An Assassination Attempt, a VP Pick, and Our Country's Role in Choosing the Path Forward
Reflections on Recent News and Rhetoric
How did we get here, and how do we get out of “here”?
That is the question on the mind of just about every American today, yesterday, and the day before. No matter what you think of Trump, we should all agree that his defeat should come at the ballot box, not at the hands of a lone wolf assassin. As the son of late-Alabama Gov. George Wallace said, “opposition should always be expressed in the form of ballots, not bullets” (emphasis mine). That holds whether or not you are a racist segregationist demagogue like Wallace’s father. It is no less true for Trump.
We should also agree that Trump supporters should never be the targets of political violence. R.I.P. Corey Comperatore. Do I still think Trump supporters are wrong on the issues, even on fundamental ones like democracy? Yes. They are still people with passions, jobs, families, and many others who love them very much. Heroes can be wrong, and heroes can even disagree with each other. Hopefully, someday, our other heroes will rise up in common cause to recreate that “shining city on a hill.”
Yet, you may notice, I did not answer the question. How did we get here? It is a long story destined for a separate Salzillo’s Two Cents blog post. What about the way out?
The simple answer? Fully reclaiming our democracy. Restoring our faith in democratic values. Rebuilding our institutions and our communities brick-by-brick. Reaffirming our faith in the values and rights that our Bill of Rights intended to protect—including freedom of the press.
Donald Trump and the Republican Party could have been a part of that “way out.” Unfortunately, what I have seen so far is not encouraging. Right after the assassination attempt, Georgia Rep. Mike Collins (R) released a post that read, “The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.” That was only 20 minutes after Trump was shot (and, by the way, only 3 years after congressmen and women like him refused to hold Trump accountable for his role in January 6th).
10 minutes later, Collins tweeted again: “Joe Biden sent the orders” (emphasis mine). Here, he seemingly refers to a comment President Biden made to Democratic donors about putting Trump in the “bullseye.” The orders? Did these same Democratic donors “take out” Trump? Absolutely not. If only Mr. Collins waited just a little while longer before he opened his mouth. The real shooter’s motives are far from clear. For example, we now know that Thomas Matthew Crooks was a registered Republican. One classmate of Crooks, Max Smith, even told the Philadelphia Inquirer that Crooks “definitely was conservative.”
Where does that fit into Rep. Collins’s black-and-white narrative? Crooks’s father bought the AR-15 style rifle to open fire into the crowd and at Trump. Crooks himself had membership at a local shooting club. I could go on and on. Did Rep. Collins apologize for his possibly incendiary remarks? No, and neither did Marjorie Taylor Greene, the first speaker at the Republican National Convention.
Like she put it herself, “Joe Biden told donors it’s ‘time to put Trump in a bull’s eye,’ and that is EXACTLY what happened…The weaponized DOJ has done everything they can to make sure President Trump spends the rest of his life in PRISON…They want President Trump and his supporters dead. We won’t forget” (emphasis not mine).
“We won’t forget.” Even a sitting Senator got in on the action. “Today is not just some isolated incident,” he claimed. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination” (emphasis mine).
Shortly after, that same Senator, J.D. Vance, became Donald Trump’s official VP pick. The same man who called Trump “America’s Hitler” 8 years ago self-righteously scolded Democrats for calling him far less. Why? Is it maybe—just maybe—because he cares far more for his political career than for telling the American people the truth?
To quote Mitt Romney, “I don’t know that I can disrespect someone more than [I do] J.D. Vance.”
If we are to move past this moment, we must not lie to ourselves. We must understand the choice before us. Then, we must rally, we must organize, we must vote, and we must have our say at the ballot box. If we do, we will beat back the far-right. Just like we have beaten them back in India, France, and all across Europe and the world.
America is the beacon. And when our light shines in the darkness, the darkness cannot overcome it.