A Few Thoughts on a Terrible Day
The assassination attempt on former president Trump sent too many people to their tribal corners.
Last Saturday evening, as my wife and I were about to leave the house to meet up with some friends for dinner, I glanced at the Twitter feed on my phone. I read something about an incident that had occurred at a Trump rally. There was a photo of the former president, looking confused and with a thin spatter of blood across his cheek, being assisted off-stage by Secret Service agents. There were vague reports of Trump being “okay” after a “popping noise” and some “smoke rising” from “beneath bleachers.”
I figured it was a false scare, perhaps something similar to the balloon scene from “In the Line of Fire,” but with someone setting off leftover Fourth of July fireworks. It would explain the smoke anyway, and if Trump had bumped his face on the podium or microphone during the confusion, that would explain the blood.
Yes, that was my instinctual take based on very little information. Feel free to laugh.
At the restaurant, right before we were all seated, I glanced at my phone again and this time saw the now iconic imagery of a bloodied Trump pumping his fist in the air as if he’d just won the Super Bowl.
Yep, he’s fine, I convinced myself, mostly focused on my dinner companions. The man definitely knows how to work a crowd.
But after a good meal, a fun visit, and even a little commiseration over the upcoming election, we all walked out to the parking lot and I checked my phone once more. My jaw dropped as I learned the true horrors of what had happened. An assassination attempt. An innocent victim killed. Two more in critical condition. The shooter dead.
It was a terrible day for America. Another bloody punctuation mark on this deeply polarized era in our nation’s history.
Once home, I quickly turned on the news and opened my laptop to catch up on the latest. There were few new details coming in. No information on the shooter had been released, nor his possible motivations. But on the internet, there was already a ton of finger-pointing and a plethora of over-the-top conspiracy theories from both sides of the political aisle, including from elected representatives.
Your side’s been saying dangerous things. This is your fault!
No, your side’s been saying dangerous things. It’s your fault!
Biden was behind this! He tried to kill is opponent!
No, Trump staged a fake assassination attempt to win the election! Fake blood!
It was the deep state! The Secret Service was in on it!
“People who value democracy do not spread lethal conspiracy theories,” a fellow observer wrote of the display on Twitter.
I think he made a good point. These folks weren’t at all interested in what actually happened. If they had been, they would have done what decent and responsible people did: stick to the known facts, offer well wishes to the victims, call for a moment of national unity, and otherwise shut up.
There’d be plenty of time to argue over what had happened, and why it had happened, once the truth had been determined and the situation was better understood.
As I said above, my instincts when I first caught wind of the story were bad. Really bad. If I had shared them online that night, I would have made a fool of myself. But tribal instincts — the kind that spawn the aforementioned conspiracy theories — are far worse. Once they’re formulated, they don’t go away easily. They’re harnessed and advanced by reckless politicians and media figures who benefit professionally by pouring gasoline on our country’s divisions. They pit neighbor against neighbor, and millions of Americans come to accept them as their verifiable truth. We’ve seen it time after time.
Maybe the shooter was pushed over the edge by this climate. Maybe he wasn’t. I think we’ll find out.
But I’m afraid the facts and conclusions that come from the investigations into this terrible event aren’t going to find wide public acceptance, no matter how thoroughly and professionally they’re conducted. The polarization I’m describing being the reason why. Still, the truth does matter, and it’s important that the American public be told it, no matter who all it reflects poorly on.
For now, I’m glad that Donald Trump wasn’t seriously injured. I pray for the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed that night, along with the other victims. I also pray for our country.
And regardless of what more we learn about the shooter, and whatever lapses in security let him get those shots off before he was thankfully taken down, I think it’s important that American leaders and other people of influence tone down the reckless, vitriolic rhetoric that’s plagued our political discourse for far too long.
It can only help.
I agree with your conclusion, let’s wait for the facts and tone down our rhetoric. Glad that you enjoyed your dinner. 🙂🙂
Loved George Will’s suggestion. Best way to somewhat calm the situation and divisions in our country would be to shut down all social media and FOX and MSNBC for a month, and Leo people deal with their withdrawal. But since he is supposedly a nation of Liberty and not a dictatorships despite the efforts to censor the media ( which will probably intensify as a result of this incident), instead we will each individually have to redouble our efforts to be thoughtful, civil and respectful of opinions with which we disagree. . Unlees of course they are insane and stupid 🙂🙂🙂
// my instincts when I first caught wind of the story were bad
I didn't quite understand this. Were your instincts actually bad? Or were you reading dubious headlines? If a seasoned news professional like yourself can't glean the gravity of a situation from even a couple news headlines, that seems to indicate media bias more than personal instinct. I think if you read "suspected assassination attempt" instead of "popping sounds", you'd have had a different initial reaction.