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(by Daniel Henniger from Wall Street Journal)
Another day, another assassination attempt. Life goes on.
Is this what politics, not to say daily life in America, has come to—shrugging off the formerly unthinkable?
The first Trump shooting, in Butler, Pa., was a mega-event, with the nation glued to TV screens for hours. This one in Florida was a duck-in-duck-out affair Sunday to see if there was anything new, such as: Did they catch anyone? And what the heck ever happened to the Secret Service? Back to the NFL.
By Tuesday, Kamala Harris was on the campaign trail doing an interview in Pennsylvania, her new home away from home, with the National Association of Black Journalists. That’s the group Donald Trump unhappily appeared before on July 31, where he faced the most tendentious, accusatory opening “question” I’ve ever heard from a reporter.
After Sunday’s thwarted assassination attempt at the Trump golf course in West Palm Beach, Fla., Mr. Trump himself quickly pivoted to incorporate the event into his campaign strategy. In a Monday interview with Fox News Digital he accused President Biden and his vice president of precipitating the attacks: “Their rhetoric is causing me to be shot at.”
In a post that day on social media, Mr. Trump said “the politics in our Country” have gone to “a whole new level of Hatred, Abuse, and Distrust.” Who could disagree? Hatred, abuse and distrust have become the mother’s milk of American politics. How did we get here?
Any history of this nation’s politics will note that during its early years the vitriol and personal attacks among our revered Founding Fathers was startling in its intensity. I suppose we can count as progress that no one has suggested Messrs. Trump and Biden settle their differences like Hamilton and Burr, in a duel at 10 paces.
For discussion’s sake, we will posit that the current state of U.S. politics headed toward the ditch during the Republican presidential primary debates in 2015, when Mr. Trump turned the personal insult into a low art form. Ask Carly Fiorina.
But that can’t fully explain what happened after Mr. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016. Democrats may not like the term Trump Derangement Syndrome, but how else to explain the political atmosphere they consciously assembled from then until, well, right now?
The unstoppable Trump attacks included the Russian collusion narrative, Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation and two impeachments between 2019 and 2021.
At this point, Mr. Trump was out of office. No matter. Next came indictments by prosecutors in Georgia and New York City, the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago raid, the Merrick Garland/Jack Smith indictments, the Biden “threat-to-democracy” mantra and finally Kamala Harris using the Sept. 10 debate’s two hours to provoke Mr. Trump with personal attacks—“dangerous,” “a disgrace,” “unfit,” and “understand what it would mean if Donald Trump were back in the White House with no guardrails.” And of course, “dictator on day one.”
Yes, we know the legal details, the abhorrent events of Jan. 6, and, as already noted, the role of Mr. Trump’s own rhetoric. But did Democrats think this nonstop assault on a person who twice got about half of the country’s popular presidential vote would be cost-free, that it would have no negative effect on the psychological health of America’s public life? Did “assassination” ever enter their minds?
You have to love the way the conventional wisdom shows up at moments like this, proclaiming that we need to “tone it down.” It might be a little late for that.
It may not be possible to draw a line from Ryan Routh or Thomas Crooks to anything Mr. Biden or Ms. Harris said. Both were disturbed psychologically. As was the man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer, and the Austrian man who was plotting mass killings at the Taylor Swift concert in Vienna last month. As were all the young men on the too-long list of school shooters in the U.S.
What virtually all these violent men have in common is that they are the product of our jacked-up age of constant and addictive media immersion. Both the Trump shooters had marinated in our politics, especially social media, and from there tipped into irrationality. Seven years ago, a social-media obsessive, James Hodgkinson, shot up a congressional baseball practice.
It is easy to say they are nut-case outliers, but consider: Many “normal” people can’t fall asleep anymore without first consuming a heavy, pleasurable dose of online abuse and distrust. This is the blame narcotic, and too much of it can be injurious to one’s mental health.
After the capture of the Trump shooter, Elon Musk posted on X: “And no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala”? He said, lamely, it was meant to be a joke. Social media has uses, but through repetition it disintegrates almost everything it touches into unreality. For that, there is no apparent solution.
We will discover in less than 50 days whether the targeting of Mr. Trump helps or hurts his candidacy, whether undecided voters will agree with him that he deserves re-election because his treatment by the Democrats has put him in danger, or if he’s just too hot for another presidential term.
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