“s Far As We Can Tell Right Now, The Man Who Tried To Assassinate Donald Trump Was A Registered Republican

“s far as we can tell right now, the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump was a registered Republican gun enthusiast. As more details emerge, the image will clarify. Assassins are individuals, and their motivations can sometimes be surprising or turn out to be obscure and debatable. At this point, it is just worth noting that it would not be surprising if the man who tried to assassinate Trump was, like Trump, a right-wing radical. That would be typical of the United States, where most terrorist acts come from the far right. It would also be historically normal. Trump, like extreme-right-wing politicians in the past, has legitimated violence. Nothing in recent American political life resembles Trump’s call for “Second-Amendment people” to kill Hillary Clinton, his mockery of Paul Pelosi after an attempted murder, his belittling of Gretchen Whitmer after a kidnapping attempt, the stochastic violence he directs against critics to intimidate them and against his fellow Republicans to keep them in line, the brutal language of his rallies since 2016, his vocal admiration for leaders known to be mass killers, and his violent attempt to overthrow constitutional rule in January 2021. What matters more than the action, though, is the reaction. We should all condemn political violence. We should all proclaim that this next election will be settled by the number of votes, rather than by threats, coups, beatings, or murders. The media should not spread messages of hatred and baseless conspiratorial thinking.”

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Political Violence - by Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder is a globally respected expert on Fascism and authoritarian movements. He’s very much worth listening to, always.