Is the US in a transitory or transformative moment in history?

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has rightly received wall-to-wall television coverage. This heinous act which killed a rally-goer, seriously injured two bystanders, and narrowly missed killing Trump has been condemned by all sides.  

President Biden described the act as “sick,” adding, “Everybody must condemn it.”  

Vice President Harris echoed the president: “We must all condemn this abhorrent act and do our part to ensure that it does not lead to more violence.”  

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), whose husband Paul was viciously attacked in 2022, wrote: “As one whose family has been the victim of political violence, I know firsthand that political violence of any kind has no place in our society.” 

Former President Obama and other prominent Democrats issued similar statements. 

American history is rife with political violence. Donald Trump is the seventh U.S. President to be shot. Other political figures have also been targets of assassination attempts, including Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 and George Wallace in 1972.  

After each attack, there are outbursts of sympathy and calls for change. 

In 1968, following the death of Robert Kennedy and the assassination of his brother, John, five years earlier, President Johnson created a Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence led by Milton Eisenhower, brother of the former president. 

It urged Congress to adopt “a national firearms policy that will limit the general availability of handguns,” concluding, “Our institutions and the spirit of our people are equal to this challenge, no less than to the challenges we have met in the past.” 

But are the institutions of government and the spirit of our people equal to this challenge? More than a half-century has passed since the Eisenhower Commission issued its report. Meanwhile, gun violence continues unabated. Today, more children will die of gunshot wounds than any disease.  

Moreover, the increasing predisposition to resort to violence is worrisome. A 2023 survey finds nearly one-quarter of respondents believe “because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.” This includes 33 percent of Republicans, 13 percent of Democrats and 22 percent of independents. 

In the immediate aftermath of the Trump assassination attempt, some wondered whether this would be a transformative moment, causing all parties to tone down the rhetoric and be more judicious in their social media posts. 

One positive sign came the day after the assassination attempt when Trump urged everyone to “stand United, and show our True Character as Americans, remaining Strong and Determined, and not allowing Evil to Win.”   

But such moments are often temporary. 

Within hours after the shooting, the Trump campaign sent out a text reading, “They’re not after me, they’re after you.” And as he was being led away by Secret Service agents, Trump shouted, “Fight, fight, fight.” Hearing this, the crowd turned to the media and yelled, “Fake news! This is your fault!” and  “You’re next! Your time is coming.”  

Other incendiary rhetoric followed. Trump’s vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance (R-Ohio),  wrote: “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” 

Congressional Republicans posted similar sentiments. 

Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.)  indicted President Biden: “Joe Biden sent the orders. The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, Pennsylvania, should immediately file charges against Joe Biden for inciting an insurrection.” 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) said, “They tried to impeach him. They are trying to imprison him. Now, they have tried to assassinate him.” 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) declared, “Democrats wanted this to happen.”  

In this politics-as-entertainment environment, incendiary rhetoric generates both clicks and passion. Donald Trump is a showman who knows how to do both. He has called his political enemies “vermin,” described undocumented immigrants as “animals,” and warned of a “bloodbath” if he fails to win in November.  

In 1965, Reverend James Reeb, a Boston minister, traveled to Selma, Ala., to protest the lack of African American voting rights. He was beaten and killed by a white mob. 

In his eulogy, Martin Luther King said the important question was not who killed Reverend Reeb, but what killed him. His answer: “He was murdered by the irresponsibility of every politician who has moved down the path of demagoguery, who has fed his constituents the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism.”  

Those words ring true today. Writing in The Atlantic, David Frum observed: 

“Nobody seems to have language to say: We abhor, reject, repudiate, and punish all political violence, even as we maintain that Trump remains himself a promotor of such violence, a subverter of American institutions, and the very opposite of everything decent and patriotic in American life.” 

In 1968, Robert Kennedy gave an impassioned speech after the murder of Martin Luther King, calling upon his fellow citizens to change: 

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another.”  

Those words still ring true. But instead of a transformative moment, like the ones King and Kennedy wished for, it is probable, indeed likely, that the gunfire at the Trump rally is a transitory moment in a country prone to condone violence, and whose political rhetoric encourages more of it.  

With each spasm of violence, the phrase “thoughts and prayers” has become a national joke, empty of meaning and devoid of purpose. 

John Kenneth White is a professor emeritus at The Catholic University of America. His latest book is titled “Grand Old Unraveling: The Republican Party, Donald Trump, and the Rise of Authoritarianism.”