By Barb McQuade

Dear Reader,

Serving in public office should not mean risking your life. But physical harm has become a very real threat to leaders at all levels of government in the United States. If we want to attract good people to public service, we need to tone down the violent rhetoric and respect the privacy of public officials by making their homes off-limits for protests. I’ll state what a public official might be reluctant to say — get off my lawn.

Last week brought news in my home state of Michigan of threats against three elected officials. According to the charges, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow received threats from a Michigan man who claimed fraud in the 2020 election. The same man, who said he was part of a militia group, is also charged with threatening violence against U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan. In addition, a Georgia man was charged with threatening a Michigan judge over her decision last fall regarding absentee ballots. Rep. Slotkin said that elected officials, “particularly women, are unfortunately no strangers to violent, threatening calls and comments, and it has got to stop.”