America is revolting, but at least it’s through the ballot box

In the 1960s and ’70s, a radical leftist group that called itself the Red Army Faction but now is more commonly referred to by the names of its leaders, Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof, committed acts of terrorism. The Baader-Meinhof Gang kidnapped and assassinated political and business figures, planted bombs and committed arson attacks. Its objective was to model and provoke an anti-capitalist revolution, of which it considered itself the vanguard.

Groups such as this have cemented the idea that revolution is an activity of the left – which is why the terms left and progressive are often conflated. Revolution, which seeks to radically remake society, is the opposite of the conservatism traditionally associated with the right, which by definition seeks to conserve.

Ulrike Meinhof (left) and Andreas Baader: In 1975, terrorists raided the West German embassy in Stockholm to demand their freedom.Credit: AP Wirephoto

But then Donald Trump is also anything but a conservative. Trumpism is a revolutionary movement that aims to tear down institutions people no longer trust.

Both of the elections Trump won have represented revolutions. The first was a disorganised yell of pain from parts of society that felt left behind. The second, this year, was a much more calculated choice by voters to empower a known quantity to dismantle whatever corporate interests and bureaucracies might be holding them back. The catch-cry of the first Trump candidacy was “drain the swamp”. This time around, that barely needed to be said. Voters have lived through the chaos of a Trump presidency and enough decided that chaos is preferable to the stasis of establishment self-interest that prevailed under Joe Biden.

Luigi Mangione, accused of shooting dead 50-year-old Brian Thompson, the chief executive of US health insurer UnitedHealthcare, may have been one of them. Mangione carved words on his bullets and carried a manifesto with him to ensure his intent would be conveyed.

Suspect Luigi Mangione is taken into court in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Credit: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP

The murder is redolent of the left-wing, anti-establishment anger that the Baader-Meinhof mob hoped to encourage and channel. Since the shooting, Mangione has been painted as some kind of hero. An American tech journalist posted about feeling “joy” upon hearing about the murder, sharing an article about the (admittedly outrageous) idea that a health insurer would no longer cover anaesthesia for the full length of a surgery, along with the remark: “and people wonder why we want these executives dead”.

Instead of horror that a father had been gunned down, many on social media and even some mainstream media echoed similar sentiments. Many saw Mangione’s act as justified, claiming that America’s health insurers have been deliberately and systematically avoiding paying legitimate claims to boost their profits.

Strangely, though, it also smacks of the concerns of Trump and his MAGA movement. Trump’s cabinet picks reflect many of these concerns. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, whom Trump has chosen to be his head of health and human services, holds a mix of views that can only be described as non-traditional. He combines some very reasonable concerns about food additives and ultra-processing with a militant anti-vaccination and anti-fluoride stance. He, like Mangione, believes “the system” is making people sick. According to Business Insider, Mangione appeared to support RFK Jr in since-deleted posts on X. The same report refers to posts that suggest Mangione was a member of the “online right”.

This sense of a society that is no longer working for ordinary citizens is politically non-denominational. And there seems to be an almost literal lust for blood. Since his arrest, the online world has been celebrating Mangione’s perceived hotness.

Even many quite normal-seeming people examined their hearts and found no mercy for Brian Thompson. In one post on the popular Facebook vox pop Humans of New York, a “woman on the street” reflected: “It’s hard for me to feel sad that the CEO was killed. I’m in social work. So many of the people I see who are homeless have similar stories [to Mangione’s] … Where is the justice for those people?” she mused. “Maybe violence is never the answer. But this isn’t a question of morality to me. It’s a cause-and-effect thing. This is what happens when people aren’t being heard. The system isn’t working. This is where the government was supposed to step in, but it didn’t. And millions of people were left with nowhere to turn.”

All of which amounts to a sense of general civil unrest. It chimes with findings by the OECD, the global Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which tracks trust in public institutions. In July this year, it reported that trust had again declined.

CEOs are getting the willies. Some companies are considering taking the personnel section off their websites. There is, I am told, talk of removing the details of company executives, as well as the leadership of some high-profile government bodies, from electoral rolls.

Only Trump’s billionaire buddy Elon Musk seems to understand the problem is not just cosmetic and needs to be addressed with more than personal protection measures. In an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, published the day before the US election, Rogan and Musk discussed Musk’s belief that corporate interests come to replace the best interests of the country and citizens in the minds of politicians.

This is why Musk believes the government bureaucracy – what used to be called “the swamp” in Trump 1.0 – needs draining. The pair then segued into a discussion of why “there’s a lot of people who, their whole life, they’ve been left-wing and they realise, like, ‘I can’t do this any more’.” Rogan tells Musk – and Musk agrees: “You and I used to be Democrats”. Now they are not because they see the need for fundamental, radical – yes, revolutionary – change, and want it to come peacefully.

Thankfully, given the alternative we’ve seen recently, that’s the variety promised by Trump. Given the febrile moment, in which at least one vigilante has taken the violent option, perhaps it was not before time that revolution arrived by democratic ballot.

Parnell Palme McGuinness is managing director at campaigns firm Agenda C. She has done work for the Liberal Party and the German Greens.