Free Form Friday: We Shouldn’t Want Him Dead
Free Form Friday is my weekly non-Bowie post. For more David Bowie come back tomorrow for a great interview with musician and educator Marc Lowe…
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Everyone in a democratic society should condemn political violence. As a citizen of such a society and the author of this blog, I too should condemn it. The specific occasion for this condemnation is the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which took place less than a week ago as of this writing. This act was appalling on many levels, including, but not limited to: two human beings died, and others were injured as a result; regardless of the gunman’s actual motives, he injected an extremely violent act into the political landscape, which is anathema to democratic decision-making; and the irrational act has spawned more irrationality from conspiracy theorists, opportunists, and other advocates of political violence.
I suspect, based on nothing concrete, that the would-be assassin was more of a John Hinkley than a John Wilkes Booth. Booth had genuine political reasons for killing Lincoln, while Hinkley’s twisted reasons for shooting Ronald Reagan seemed to be a quest to achieve fame (by the way, Hinkley is still alive). Nonetheless, now as then, the assassination attempt has had enormous and still-unfolding political ramifications, which, in the short term, seem to have given Donald Trump a boost at a moment when he was already on the ascent.
Hypothetically, if the shooter’s purpose was to prevent Trump from becoming president, his action seems to have made it more likely that he will become president. Among the many ironies of this turn of events is that Trump and his confederates have been leading voices in favor of political violence. The January 6th coup attempt was only the most kinetic example, but think of all the times Trump called for violence at his own rallies, such as against the media, his repeated advocacy for shooting people improperly crossing the border or participating in political protests, or even committing crimes that are not otherwise subject to the death penalty; his referring to political opponents as “traitors,” either implicitly or explicitly suggesting that they should be executed; his proposal for a migrant fighting league and … who am I kidding? There isn’t enough space here to list all the examples of Trump advocating violence. Trump has made the term “stochastic terrorism” part of the political discourse. His supporters speak of violent revolution, “the Storm” (look it up); “Second Amendment Remedies,” and mob justice.
If this seems like a scratch of the surface—I completely agree. If it seems alien or makes you want to say, “well, what about Democrats who say that Trump is a threat to democracy?”—if that’s the case, I don’t know how to have a conversation with you. And if this is all somehow new to you, what I’d say to you, Mr. Van Winkle, is to spend about 30 seconds on Google.
To be clear—one of the top reasons to oppose Trump and to be horrified at the prospect that he might be sent back to the White House is because he and his supporters advocate political violence.
None of that is a reason to condone political violence directed against Trump. To be against political violence means to be against it even when applied to the bad guys. I think Trump is a criminal who belongs in jail, not in the White House, but also not in the ground.
Trump’s survival of a heinous assassination attempt that resulted in two other human beings losing their lives and others being grievously injured does not change Trump’s status as a threat to democracy, Western civilization, Ukraine and Eastern Europe, human rights, civil rights, minorities, poor people, clean air, food, and water, public health, a stable economy, labor rights, you, me and everything good and decent. We still need to be denouncing him and making the compelling case that any alternative is better.
But we shouldn’t want him dead.
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