There is no place for political violence in this country. That is the recurring sentiment expressed by elected officials and political leaders since the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.
That is an honorable sentiment, but it is much too easy. The harsh truth is that there is political violence in this country. And it did not just start on Saturday. It has been here since the very first days of this nation.
The difference between allowing the violence permeating our cultural fabric to remain the political norm and rejecting it outright has always come down to the will, actions and leadership of the men and women of this country to steer a different course.
That will has been bent, and it has been broken. Little by little, we have watched as the desire and the resolve of Americans to push back against this violence dissipate and all but disappear. We saw it on Saturday. We saw it on Jan. 6, 2021, and its aftermath. We saw it during the worst excesses of the Black Lives Matter protests. We saw it in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017.
Now we might be able to begin to turn this around.
Mr. Trump has the opportunity to rein in some of the worst rhetorical impulses of the Republican Party at its convention this week. He can point the party and its leadership in a new direction in the wake of the assassination attempt against him.
Early indications are less than promising. Mr. Trump’s selection of Senator J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate doubles down on the portion of the party already completely devoted to him rather than reaches out to the broader party and beyond. Mr. Vance’s first reaction to the assassination attempt against Mr. Trump was to turn directly to the current, flawed playbook: demonize the other side and lay the blame at the feet of the Democrats, as if they had pulled the trigger themselves.
Clearly, this is not a message of unity in the face of what could have been a national tragedy.
Mr. Trump, however, can demonstrate the will to change not just how we speak to one another but also how we act. This moment can confirm that our country is greater than any political party, but only if we work for it. This can be a moment to choose the country we want to be.
Commendably, Mr. Trump suggested in an interview with The New York Post that he would move in that direction. “I want to try to unite our country, but I don’t know if that’s possible,” he said, adding that he had discarded plans to deliver what he described as “an extremely tough speech” taking the Biden administration to task. President Biden, as well, should be given credit for his call for civility on Sunday night to try to rein in some of this heated language.
This is a start.
Healthy discourse and disagreement are core to our Republic and should be welcomed, not suppressed. I certainly have understood how to use the bully pulpit to persuade. I haven’t always gotten it right myself.
But somewhere along the way, this political back and forth has morphed into pitting Americans against one another in ways that have given rise to distrust. The very real anxiety Americans have about the erosion of their way of life and their financial security has been stoked to craft political victories. It is political orthodoxy now that it is easier to motivate people when you are playing to their worst fears.
The language gets harsher and more divisive while the cynical and unproductive ways our leaders confront serious events grows. It is easy to talk about strength in politics in the context of war and battle. It is careless when our language furthers the idea that what is most important is not what we are fighting for but who we are fighting against.
And what has it gotten us?
Gridlock in Congress. Impeachments. Endless meaningless congressional hearings. A catastrophization of our politics where every election is now painted as the most important election in our lifetime, with both sides claiming that the stakes are nothing less than the very survival of our Republic.
Fighting for one’s beliefs is essential to democracy. Yet today, fighting itself is viewed as the sole political virtue, and any compromise is rejected because it runs the risk of allowing the other side to share in a victory. Too many of the loudest voices in our national discourse are now incentivized to paint their opponents as not just wrong but also out to destroy all we hold dear.
It is not enough to just disagree; we must find in that disagreement a distrust in the other, a hatred in our fellow Americans with whom we disagree and a desire to prove that the way our side views the world is righteous while the other is evil.
Even now in the face of violence, the urge to blame comes first: to blame Mr. Trump for bringing the assassination attempt on himself, to blame Democrats for saying he would bring fascism to this country, to spiral into conspiracy theories about staged plots or inside jobs in order to make the attack fit our preset conceptions. Our politics as articulated by too many of our leaders have become about blame.
Here’s the thing. We are all to blame for where we are today. Yes, some more than others. Mr. Trump has become a victim of a culture that he manifestly contributed to making worse with his inflammatory and irresponsible language and actions. Democrats have contributed as well, from Hillary Clinton referring to half of Trump’s 2016 supporters as “deplorables” to Representative Maxine Waters of California calling on supporters to harass members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet to the near-constant invocation of Hitler by some Democrats.
The harsh truth is that the only way forward is if we have the will. We must look forward as a nation.
Blame will not change the course we are on. We need to have the will to say we want to be better. That this is not who we are and who we want to be.
This can be a moment to choose the country we want to be.
One where we have love in our hearts for every American, no matter who you are or where you come from. Our differences have always been our strength as a country, not a weakness.
A country that understands that we have always been a place where people want to come in search of a better, freer life. That hope is a strength, not a weakness.
A country whose leaders understand the fears Americans have about the future and that working to alleviate those worries, not exploit them, is a strength. So is a country that supports our friends around the world and doesn’t think twice about the fact that dictators and despots are not our friends.
And, finally, a country where we all feel we have a stake in our mutual success and the work it takes to get there. Bringing people together to solve problems is the only way to go.
I won’t pretend that platitudes about unity are the answer. This is an election year, and both sides should and will continue to make their case for their differing visions of our nation’s future. Disagreements are good. The framers designed our Constitution and, indeed, our country to be an argument. But we must always remember they understood that neither side has a monopoly on virtue.
Saturday’s horrific events put us at a crossroads. Descend further into recriminations and hatred or reflect on the basic humanity of those with whom we disagree and act accordingly.
It is not enough for this to be only a momentary call for unity. This change has to go beyond this week, next month and the November elections to be a real transformational shift. Otherwise, all we are left with is just another fleeting political moment.
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