Political Violence Blame Games
If you stopped by your local Democratic Party election HQ last week you could have picked up a crisp new Biden-Harris sign for your drought-scorched front yard. Back then, in simpler times, the biggest political buzz going around was whether a decrepit Joe Biden might be booted off the presidential ticket for a younger candidate. If you were a savvy collector of political paraphernalia, you might have nabbed one of those Biden-Harris 2024 signs in the hopes that a switch at the top of the ticket would boost its collectible value in the years to come. Or like many dedicated Democrats, you might have thought that it really didn’t matter who was representing your party in this presidential election - all that mattered was stopping the existential threat to democracy posed by the man hoping to push his way back into the White House for another four years…or maybe more. If that was the case, boy did the Democrats have some signs for you. There was a dignified blue sign imploring us to “Defend Democracy” or, if subtly wasn’t your thing, you could have gone for the bright red sign that bluntly read, “Stop Trump.”
A lot has changed since last week. The news cycle has moved on from the Biden dementia speculation, much to the chagrin of those who thought that a Biden-Harris 2024 sign might become a quirky collector’s item someday. In the blink of an eye, everything changed when Donald Trump was nearly assassinated on Saturday, July 13th. Other than an ear wound providing just enough blood to make the image of his raised fist to the crowd superbly iconic, Trump came away from the shooting relatively unscathed. Most thought he came away from the assassination attempt stronger than ever. Yet a photo of a bullet whooshing by Trump's skull provided a solemn reminder of just how close he came to losing his life and the country descending into chaos. Whether you are a Democrat, a Republican or an Independent, after watching a former president come just inches from death, the once dull directive to “Defend Democracy” and “Stop Trump” now had a decidedly more ominous ring to it.
With this rapid change in public mood, Democrats shifted quickly toward a more unifying and less divisive tone. Until shots rang out in Western Pennsylvania on Saturday much of their message had been based on painting the dystopian horrors of a second Trump presidency rather than outlining the aspirations President Biden had for a second term. Ever since the September 2022 “Battle for the Soul of the Nation” speech, Biden has framed his campaign against Trump and MAGA not as a competition of Democrats against Republicans but as a quasi-spiritual struggle of Light versus Darkness, Good versus Evil, Democracy versus Dictatorship. The stakes couldn’t have been higher, the Democrats told us. And even though the shooter’s motives remained shrouded in mystery, Republicans were quick to seize on the idea that maybe, just maybe, those stakes were high enough to inspire an awkward young man from suburban Pittsburgh to sneak up on a roof with an AR-15 and a take a shot that could change the course of history, firing bullets that could “Stop Trump” and “Defend Democracy.”
As surreal as it is to hear Republicans take a page out of the “snowflake” playbook and declare “Words Matter,” they have a point. Why wouldn’t we expect a barrage of anxiety, doom, and rage to result in acts of violence? The Republicans might be justified in blaming Democrats for a campaign of hyperbolic fear that could have theoretically led to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. They have every right to condemn the Democrats for potential violence that can arise from labeling another human being an existential threat, but not without thoroughly condemning themselves in the process. They must admit that treating even the most moderate gun control reform as an existential threat to Second Amendment liberty might have inspired the attempted murder of Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2011. They must admit that characterizing undocumented migrants as rapists and killers might have inspired the murder of 23 mainly Latino shoppers in an El Paso mall in 2019. They might have to admit that Trump’s fiery refusal to accept defeat in the 2020 Presidential race was to blame for the five lives lost during the Capital insurrection of January 6th, 2021. And if they follow the web of blame far enough they might find their own figurative fingerprints at the crime scene in Butler, PA. The shots fired at Trump came from AR-15, a weapon characterized by Republicans as the citizen’s last defense against tyranny. And when it comes to calling Trump a tyrant, Democrats aren’t alone in the act. Even the Republican’s newly announced nominee for Vice President, J.D. Vance once warned of Trump’s potential to become “America’s Hitler.” If they are thorough and honest enough, the Republicans eager to loop the Democrats into the causal chain leading to Trump’s near assassination might very well find themselves deeply entangled in the web of guilt.
Many on the left jumped at this opportunity to blame Trump for his own brush with death, claiming that karma is a bitch and he had it coming to him for all the years of inflammatory MAGA rhetoric. While this may feel more authentic than phony and fleeting calls for unity, doubling down on demonizing Trump will deprive the Democrats of a much-needed reevaluation of a campaign message largely devoid of policy or positivity. The Democratic message needs to shift not because it is a danger to Donald Trump, but because the American people deserve an inspiring positive vision of the future, not to mention a candidate cogent enough to articulate that vision and young enough to see it through.
For their part, the Republicans should put “Christ” back into Christian Nationalism and heed Jesus’s warning, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged.” If the Republican's supposed commitment to Judeo-Christian values is anything more than a cynical political ploy they will lead the way by replacing paranoia and resentment with peace and reconciliation in the months to come. With the Democrats struggling to retool their messaging and unite the party behind a President who struggled to read a teleprompter speech in the wake of the assassination attempt, the only one who can “Stop Trump” may be Trump himself. An emboldened Trump may feel himself spared by God to deliver a message to mankind. He should be wary of the possibility that God is looking to send a message about the fate of those who judge others by standards they do not follow themselves.