Some thoughts on yesterday’s assassination attempt on Trump:
1. This should be self-explanatory. But I condemn this attack. Violence is not the solution to our political problems. It’s worth remembering that Trump is not the only victim. One participant in the rally was killed and two others injured. The bystander who was killed was former firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died heroically protecting his family. The shootings of these three men are more reprehensible than Trump’s shooting. No one should die because of attending a political rally. For Trump, his wrongdoings should be dealt with through the legal and political system, not random violence.
It’s nothing like actually getting shot. But I myself have experienced politically motivated death threats, including from a right-wing nativist who turned out to be “pipe bomber” Cesar Sayoc. I don’t want this to continue to spread.
Are political assassinations justified? Maybe so. I think Fanny Kaplan was right to try to kill Lenin and von Stauffenberg and others were right to try to assassinate Hitler. But unlike Lenin and Hitler’s subjects, we do not face evil on the same scale and, more importantly, we still have the peaceful means available to us to fight it.
2. Despite the contrary gaslighting effect, there is no contradiction between condemning the attack and calling Trump a dictator, an enemy of fundamental liberal values, and a threat to democracy. This is a man who sought to stay in power using force and fraud after losing an election (and fomenting insurrection in the process), threatened to use government power to punish political opponents, murdered thousands of innocent children with an illegal family separation policy, and more. It was and still is perfectly reasonable to point this out. Nothing that happened yesterday makes Trump any less evil. He is not Hitler. But being a simple dictator is bad enough. Certainly enough to justify harsh condemnations and scathing words.
3. It’s worth noting that nearly every prominent Democrat, beginning with President Biden, unreservedly condemned yesterday’s attack. By contrast, Trump and many of his allies defended and praised the January 6 attackers and downplayed other acts of political violence by his supporters (such as the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband). For those keeping score, prominent Democrats, including Biden and Barack Obama, also condemned the riots following the George Floyd incident (as did I at the time). Both major political parties have a lot of terrible people and politicians who abuse their power (for example, I condemn Biden’s repeated attempts to raid the Treasury Department for his student loan relief plan). But the two parties are not morally equivalent when it comes to promoting and excusing political violence by their supporters.
4. We now know that the shooter was a registered Republican and had donated $15 through Act Blue (a left-wing political fundraising organization). This combination is not as surprising as it seems. Many people have unusual political views that don’t neatly fit on the left-right political spectrum. The same goes for many of the perpetrators of political assassinations. This man may have strange political motives that only he understands. Or maybe he had more bizarre, non-political motives. Recall that John Hinckley (the man who nearly killed Reagan) did this because he thought it would impress movie star Jodie Foster and convince her to date him. We may learn more about the current shooter’s motivations in the coming days. Until then, we should avoid unsubstantiated claims about them.
5. I worry that Trump will gain sympathy from this incident. In the upcoming election, that percentage may be only a few percentage points. But it could be decisive in a close election. If so, Democrats will be more compelled than ever to replace Biden with a stronger candidate.
6. Those who claim that Democrats and Biden are trying to kill Trump to stay in power should remember that if Trump were assassinated, the Republicans would likely replace him with a more popular candidate. also Gain empathy from the assassination while shedding much of Trump’s negative baggage. Relative to a world where the attack never occurred, this would actually increase the odds of a Republican winning the election. Biden’s narrow self-interests are better served by keeping Trump as his opponent. There are other problems with conspiracy theories. But this is a big issue that I haven’t seen mentioned elsewhere.
