Violence begets violence, as the old saying goes, and unless we change the way we talk and act about politics, America will suffer more violence.
A 20-year-old man armed with an AR-15-style rifle attempted to assassinate former President Donald Trump at a rally in western Pennsylvania on Saturday evening, resulting in a shootout that left the gunman and one spectator dead and two others injured, for reasons that are unclear.
But I do recognize that the past decade has seen a resurgence of violent rhetoric in American politics, driven by Trump’s MAGA movement. The response of some MAGA supporters within the Republican Party to Saturday’s tragedy has been an outright endorsement of violent rhetoric.
At a time when we should take a step back and reflect on how we got to this point, many are taking it even further. Some are celebrating when violence turns the tide of the election as if it were a game, while others are trying to portray President Joe Biden as an instigator because of the way he speaks about Trump.
In American politics, madness begets madness, and it looks like there’s more madness to come.
Trump campaign rushes to push rhetoric after assassination attempt
Chris LaCivita, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, quickly tried to shift the blame onto Biden in a social media post on Saturday: “For years, and even today, left-wing activists, (Democratic) donors, and now even Joe Biden, have made disturbing statements and portrayals taking shots at Donald Trump. It’s time to hold them accountable, and the best way is through the ballot box.”
This was an apparent reference to reports last week that Biden said in a call with campaign donors that “it’s time to attack Trump.”
This is the kind of comment that both Biden and Trump should avoid, but LaCivita was eager to spin Biden’s call for violence against Trump while the investigation into the violence was ongoing.
No sensible person would have thought that way, either before or after Saturday’s shooting, but LaCivita is not addressing sensible people with his post. He is escalating the nation at a time when it desperately needs calm.
Politicians need to do more.After Trump’s shooting, it’s not enough for Republicans and Democrats to speak out against violence
Trump sent out a flurry of social media posts, fundraising emails and text messages in the wake of the shootings, including calls for Americans to come together. That was necessary, but he should follow his own advice.
Trump has long had a penchant for violent rhetoric, last year calling for the execution of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
In a March interview with Fox News, Trump justified his use of inflammatory rhetoric by saying, “If you don’t use certain rhetoric, if you don’t use certain words that might not be very nice, then nothing is going to happen.”
The Republican response has done little to defuse the political fires caused by the shooting.
And when something happens, how do they react?
“President Trump survived this attack. He just won the election,” Wisconsin Republican Rep. Derrick Van Orden told Politico after the shooting.
This wasn’t a masterful debate performance or a moment on the campaign trail when the candidates truly connected with voters. This was a sudden outbreak of violence with a controversial weapon of war, the kind of event that occurs all too often in America that Trump and the Republican Party have long refused to address in their politics and policies.
Van Alden witnessed the violence: He attended the Trump rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that sparked the failed storming of the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Georgia Republican Rep. Mike Collins, in a social media post on Saturday, called on the Pennsylvania district attorney to indict Biden on “solicitation of assassination.”
Collins clearly has mixed feelings about political violence and has called for the release and pardons of the criminals convicted in the Capitol attack.
Not to be outdone, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, claimed in a social media post on Sunday that “Democrats are completely evil and yesterday they tried to assassinate President Trump.”
She left out the inconvenient fact that the identified shooter was a Republican — a fact that is irrelevant to those who seek to use political violence to further divide America.
What is wrong with us?Shooting at Trump rally spawns social media lies and sick conspiracies
American politics is heading in an ugly direction, and our political leaders must stop it.
Violence is nothing new in American politics, but it comes in waves. It’s coming back. It’s a frightening sign that we have established procedures for dealing with this kind of thing. But after the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump, we took a bipartisan stance.
“This kind of violence has no place in America. It’s terrible,” Biden said Saturday after being briefed by federal agencies. “This is one of the reasons we have to unite our country. We can’t allow this to happen. We can’t be like this. It’s unacceptable.”
Biden continued after speaking with Trump on Sunday: “An assassination attempt goes against everything we stand for as a nation. Everything. That’s not who our country is. That’s not America. We cannot allow this to happen.”
Former President Barack Obama said, “There is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy.”
Former President George W. Bush and his wife released the following statement: “Laura and I are grateful that President Trump is safe after this vile attack.”
It all sounds like it’s speaking to us from America’s past, a time when politicians could vigorously disagree but didn’t reflexively condemn those who disagreed with their policies. The old selling point was, “I have a better approach to governing.” Too often today’s approach is, “We must destroy our enemies.”
If we talk like that long enough, words will lead to actions. If we treat every disagreement as a life-or-death power struggle, many will survive but some will surely die.
Follow USA TODAY elections columnist Chris Brennan on X (formerly Twitter): @ByChrisBrennan
