A house divided: Did heated rhetoric cause Trump shooting?

There is, in narrative fiction, the concept of “suspension of disbelief,” or ignoring the improbability of a sequence of events in a plot in order to enjoy the story. Occasionally in real life actual events take place that defy the imagination to the point where they are almost unbelievable. This idea, stemming from Greco-Roman theater, was officially codified by English poet/philosopher Samuel Taylor Coleridge circa 1817, with this quote from his Biographia Literaria reading in part “…that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith.”
The assassination attempt on former President Donald J. Trump, occurring as it did on the cusp of this week’s Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, might almost appear to be staged if the grim reality had not transpired in front of a crowd of a partisan crowd of MAGA followers and captured by a plethora of news and media outlets, not to mention the ubiquitous presence of scores of cellphones, the ever present sentinel of the millennium. One spectator was killed, two others were wounded. As such, its occurrence did take place before an audience of millions, turning an already convoluted political contest into a theater of the absurd.
Such instances are not uncommon to the American electorate. In October 1912, Teddy Roosevelt was campaigning for president about one mile away from the site of this week’s GOP convention when he was shot. He avoided being seriously wounded only because the bullet lodged into papers he had in the breast pocket of his jacket. To the astonishment of the audience, Roosevelt finished his speech.
In February 1933, just 17 days prior to his inauguration, a would-be assassin fired five shots at President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt during a speech in Miami, Fla. Chicago Mayor Anton Cermack was killed.
In May 1972, Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot in Laurel, Md. while campaigning for president. He was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.
In September 1975, Manson cult member Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme attempted to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in Sacramento. She was a little more than an arm’s length from him. The gun jammed. That same month in San Francisco, Sarah Jane Moore fired a single shot at Ford. She was about 40 feet away.
In March 1981, newly sworn-in President Ronald Reagan was wounded outside of the Washington Hilton Hotel when a gunman fired several rounds, one of which struck White House Press Secretary James Brady in the head.
A triggering event and possibly a political boost
“What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.”
Loud cracking noises filtered over his podium. The presidential candidate reached for his right ear as crimson streaks ran across his face. Secret Service agents encircled him and began the process of evacuation, but not before their protectee halted their progress long enough to raise his clenched fist in defiance. Ever the showman, he readily seized upon this moment for a photo op.
As the popping sound of gunfire was superseded by chaos, panic, and screaming from within the partisan crowd, the protective detail moved him towards a black SVU. His red baseball cap lost in the frenzy and his famous orange pompadour disheveled, the wounded candidate continued pumping his fist triumphantly before disappearing into the vehicle and being sped away for medical treatment.
As American as apple pie
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”
–from a 1787 letter by Thomas Jefferson.
Political violence has arguably been part and parcel to American democracy from its break with colonial England, through the 19th century and the Civil War, on into the cultural and social upheaval of the 20th century. That said, it is reasonable to expect that various forms of physical force to achieve civil or governmental ends will continue in this, a new millennium, albeit it in varying contexts.
In a sense, this latest unfortunate episode is merely the latest in the country’s descent into polarization and tribalism, as FBI Director Christopher Wray noted in the wake of the Capitol riots of 2021.
“Jan. 6 was not an isolated event. The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now and it’s not going away anytime soon,” he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
This unfortunate trend seems to straddle both sides of the political spectrum, including the wounding by gunfire of Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in 2011, Republican Rep. Steve Scalise in 2017, the2022 attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of Rep. Nancy Pelosi (CA-11), and the 2023 drive-by shootings at the homes of Democratic politicians by a rival candidate in New Mexico. It remains to be seen if candidate Trump’s position on gun control will change in the wake of his own, personal experience at being targeted.
Even more interesting is the possibility that the venomous tone of verbal combat between the two candidates will be notched down a bit for the remainder of the campaign this fall. President Joe Biden has extended the olive branch, so to speak, with overtures to his opponent. This indeed will be a radical change for Trump, whose pugnacious approach is central to his political presentation.
Winding up the rumor mill
“This is your fault!”
–anonymous MAGA supporter heckling individual journalists at the political rally in Butler, Pa.
Immediately after the incident Trump supporters engaged in finger pointing directed at the media, largely considered having a liberal bias. This included obscenities and threats towards the industry commonly believed to be one-sided in matters of political discourse. Periodically some of them engaged in an obscene hand gesture common to Western culture involving raising the middle finger as a method of conveying extreme contempt.
The conspiracy apparatus quickly geared up around the suspected shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, slain by police snipers from his perch atop a shed. Perhaps suitably for a situation like this, he is shrouded in mystery akin to a Manchurian Candidate with no criminal record, described as a loner and the subject of bullying by his peers, common traits for individuals in the center of similar scenarios. Curiously he is registered as a Republican, although he is documented as a donor to ActBlue, a left-leaning nonprofit promoting Democratic causes.
Meanwhile, within the cozy confines of South Los Angeles, street level prognosticators shared their own opinions about the current proceedings. Initial reactions included the suggestion that the event was an exercise in “gaslighting,” a ploy set up by Trump himself to boost his chances at reelection-until they saw footage from CNN.
Either way, folks from the ‘hood are unlikely to vote for the shooting victim, given all the negative baggage he carries into the fray, aside from racial issues covert and overt.
Recent events have jacked up their fear in the inner city of a civil war. In the event the incumbent Joe Biden does win, the possibility looms that disgruntled followers might take mayhem to the streets. Could there be right-wing retribution in the wake of the shooting?
Setting the stage for November
“I was going to delay my trip to Wisconsin, and The Republican National Convention, by two days, but have just decided that I cannot allow a ‘shooter,’ or potential assassin, to force change to scheduling, or anything else. Therefore, I will be leaving for Milwaukee, as scheduled,”
-from the TRUTH Social website owned by Donald Trump
Trump initially planned to miss the beginning of the Republican Convention in Milwaukee, but reversed his decision to attend this event where he was virtually assured of being declared his party’s nominee even before the drama unfolding on July 13. His appearance before the GOP faithful was another media coup, as he presented himself like the biblical figure Lazarus, risen from the dead. Piggybacking upon the concern about his opponent’s cognitive abilities, the campaign momentum is clearly behind the Trump camp.