Had Donald Trump tilted his head the other way, the bullet that clipped his ear would have killed him. America was half an inch away from a major civil crisis.
We don’t yet know the full details of this assassination attempt, but it is clear that Donald J Trump has been demonized by his opponents for years. Of course, in politics you sometimes say negative things about your opponents. But the rhetoric aimed at Trump has often gone far beyond normal political back-and-forth. Trump’s opponents have set out to delegitimize him. After losing to Trump in 2016, Hilary Clinton described him an ‘illegitimate’ president. Spurious allegations emerged suggesting he was somehow a Russian agent. Every effort was made to undermine his administration, often from within. When Trump began to re-emerge as the Republican frontrunner in this election cycle, a number of prosecutors suddenly started to bring cases against him. Odd, that. It seems to me that as in a Banana Republic, he was being persecuted through the courts for political reasons, as much as he was being prosecuted for breaking the law. Now comes an assassin’s bullet, which narrowly missed Trump but did kill a fifty year old father attending a political rally. We don’t yet know what motivated Trump’s would-be assassin, but we do know enough to ask where this growth of political extremism comes from. The decline of religion means that politics has become, for many, a substitute belief system. “When men choose not to believe in God” my fellow Englishman, GK Chesteron, once observed, “they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” People need a sense of purpose, a framework that explains the world and their place in it. Without religion, many have adopted a belief system called climate change. Others a system called intersectionalism. Their place in the cosmos, they start to imagine, is defined in terms of where they sit in a hierarchy of victimhood. Once you think this way, those who share your world view seem virtuous. Those that don’t become the ‘deplorables’. Anyone who just happens to have a different point of view is suddenly a moral affront. Such people must be no platformed.
Instead of viewing elections a process for deciding who holds office, they are seen as a Manichaen struggle of good against evil. Once you think this way, the ends begin to justify the means, with calamitous consequences. Too many Americans are willing to always think the worst of fellow Americans, and it’s not just progressives who look for the worst in conservatives. Take what happened in the wake of the attempted assassination. Many commentators appeared to almost want to find evidence of incompetence, or worse, conspiracy. An apparent hesitation by Secret Service marksmen in engaging the gunman was somehow sinister, it was suggested. Commentators without much experience of close personal protection were quick to inform us that the female Secret Service agents could not handle their weapons properly. Really? Why assume the worst? Why not start from the position that what we witnessed were professionals under intense pressure, making life and death decisions, and doing the best they could? I’m an immigrant that looks at America as an outsider. Born in Britain, and raised in Uganda, I came to America by choice (and good fortune). I don’t look about me trying to find fault in my new home. I see instead an extraordinary country that it is a great privilege to be part of. I see the most hospitable, friendly, and innovative people on the planet all around me. I believe so strongly in the things that make America special so much, I even wrote a children’s book about it. Each time I meet an American for the first time it never occurs to me to wonder if they vote Republican or Democrat. To me, they are just American, and all the better for it. We need to stop looking at each other through the prism of politics. It’s not good for us, for our politics or for America. Douglas Carswell is the President & CEO of the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. MCPP sponsored this post.
18 comments:
What? The wannabe assassin wasn't hired by Putin on behalf of Schumer with an AR-15 provided by the deep state?
It is ludricrous to suggest he's been persecuted by our legal system.
He has been in business in NYC all his life and well knows the laws governing his business. Indeed, the citizens of NYC have known the Trump family quite well. They were willing to give Donald Trump a chance just as the children of Mafia family as long as they didn't engage in criminal activity.
As a businessman he was sued by subcontractors often but, did what couldn't be done so easily in his conviction, use the legal system to delay long enough that the legal costs became to expensive for the subcontractors.
And he gamed the system this time as well everywhere except where they know what he is really like.
New Yorkers aren't fooled by him and they well know his character.
Even in Mississippi when your hometown thinks you are awful, it's because you are!
Says the guy who just called America a "Banana Republic" in the same speech.
Propaganda
I read this piece with the intention of making my usual snarky comment. But the last several paragraphs were spot on!
"...it is clear that Donald J Trump has been demonized by his opponents for years..."
And it is clear that Trump rarely has a kind word for anyone. He arrived on the scene criticizing and making fun of everyone, including innocent handicapped people! If you're going to dish it out, shut up and take it when it comes back to you!
"...we do know enough to ask where this growth of political extremism comes from."
Once again, when Trump arrived on the scene. His level of hateful rhetoric awakened sleeping racism and hate.
