brings me back to Kasich.
If he truly believes our crisis is a lack of community, then why does he absolve government leaders of blame for tearing that very community apart?
Why does he not condemn elected officials who lie about the perpetrators of violence or threaten “revenge” against their opponents? “
Neighborly love” cannot flourish when those in power profit from turning neighbors against each other. Nor can neighborly love exist when ICE agents are taking your neighbors off the street.
These so-called criminal migrants are now being deported LESS than immigrants with no criminal past.
As media companies are completely capitulating to Trump. This includes ABC settling with Trump for $15 million for allegedly doctoring a media appearance with Kamala Harris when many legal experts concluded Trump had no real case.
ABC temporarily shutting down Jimmy Kimmel’s show after the comedian’s monologue dissing Trump’s response to Kirk’s death is another example.
These are grievous red flags that we are slipping towards authoritarianism that seeks to police our speech by threatening media companies with large fines and lawsuits.
More than feel-good civility is needed
Kasich is right that community matters. But community is not built by simply asking ordinary people to “be nicer” while excusing leaders who lie, inflame and divide.
True neighborliness requires accountability — not just among citizens but among the officials and media institutions shaping the narratives that guide public life.
If the media continues to capitulate to the Trump regime, there will be no accountability. And perhaps that is the point: no backlash, no rebuttal, just a chorus of authoritarian applause while freedom of speech is quietly stripped away.
Freedom is not free. Preserving it requires more than feel-good calls for civility — it demands holding those in power accountable and ensuring our institutions value liberty more than their own bottom line.
Question is: Is it too late already, and if so, what do we do next?
Geneva native Matt Otto is involved in various Democratic campaigns, works as a progressive activist and is a current student at the University of Kentucky’s master’s of public administration program.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Kasich’s “feel-good civility” will remain elusive as Vance, Trump stoke fear | Opinion
Reporting by Matt Otto / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
