The tragic event in Butler, Pennsylvania, at a political rally last Saturday was very unfortunate but not surprising. The nation can exhale a collective sigh of relief that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump escaped an assassination attempt with only minor physical injuries, while it mourns the death of a spectator attending the rally and injuries to two other spectators.
America has a sad history of assassination of its presidents, notably John Kennedy in 1962 and Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and attempted assassinations, including on the lives of President Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford. Also, notably, the memory of the 1968 assassinations of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King and Democratic Party presidential candidate Robert Kennedy is not easily forgotten.
Although there have been reports of threats against presidential candidates and presidents since the attempt on the life of Regan in 1981, the escalated role of the US Secret Service in protecting both candidates and presidents has made assassinations or attempted assassinations more unlikely.
But since 2008, what was once a relatively tolerant political environment in America has deteriorated into a sharp divide where leaders and supporters of both main political parties seem to have become bitter enemies, unable to find semblance of common ground.
Each day the political divide widens, characterized by vile, bitter, confrontational rhetoric that some people fear is positioning the nation for another civil war. Several violent incidents have characterized the sharp political divisions in recent years. These include an attack on a Republican congressional baseball practice by a lone gunman in Virginia in 2017; a failed plan to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020; a violent attack by an intruder wielding a hammer on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at their San Francisco home in 2022; and most infamously, the violent mob that stormed the US Capitol in January 2021 to stop the certification of President Bidens’ presidential election victory in November 2020.
This rabid political divide is running deep into almost all areas of American society, even tearing families apart. A recent report indicated a man and his wife, both Republicans refused to attend the wedding of their only child and daughter because she was getting married to a renowned Democratic activist. This sharp, chasm-like divide characterized by increasing caustic rhetoric coming from both political parties aimed at each other, serves as a short fuse ready to set off powerful political and civil dynamite.
In conversations across America, people have expressed fear of violence against the Democratic presidential candidate and the Republican candidate. This fear materialized in Pennsylvania last Saturday evening. Fortunately, the outcome was not as deadly as it could have been to Trump, his presidential campaign, and the nation.
The escalating sharp divide in American politics, the vicious rhetoric, and the ever-present threat of violence are disappointing to Caribbean immigrants, particularly those who left countries like Jamaica in the 1970s when similar tribal-like political divisions and related violence encroached on their once-peaceful environment. On coming to America in the late 1970s, Caribbean immigrants were impressed with the relatively peaceful way presidential and other elections were conducted. There was little evidence of the political divide that made enemies out of neighbors, co-workers, friends, and families because they supported different political parties.
But all that peacefulness has disappeared. Today, politics in America is more like the politics several immigrants from third-world countries fled.
There was a time when supporters of either political party proudly placed bumper stickers on their vehicles supporting political party, and presidential candidates. The rabid divide in American politics now makes the placement of such bumper stickers a real risk of reactionary violence. One hardly sees political bumper stickers anymore.
It’s obvious something must be done to bridge America’s political divide and calm down the caustic rhetoric that’s creating such enmity between people because they support different political parties and candidates. In the immediate aftermath of the attempted assassination of Trump, a seemingly consensual appeal for calm and unity emerged from several areas, including from President Biden.
But realistically, the political divide may be too deeply entrenched for such calm and unity to emerge. Saturday’s event will likely not stop the rancor, because instead of focusing on debating policies crucial to American voters, the presidential candidates and their supporters are focusing on personal attacks. There’s fear the violent attack on Trump, could provoke violence against the Biden campaign.
As early as Saturday night, prominent Trump supporters were blaming Biden’s campaign rhetoric for generating the attack on Trump. It is concerning the real tempo of the presidential campaign hasn’t yet peaked with well over three months to Election Day. It’s likely as the tempo peaks the divide will widen, and the potential for political violence will increase.
Notwithstanding, it’s the responsibility of every American citizen to ensure such violence doesn’t emerge. It’s also the responsibility of the presidential candidates and their respective campaigns to tone down the rhetoric, stop personal attacks, and focus on crucial policy issues.
