Ryan Routh smiling while taken into custody

Results of a poll taken in June, 2024 by Robert Pape, political scientist at the University of Chicago, show that 10% of those surveyed, a number representing 26 million people, agreed with the statement: “use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.” Nearly seven percent “support force to restore Trump to the presidency,” a number representing 18 million people. In another survey Pape did in 2023, he found that 12 million people supported using force to return Trump to power, while 22 million justified the use of force to restore abortion rights. (It’s interesting that, while almost twice as many people justified the use of force to restore abortion rights as do those who justify force to return Trump to power, the interview with Pape accompanying the article focused entirely on concern about those willing to justify force to return Trump to power and mentioned nothing about those willing to use force to restore abortion rights … Hmmm).

I’m only finding out about this now, and I keep up pretty well with the news. I don’t think it’s been much reported on. But, now that a second assassination attempt has been tried on Trump, I guess people are starting to pay attention. Note that the June, 2024 survey came out about three weeks prior to the first assassination attempt on Trump. After the July assassination attempt on Trump, Pape recommended that people needed to be prepared for retaliatory action by those who support Trump, as the attempt on his life would bring them to a boil. I’ve not heard of any type of retaliatory action by Trump supporters. But, there was that second attempt on his life. And Lester Holt seems to suggest that Trump’s rhetoric is what’s heating up the room to the point where people want to kill him. Notice that that link is to an Australian news source. Why? Because our own legacy media sees nothing wrong with Holt’s assessment, so they’re not reporting on it. Trump, not missing a beat, has blamed the Democrats. There’s been plenty of reporting on that.

Political violence is hardly new in America. A man tried to shoot Andrew Jackson point blank, but his pistol failed twice. Abraham Lincoln had to sneak into Washington, DC under the protection of the Pinkertons to attend his inaugural in 1861 because of credible threats to his life (thus was born the secret service). Four presidents, including Lincoln, have been assassinated, and who knows how many failed attempts have been made on presidents. Some motives have not necessarily been political. A lunatic attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in order to impress the actress Jodi Foster. Rep. Gabby Giffords and Rep. Steve Scalise are two recent victims of political violence. Hundreds of pro-life centers and Catholic churches have been attacked since Roe v Wade was overturned. And then, of course, there was January 6. We have no way of knowing what percentage of Americans may have justified the use of force in the past, but there always have been and will continue to be those who would like to take matters into their own hands, and then the sorry few who have actually done so.

Political violence is an offense against the body politic. It is an offense against democracy. It is an offense against America. The idea that the country got it so wrong that this guy thinks he has to set it right by taking out the person who is the choice of the people is so arrogant, so hateful, so despicable, so unspeakably pathetic. Some people will always be able to justify in their own minds the killing of a political opponent. They turn a person who merely thinks differently then they do, one whose policies are different from theirs, and turn him or her into a monster, a genuine threat to our way of life. Does the rhetoric of our political parties contribute to this? I don’t know. I rather doubt it. On the other hand, if sane, well-educated college students can be triggered into hysterics by the mere sight of someone on their campus who has a contrary thought, who knows what little thing might trigger someone who actually suffers a mental health crisis?

It would be helpful, yes, to turn down the heat on our political rhetoric, but so long as Trump has access to a microphone, and so long as the mainstream media normalizes every hyperbolic accusation against Trump made by the Democrats, that’s not likely to happen. I’m not sure what it will take to cool things down. Maybe Trump retiring, or losing the election. But then we would have to deal with President Harris and whatever fresh hell that would produce (No, thank you!) Maybe, if he is elected, the media could just ignore him. That would drive him crazy, I know, and CNN would continue to decline in viewership, Trump being their goose that laid the golden egg. But if we, as a nation, could make the conscious effort to simply ignore what Trump says. Then, maybe he would focus entirely on his policies, which weren’t half bad, and the Congress and Supreme Court could focus on their jobs. Wouldn’t that be something! Take the mic away from Trump, and pretend we don’t care what he says, only what he does. But we can do something about what he does. We can contact our Senators and Reps in Congress and tell them how we want things run – whether Trump likes it or not.

Oh, who am I kidding? The rhetoric will continue. The majority of the crazies will continue to make their empty threats, and the few will actually act on them. Someone is going to get hurt, eventually. Someone is going to get killed. Then Trump, the Democrats, the media, and all the talking heads will point their fingers in the other direction, insisting that this tragedy wouldn’t have happened if the other side had just kept their mouths shut.

I pray for my country.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.