{"id":4402,"date":"2024-07-14T18:47:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T01:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=4402"},"modified":"2024-07-14T18:48:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-15T01:48:14","slug":"the-us-is-now-in-a-period-of-political-violence-and-faces-an-important-choice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abovecloud.xyz\/?p=4402","title":{"rendered":"The US is now in a period of political violence and faces an important choice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The motivations of the gunman who\u00a0opened fire at former President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0in Pennsylvania on Saturday are not known, but the incident comes at a time of political anger and anxiety in a country split down the middle and bursting at the seams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Violence has targeted Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and seems to be happening with agonizing frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25ba A plot to\u00a0assassinate conservative Supreme Court justices<\/a>\u00a0was foiled in 2022 by the FBI.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25ba The husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a> was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder at their San Francisco home in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25ba A violent mob stormed the US Capitol<\/a> in January of 2021 to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden\u2019s election win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25ba Would-be kidnappers hatched a plot to snatch Michigan\u2019s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer<\/a> in 2020 and were sentenced on terrorism charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u25ba A GOP congressional baseball team practice was attacked by a gunman in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2017. The then-House GOP Whip, Steve Scalise<\/a>, was nearly killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those incidents range from organized plots to the irrational actions of lone attackers, but they all feed off a desperate and intractable polarization in which apocalyptic language is used to demonize both sides of the political aisle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major question will be how Trump reacts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Republican National Convention is set to get underway Monday in Milwaukee. Will Trump use the shooting to further feed the idea among his supporters that the country needs to be taken back, or will the former president, who doesn\u2019t believe he lost the last election, call for calm?
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Americans need to treat this assassination attempt like 9\/11 and unify, according to Ian Bremmer, the president of the political risk firm the Eurasia Group. But there is another direction that is more frightening. \u201cI fear it\u2019s going to be a lot more like January 6, where there will be a large number of people that will weaponize what just happened. And that we will continue to tribalize as a country and people won\u2019t accept that the people on the other side of the aisle are American,\u201d Bremmer told CNN\u2019s Fareed Zakaria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the shocking chaos of the immediate aftermath of the shooting, Trump was encouraging supporters to \u201cfight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump yelled to supporters, pumping his fist, as blood dripped from his head when the Secret Service rushed him from the rally stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, on his social media platform, the presumptive GOP nominee called for national unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn this moment, it is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the gravity of the situation sank in Saturday night, over-the-top rhetoric was on hold, replaced by bipartisan condemnation of political violence and calls to cool things down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement, Biden condemned political violence and called the attack on Trump \u201csick,\u201d while his advisers halted television advertising and put active campaigning on hold.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blaming anti-Trump rhetoric<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Scalise, now the House majority leader, issued a statement blaming anti-Trump rhetoric, which he said is \u201cfueling ludicrous hysteria that Donald Trump winning re-election would be the end of democracy in America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClearly we\u2019ve seen far left lunatics act on violent rhetoric in the past. This incendiary rhetoric must stop,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Trump\u2019s potential running mates, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, issued a statement Saturday night, before the identity of the suspected shooter had been released or his motivation was known, blaming political opposition to Trump, and the Biden campaign\u2019s rhetoric specifically, for the shooting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,\u201d Vance said on X<\/a>. \u201cThat rhetoric led directly to President Trump\u2019s attempted assassination.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On NBC\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press,\u201d Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said Trump\u2019s election would not break the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou know, if he wins, democracy is not going to end. He\u2019s not a fascist. He represents a point of view that millions share,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Calls to calm down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin Republican, told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper Sunday that \u201cthe greatest threat to America is that we\u2019re horribly divided.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said Americans need to spend less time on social media, where divisions grow, and more time out in their communities focused on the things that unite them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat, noted on \u201cState of the Union\u201d that the Tree of Life Synagogue was attacked in 2018 in nearby Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe we\u2019re in that place. It\u2019s the same kind of shock,\u201d Fetterman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cycles of political violence \u2018bred in the bone\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The presidential historian Tim Naftali said on CNN that there have been other cycles of violence against presidential candidates in US politics \u2014 frequently at times of social change, including 1968, when Robert F. Kennedy and Marin Luther King, Jr., were shot. He said political violence is \u201cbred in the bone\u201d of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something we ought to remember \u2014 we are capable of this as a nation,\u201d Naftali said. \u201cThe people who do it, of course, are outliers, but they are a product of the extremism and the anger and the hatred that sometime pulses through our elections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gunman, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, had apparently been a registered Republican, and would only this year have been old enough to vote in a presidential election. His name is also associated with a $15 donation to a progressive political action committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FBI has been warning about the terror threat posed by domestic violent extremists in recent years. Last December, FBI Director Christopher Wray<\/a> warned of the threat of lone actors as a top domestic threat to the homeland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all attacks on politicians are politically motivated<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Hinckley was mentally unstable, seeking fame and to impress a Hollywood actress, when he tried to kill President Ronald Reagan in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the recent string of violent incidents falls into a definite period of division and anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson said on CNN that Americans across the board are angry and frustrated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI look at data all\u00a0the time that says Americans\u00a0are getting angrier and angrier\u00a0about what\u2019s going on in this\u00a0country, that they are getting\u00a0more and more frustrated that\u00a0they think traditional ways of\u00a0solving problems are no longer\u00a0working,\u201d she said.

Reprinted from CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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