Everyone will remember where they were when they first heard of the stunning assassination attempt on former President Trump over the weekend in Butler, Pennsylvania. This violence against a former president and current candidate has the power to demarcate American political discourse between “before” the assassination attempt and “after.”
America was almost irrevocably divided on July 12. While it would be naïve at best to assume that Americans would coalesce around the failed attempt at murdering the left’s boogeyman, we are witnessing small steps toward burying the hatchet, at least while the blood is drying on Trump’s face. Minimal attempts are being made at lowering the hateful, incendiary rhetoric by Democratic politicians and leftist pundits. They are forced to release statements wishing a full recovery to the man who was the devil to them the day before.
President Biden told donors on a phone call less than a week before the assassination attempt, “We’re done talking about the debate. It’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.” On July 13, he was forced to walk back that inflammatory comment and condemn political violence. “Politics must never be a literal battlefield,” he said.
Several months ago, in an interview with Spectrum News, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she doesn’t like to use Donald Trump’s name. “It’s like a curse word to me,” Pelosi said. After the assassination attempt, she put out a statement saying, “I thank G-d that former President Trump is safe.”
Even MSNBC pulled its progressive show “Morning Joe” from the air on Monday to prevent its guests from making inappropriate comments against Trump that might put the network in a bad light. They couldn’t trust the show’s hosts, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, to refrain from calling Trump “Hitler” again, as they have done one time too many on their show.
As the GOP convention in Milwaukee got underway, half the country was rooting for a man to bring back some semblance of unity to this fractured nation. Following the attempt on his life, for which escape he attributed to Divine intervention, Trump wrote, “In this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United.”
Yes, we’ve heard the unity pitch before. Biden’s promise of unity in his 2021 inaugural address still rings hollow. But his empty words were further undercut by three and a half years of policies that have driven a wedge between two sides.
Democratic policies under the Biden administration have become so radical that the resultant divide between most Democrats and the rest of America is now extreme. Unprecedented mass illegal immigration and soft-on-crime policies have decimated American cities. Limitless spending has caused out-of-control inflation. Identity regulations have alienated social groups, and environmental restrictions have created energy dependence. The Afghanistan debacle and weakness towards Iran, China and Russia have downgraded America’s status worldwide and invited global conflict.
The pushback against these ruinous policies by common-sense Americans, Democrats among them, has caused a rift between the agitators and those trying to restore previous American grandeur based on capitalism and Judeo-Christian values.
In a country of 340 million, there will never be agreement on all issues. But as the pendulum under the Biden administration swings further and further towards the destruction of this once-great country, the gap between the two sides has become unbridgeable.
Unity, therefore, will not be achieved through more calls for unity. It can only be achieved by rooting out those responsible for undermining the possibility for consensus. And that can only happen at the ballot box.
Leftist politicians were forced to utter phrases of conciliation in the wake of the assassination attempt, but the polite veneer surely masks their true feelings. There will be no kumbaya between progressives like AOC and Tlaib and Republicans because of an attempted assassination on Trump.
However, forced lip service might galvanize Americans still on the fence to recognize the consequences of inflammatory rhetoric. At the very least, resultant investigations might inform them of the dangers of policies like DEI in places like the Secret Service. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, the first woman to lead the agency, is facing calls to resign over security lapses leading to the failed assassination attempt. Cheatle’s appointment was pushed by Jill Biden adviser Anthony Bernal, who has been described as being “obsessed” with DEI compliance.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is also being accused of denying repeated requests for stronger Secret Service protection for Trump. Don’t tell me that was not from political spite.
Sadly, similar spite thrived in Israel on October 6, when members of the IDF and the Israeli Air Force refused to serve under Prime Minister Netanyahu. Indeed, the dissension that pervaded Israel on October 6 may have provided the opportunity for Hamas’s bloody attack on October 7. While we cannot compare, in any shape or form, the assassination attempt on Trump to the Hamas atrocities in Israel, we can draw a parallel to the discord that preceded both.
The horrific events in Israel united its people, perhaps temporarily, around a common goal of eradicating the enemies bent on their destruction. While it might be argued that Israel, a tiny country compared to America, cannot afford to suffer disunity in the face of threatened extinction, America should not rely on its size and might to protect it, either.
A weak America translates into weakening opposition to evil. Shortly after Biden’s disastrous debate, Russia conducted one of its worst attacks on Ukraine, striking a children’s hospital in Kyiv and killing scores of people. Around the same time, Hezbollah launched one of its biggest attacks on Israel’s northern region. Is this a coincidence?
Whether or not Biden will be the Democratic nominee in the upcoming election, it is certain that he will be a lame duck president for the next six months. This will undoubtedly pose many dangers for America. And we cannot expect the leftist whisperers surrounding Biden to be convinced of the error of their ways by a botched assassination attempt against their political enemy.
We need to take advantage of this moment of conciliation, sincere or not, that has resulted from the terrible event of July 13. Then we wait for November 7.