The Trump Assassination Attempt

These are dark and difficult times in America. 

On Saturday, Donald Trump narrowly avoided an assassination attempt from an unhinged 20-year old man at a rally in Pennsylvania.  An innocent bystander was killed and others wounded. 

I was stunned and shocked by the news. 

I’m glad Trump survived and will by all accounts make a full recovery.  Political violence has no place in America, and I unequivocally condemn it.  We should be able to disagree without descending into hatred. 

Hundreds of friends reached out to me concerned and saddened for what this means for our country. 

We are no strangers to political violence in the United States.  In the turbulent 1960s, JFK, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were all assassinated in the space of 5 years.  I fear that we are heading back in that direction.

Political polarization has been rising for decades, and a rise in political violence accompanies declining democracies, which is what we now are.  Scholars like Barbara Walter in “How Civil Wars Start” and Stephen Marche in “The Next Civil War” have been projecting this for quite some time.

In “The War on Normal People” I wrote:

“There are about 300 million firearms in the United States, almost one for every man, woman and child.  Disintegration is unlikely to be gentle.”  The shooter was a troubled young man, of which we are not in short supply.

I feel awful for our country that we are here now.

There is a natural impulse to rally around the flag.  Donald Trump was the favorite to win in November before this assassination attempt; that dynamic is even stronger now.

His supporters are enraged at this attempt and many blame the overheated rhetoric in our political landscape.  They’re not wrong.  The truth is that both sides routinely run down the other side in language that incites hostility and contempt.  I wish it would stop.

After each event like this, there are those who appeal to cool down the temperature before returning to their partisan habits mere days later.  Our muscle memory of tribalism is growing stronger and our institutions weaker. 

History is slipping in the wrong direction.  An innocent bystander was killed on Saturday.  I fear he won’t be the last.

To help ease our polarization, check out Forward today.  We need more than two sides.