It's not that hard to figure out why. They use violence because it works.

Here's a list of what Trump has available to him in order to intimidate people into submission, up to and including judges and members of Congress:

• A following of literally millions of people, a significant percentage of which are willing to commit acts of violence and other crimes in order to get their way.
• An entire social media company literally dictated to drawing attention to his every word, populated by people who take that word as gospel.
• Unlimited coverage of every word he says and every action he takes from every media outlet in the country, including many of which that revere him as essentially a cult leader who's words should not be questioned.
• An entire team of people who can and will focus their efforts on any random person who he even feels deserves his wrath, and the ability to spend far more money ruining their lives than they could even ever hope to earn in their lifetimes.
• A list of examples of people who have already had their lives ruined, ranging from Michael Cohen to Shaye Moss to show that his threats of life-ruining retaliation are legitimate and credible.
• A team of lawyers with virtually unlimited resources to ensure that (a) Trump never sees consequences for his actions, and (b) you will be forced to expend what few resources you do have just to stay afloat until you're worn into submission
• An entire court system, much of which appointed by Trump himself, that is increasingly reluctant to rule against him
• An entire security detail to ensure he's never even remotely threatened by physical violence

The average citizen can't afford their own security 24/7, but would still have to worry about some random MAGA nutjob showing up at 3 AM with a shotgun and a Molotov or something. The average citizen does not have a team of lawyers, nor could they afford one, to take on Trump and his legal team. The average citizen doesn't have an entire PR team ready to help them discredit Trump's endless firehose of lies. The average citizen can't go judge-shopping until they find a judge sympathetic to their case. The average citizen can't just cry to the US Supreme Court for every little ruling they don't like. The average citizen doesn't have an entire political party backing them up. Heck, never mind your average citizen......there are plenty of examples of government officials who don't have those resources either, and have literally gone on record saying they won't because they won't put themselves or their families at risk. If members of Congress are saying they won't stand up to Trump due to fears of violence, what the fuck is your average citizen expected to do?

This is why it works. Because the battle is so lopsided. Trump has been using it successfully for decades. And the GOP are only now really beginning to understand how lopsided the battle is, and how easy it is to weaponize it especially when you know that the person or people you target don't have the ability to fight back.

Why do you think that the GOP are targetting school board members, libraries, teachers? Because these are your average, everyday citizens, with few to no real resources, and everything to lose. These are people most likely to walk away because doing so would be infinitely easier than trying to fight a battle that they're likely destined to lose anyway. These are people who wouldn't know what to do every time some fuckhole walks up to them and makes threats. These are the low-hanging fruits. And once they control that, gaining and consolidating power becomes much, much easier.