The attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday has no doubt put some people in a quandary.
Anyone with a sense of decency and a belief in democracy of course rejects and repudiates the grotesque act committed by what appears to be yet another lone gunman trying to alter the course of American history.
And yet, in rightfully decrying political violence, in properly sending condolences to Mr. Trump, in respectfully suspending political activity in the tragedy’s aftermath, and in forcefully arguing that political disputes, no matter how polarized, must be settled at the ballot box, the same person knows they are living by democratic values that the former president has spat on since he first ran for office.
Mr. Trump doesn’t decry political violence – he celebrates it and urges it on. From his early days on the stump in 2016, when he said he wanted to punch a protester in the face at a rally in Las Vegas, to the Jan. 6, 2021, crime scene when a mob incited by him ransacked the Capitol in an attempt to prevent the certification of the 2020 vote, and on to his reference last November to Democrats as “vermin,” he has spewed a constant stream of violent rhetoric.
He says at every rally that the United States is being “stolen” by dangerous radicals. He calls the media the “enemy of the people.” He vows retribution against his political enemies if returned to power. He says immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” – an echo of authoritarian propaganda.
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Mr. Trump has no capacity for condolences or empathy for others. In 2022, when the husband of then House speaker Nancy Pelosi was horribly attacked in his home by an intruder armed with a hammer, Mr. Trump shared disinformation about the crime and later joked about it in a sneering way. During the 2016 election campaign, he thought it hilarious to say that it might be a good idea to assassinate Hillary Clinton in order to stop her from bringing in new gun laws.
Mr. Trump and his party had no time for the respectful suspension of politics in the wake of Saturday’s tragedy. They immediately went on the attack, accusing President Joe Biden of being responsible for what happened.
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” J.D. Vance, who Mr. Trump on Monday named as his running mate, posted on social media just after the shooting. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
In the shame vacuum that is the Republican universe, only the other side needs to temper its message, apparently.
As for political differences being settled at the ballot box, Mr. Trump continues to spread the lie that the 2020 election was rigged, and that he was the real winner. Should he lose again in November, he and his party are preparing another all-out assault on the certification process.
And so, yes, it is difficult to extend to Mr. Trump the courtesies required by our democratic ideals. But we have to, lest we sink to the level of the man himself.
Mr. Trump is, for better or worse, a legitimate candidate for the office of president. He has the support of millions of voters. His attempted assassination will no doubt reinforce those voters’ belief in him.
But those who oppose him should not suddenly stop saying what has been said by so many for so long – that Donald Trump, by his own admission and through his own actions, is a clear and present danger to American constitutional democracy, and to the United States’ role as a bulwark against authoritarianism in the world.
His violent and divisive rhetoric, combined with his stated affection for strongmen like Vladimir Putin of Russia and Viktor Orban of Hungary, resound with echoes of the past that are too loud to ignore. His documented lack of moral character only makes it worse.
We repeat: No one should do anything but decry the events of Saturday. Political violence is unacceptable in a democracy and must be condemned unconditionally.
But nor should anyone let what happened be a reason to see Mr. Trump in a new light. It would be nice if his brush with mortality awakened in him a respect for the truth and for democratic values. But that’s not going to happen, and those who worry about the future of the United States must not stop saying so.