Since the December 4th murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan, there has been widespread denunciation of the positive responses to the killing and the man accused of the crime, Luigi Mangione.
The Washington Post editorial board condemned excuses or celebrations of Thompson’s demise as signs of a broader “sickness,” that reflects “an ends-justify-the-means sentiment that is flatly inconsistent with stable democracy.”
The Post has it backward. It is the current instability of American democracy that is to blame for this crime, not the other way around. The inauguration of Donald Trump may only add to the volatility, particularly when int comes to health care.
History provides numerous examples of what appear to be the irrational acts of a single person that are ultimately understood as symptoms of deeper societal crises. As a professor of 19thCentury United States history, I think the best comparison to Mangione is the radical abolitionist John Brown.
Brown, famous for his role in Bleeding Kansas and the raid on Harper’s Ferry, believed that he was compelled by God to destroy slavery by any means necessary. The evil institution was sustained by corrupt politics, he reasoned, which warranted violence and murder. In 1856, at what came to be known as the Pottawatomie Massacre, he and his abolitionist militia slaughtered pro-slavery men with broadswords.
Brown’s attempt to inspire an insurrection that would end slavery at Harper’s Ferry failed in 1859, and he was convicted of treason. Before his execution, he wrote presciently of the impending Civil War, “I, John Brown, am quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land will never be purged away but with blood.”
The reaction to Brown’s actions, especially at Harper’s Ferry, varied widely. Abolitionists saw him as a martyr for a just cause. Ralph Waldo Emerson compared him to Jesus, saying his death had made “the gallows as glorious as the cross.”
Others supported his position on slavery, but not his tactics. Abraham Lincoln believed that Brown had “shown great courage, rare unselfishness,” but thought that “we cannot object” to his execution “even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason.”
Many more simply saw Brown as a deranged lunatic who threatened slavery, the peace of the South, and the nation itself. One southerner thought Brown had committed “the first act in the grand tragedy” that could lead to emancipation and ruin the country.
The pattern of defiant indignation and moral righteousness repeats today. Police recovered notes written by Mangione that echo the sentiments of John Brown. Mangione remarks that healthcare companies “continue to abuse our country for immense profit.” Unrepentant, he wrote, “I do apologize for any strife of traumas, but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming.”
Comments like these signal Mangione’s rationale and judgment. It’s hardly a secret that healthcare in the US costs more than in other comparable nations, and that Americans struggle to get the care they need. It’s the number one cause of bankruptcy for Americans. Yet, insurance companies earn record profits.
As it was in 1859, responses to Thompson’s murder have varied. While some condemn a vicious murderer, others view Mangione as a folk hero. Those who applaud his actions set up an online fundraiser to support his legal crusade. One donor remarked that she supported him for “trying to make a real change in the world.” Others shared stories of the pain and loss they’ve endured with American healthcare. One even called the murder “karma.”
To be sure, such a narrative must be incredibly painful for Thompson’s friends and family, who are mourning the loss of a loved one. Unlike Brown, after all, Mangione had no plan for or hope to spark a revolution that would end a great evil. But he nevertheless hit a public nerve.
Responses to Mangione and the increasing rage expressed toward health insurance companies lays bare the grief, trauma, and pain felt by Americans across the nation. That matters, and it must be recognized for what it signals—a breakdown of the social fabric and, arguably, democracy itself.
When people believe that the government is not on their side, that corruption – or “abuse” in Mangione’s words – will be tolerated and feel that there is no hope for better, they, like Brown, may see violence as the only remaining option to affect change.
It’s easy to blame “lone wolves” for bad acts. It’s much harder to reflect on the structural hardships, inequities, and societal failures that led them to act in the first place. Likewise, it’s easy to denounce the act as one of a madman. It’s much harder to recognize that far from being illogical, the assailant’s actions – just like John Brown’s – possess a logic of despair rooted in the very real failures in US healthcare that millions of Americans face every day.
Mangione’s actions and the responses to them should alarm us not only because of their brutality and seeming callousness, but because of what they reveal about the state of Union. What Lincoln called our “bonds of affection” are frayed to the point of breaking.
With Trump’s second term set to start in less than three weeks, we would be wise to remember that America’s madmen sometimes turn out to be martyrs.