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David Mallard For more than a year, the United States has gone through a contentious and divisive debate over health reform, but in the past fortnight these divisions turned genuinely nasty.In the wake of vilification, threats and vandalism, some leaders within the Republican Party and the activist Tea Party movement have stepped forward to condemn the violence and harassment. But the problem is that the seeds of this dangerous and volatile reaction to health care's passage were sown months ago. However they might try to defuse the situation now, it seems that this aggression against the government was, to some extent, stoked by the message conservative leaders used in fighting Barack Obama's push for health reform.The ugliness began in the days leading up to the votes on health care legislation, when anti-reform protesters yelled racist and homophobic slurs at Democratic lawmakers and one Democratic Congressman was allegedly spat on. Democratic Party politicians have received death threats and had their offices vandalised. In the most dangerous act of hostility so far, the brother of Virginia Representative Tom Perriello had the propane gas line to his house cut after Tea Party activists posted his address online and encouraged people to "drop by," in the mistaken belief it was the Congressman's home.These acts aren't orchestrated or organised, but at this point they are far from isolated - which means that it is important to consider where the increase in violent and threatening behaviour might come from. It's easy to dismiss these as the acts of disturbed people who have channelled their anger at the health reform legislation into unacceptable responses. But what type of person might be prone to such extreme reactions to the passage of a law, and what factors might make someone more likely to do so? I suspect that a plausible answer to those questions comes from the evidence about right-wing authoritarianism, and from the approach American conservative leaders have taken to motivating authoritarian followers.