While I have no respect for Trump as a world leader, I am grateful that his life was spared. And I pray that he will truly embrace ALL of America, as he briefly stated in lengthy nomination acceptance speech, before returning to his usual divisive rhetoric.
When Trump loses the election, President Biden will have to authorize use of the National Guard. The polls are crazy Trumps base doesn’t top 35%. People will go to the polls
Lock him up, he belongs in prison.
I will be very happy when Trump is our president again. All of the lifetime politicians, both democratic and republicans, are very scared. They know people will see how crooked both are. Maybe someone will ask how so many politicians become millionaires on government pay.
Sounds like some commenters have full blown TDS. I’m sure there are local psychologists who could help.
"It is ludricrous to suggest he's been persecuted by our legal system"
It is “ludicrous” to believe otherwise. Having, as you said, done business with the state of New York for many years, he was well aware of the state's auditing power.
It is “ludicrous” to think he would allow a mere $130,000 to incur the scrutiny of the state auditors. Which I may add had no problem with Trump's bookkeeping.
Neither did the Federal election commission. The same, of which cannot be said about Hillary Clinton, she has been fined twice for illegal campaign spending.
Once, in March 2022, which was the money used to pay for the infamous Steel dossier concerning the fake Russian collusion accusation. The fine totaled $113,000.
The second time is July of this year, 2024, which, by the way, has not been reported in the main stream media. This violation was in connection of $6,000,000 of unreported expenditures. Yet, we see no Soros owned District Attorney prosecuting Clinton. Links are below.
As, I said to think Trump is not being persecuted by our justice system is
“ludicrous”.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/30/us/politics/hillary-clinton-democrats-campaign-spending.html
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/07/court-just-nailed-hillary-fec-violation-45x-bigger/
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/8A979B82BC5A09C085258B5500561738/$file/22-5336-2063669.pdf
Fortunately, the Founding Fathers wrote a completely secular Constitution. America is not a "Christian nation". Rather, America is a secular democratic republic. As such, we have been spared the sectarian violence that continues to plague many other countries.
“Rather, America is a secular democratic republic.”
And yet, Presidents take an oath ending with “so help me God.” Presidents have declared a national day of prayer from the first President onward. Our money is imprinted with in “God We Trust.” Our Pledge of Allegiance has the clause, “one nation under God.” Each House of Congress has an official chaplain. The word “nonsectarian” is likely a better fit to describe our republic. Remember, that while the First Amendment prohibits an established religion, states were not so bound until the 14th Amendment was adopted and the Supreme Court held that that Amendment incorporated most of the Bill of Rights. But the values that formed our country are deeply infused with values derived from Christianity, as even those of our Founders who were deists readily acknowledged. We have never been a functionally a purely secular society.
The most successful movements for social reform in American history have had, at the very least, a respectful relationship to the country’s religious heritage, if not being driven by it. Education, medicine, care for the poor and sick, all done by religious groups. From Harvard on.
The U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment to the Constitution were not intended to create a purely secular government, neutral or indifferent to religion, as opposed to irreligion. The Constitution itself, at the time it was drafted, was largely a procedural document, which sought to enumerate carefully the powers of the national government while leaving the police power and most substantive questions of morality, religion, education, and such, to the states.
America is de facto a Christian nation, primarily because only Christianity in the American form allowed dissent; Jesus declined earthly politics explicitly. Tocqueville described, in fact, is a distinctly American version of secularism.
There is a useful distinction between two broadly different ways of understanding the concept of secularism, only one of which is hostile or even necessarily suspicious of the public expression of religion.
You, as a LiberaLtarian, seem to fall with the latter. Albeit likely due to ignorance and bitterness. At best, we hope you are merely a contrarian loudmouth.
“Inches from Civil Crisis” - Nah, if he’d been killed all the GOP boomers wouldn’t have done a damn thing besides bitch on Facebook and then died a few years later. We would’ve all moved on and been better off.
“Inches from Normalcy” more like it.
The trump tent doesn’t have room for true conservatives. It’s all this whacked hate mess for his supporters.
7:01--You are correct in the fact that the Founders wisely espoused Christian values. The Constitution reflects some of those values. However, those values should never be seen as an attempt to create a theocratic republic. We are truly a secular democratic republic.
TDS obviously hasn't lessen for some posters on here for someone has gone through an assassination attempt. Amazing what actual whacked hate for one man.
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