Jim Hartman: Rage: The shooting of Donald Trump

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump was a horrific moment for America but it didn’t come as a complete surprise.

Political hostility and hateful rhetoric have risen to produce deep and poisonous divisions that threaten to unravel our democratic system.

We are in the worst crisis in modern American politics, exceeding the political violence and civil unrest of the late 1960s.

For months politicians from both parties have escalated reckless rhetoric.

That includes claims that Trump was set to kill democracy, unleash “death squads” and make homosexuals and reporters “disappear.”

As soon as Trump was elected, unhinged rage became the norm with celebrity Kathy Griffin featuring herself holding the bloody severed head of Trump.

Just recently, another celebrity, actress Lea DeLaria, begged Biden to “blow [Trump] up” after the recent presidential immunity decision. DeLaria explained that “this is a **** war. This is a war now, and we are fighting for our ****country. And these a**holes are going to take it away. They’re going to take it away.”

After Trump’s shooting, President Biden properly denounced “political violence” as did other political leaders. But they must be followed by major changes in behavior and rhetoric.

In Biden’s case, he has fueled rhetorical rage.

In 2022, he gave a controversial speech in front of Independence Hall where he denounced Trump supporters as “enemies of the people.” Biden recently referenced the speech and embraced the claim this could be our last democratic election.

During 2024, voters have heard Democratic politicians and pundits call Trump “Hitler” and the GOP a Nazi movement. Some compared stopping Trump to stopping Hitler in 1933. He’s been cast as an authoritarian and a fascist planning dictatorship. Others say Trump “will destroy the world” unless he is stopped.

Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) declared Trump “is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy and he has to be eliminated.” He later apologized.

When Biden claims Trump’s election may end democracy in America, it can be heard more as a license rather than a warning, especially when he adds “we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bull’s-eye.”

Biden’s unmitigated debate disaster showed the president isn’t up to four more years in office.

Democrats’ anti-Trump rhetoric was ramped-up on the campaign trail after the calamitous debate, making it even more aggressive while Biden faces a revolt in his own party.

Few specifics are known about this shooter, but unhinged people can find justification for violence in the incendiary rhetoric of our politics.

Trump’s shooting in Butler, Pennsylvania may cause some of his supporters to seek violent revenge or entertain fevered conspiracy theories.

Trump and Republicans have a duty – and a political opportunity – to demonstrate stable, reassuring leadership.

The nation’s political contrast could hardly be starker: images of a defiant and bloodied Trump in a show of personal fortitude surviving an assassination attempt cast against persistent questions about 81-year-old Joe Biden’s mental fitness and physical frailty.

The Trump indictments have backfired in historic fashion. It’s the “Great Democratic Lawfare Bust.”

Before the shooting polls showed Biden’s chances of re-election to be slim. After the shooting, they appear virtually nonexistent.

Trump initial statement was a notable demonstration of restraint and gratitude followed by his encouraging call for national unity.

Rather than make his vice presidential choice someone, like Nikki Haley, who would broaden his appeal and unite Republicans, Trump chose Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, who will reinforce his MAGA base.

Vance, 39 years old, is the second youngest senator. He’s held office for only 18 months.

Once a fierce critic of Trump, he’s now a voice for “new right” conservatism. Vance favors tight borders, tariffs, state intervention in the economy, abandoning fiscal restraint and international isolationism.

Democrats are relieved Trump failed to pick a more experienced and reassuring VP candidate.

E-mail Jim Hartman at lawdocman1@aol.com.