We have become inured to the way politics bleeds into everything. Harrisburg and Washington are defined by division. We have come to expect the animosity.
In our neighborhoods, it spills over into red-versus-blue fights over things as small as yard signs and bumper stickers.
At its worst, it turns deadly. The shooting at the Butler Farm Show grounds in July 2024 injured President Donald Trump and two others and claimed the life of Corey Comperatore of Buffalo Township. Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University in September.
And still, we tell ourselves we know where that danger lives — who it comes from, who it is aimed at.
We tell ourselves political violence has a target. It is aimed at leaders. It is directed at the powerful.
But once you accept it as inevitable, you don’t get to control where it goes. It’s like shaking a bottle and pulling the cork — and expecting it not to spray everywhere.
The results showed up last week in federal court in Pittsburgh.
John C. Pollard, 62, of Philadelphia was sentenced to 10 months in prison for making interstate threats after responding in September 2024 to an Erie County woman’s social media post seeking poll watchers for the November general election.
His message to Donna Reese started simply at 10 p.m.: “I’m interested in being a poll watcher.”
When he didn’t get an immediate response, 10 minutes later he began a barrage of messages that unfolded in just a minute and a half:
“I will KILL YOU IF YOU DON’T ANSWER ME!”
“Your days are numbered, (expletive)!”
“GONNA (expletive) FIND YOU AND SKIN YOU ALIVE AND USE YOUR SKIN FOR (expletive) TOILET PAPER …”
The ferocity of the outburst — so fast, so disproportionate — isn’t about ideology. It reflects something that has been building beneath the political divide.
Pollard wasn’t a caricature of political extremism. He was, by most accounts, a normal person — someone with friends, a history of volunteer work, a life that didn’t suggest this kind of behavior.
And that is exactly the problem.
“He is a man who, overwhelmed by fear and anxiety during one of the most charged political moments in recent American history, made a terrible decision,” his attorney Katherine Dyer wrote in a filing.
It was a lapse motivated by wine and the relentless drumbeat of politics on social media, she argued.
Chief U.S. District Judge Cathy Bissoon did not accept that — and she was right.
To do so would give cover to anyone exploding under the political pressure that surrounds us.
That Pollard did not act on his threats is no excuse. Timing and context matters. Those messages came barely two months after Comperatore’s death and just 10 days before a second attempt on Trump’s life was thwarted in Florida.
Pollard’s actions may have unfolded in just a minute and a half. The impact did not.
Reese said the threats left her in a constant state of fear and vigilance. She took every word seriously. In a political climate already marked by violence, she had reason to.
Political involvement should be encouraged. Political participation is necessary.
But there is no place for political violence — not against anyone, from a president to a pundit to a poll worker.