Thoughts After Trump’s Assassination Attempt
Thank God Donald Trump survived.
We all already know that every atrocity in human history starts with dehumanizing the victims. This allows the human mind to justify all sorts of demented actions to take the life of another person, sometimes in systemic or genocidal methods, and other times to target a single individual.
And while the motives of the 20 year old would be assassin are yet to be fully known by the American Public, it is not a stretch to offer some educated guesses as to why he would take actions that he may have falsely justified in his own mind.
Just days before the gunman perched on roof with a sightline directly to President Trump, MSNBC host, Joy Reid, said she will vote for whoever it takes to keep Hitler out of the White House.
The thought experiment of killing Adolf Hitler before he could start War World II and the Holocaust has been part of the America psyche since the 1940’s. It even has it’s own Wikipedia entry, and when the New York Times polled their readers in 2015 with the option of killing child-Hitler a plurality winner of 42% said they would do it.
Hitler is the essence of evil in human form. In the decades since his death he is justifiably recognized as an actual monster. Concepts like due process seem to pail in comparison to the wretchedness he brought to bear on the Jewish people and all of Europe. People are entitled to rights like due process, but monsters… monsters are to be defeated by whatever means necessary.
Afterall, they are not human anymore, they are monsters. Devoid of all humanity.
Strangely, it is that exact mindset that Nazi’s used to perpetrate the Holocaust. Before they set about systemic Jewish genocide, Nazi’s murdered people with various medical ailments or who they just considered to be “grossly inferior,” justifying it by claiming it was, “Life unworthy of life.” All of this is deeply disturbing stuff.
As a conservative who has a day job dedicated to the concepts of Liberty and Justice for all with a focus on election policy, I find myself in rooms of academics who show their individual biases towards both sides of the aisle. I have gotten to debate the unintended consequences of potentially dangerous rhetoric with people far more educated than I am. I have also gotten a glimpse of what the left thinks will happen if Trump is re-elected. I promise I will write more about that as soon as I am allowed to, but I can freely tell you right now that they are absolutely terrified of what he might do in office.
To get to the places they draw their conclusions from, you have to be willing to suspend any and all faith in America, its system of checks and balances, the roles of states and federalism, the military, law enforcement, and, frankly, the American people. It requires adopting a caricaturized version of every Republican serving in every office everywhere. If you are able to do all of that, you can get to a point where Trump is no longer a person bound by that system, but a budding authoritarian dictator in waiting surrounded by enablers of pure evil. A monster in waiting. Something different than human. Hitler.
It’s a supremely dangerous place to allow the public conscience to wander and yet that is exactly where we find ourselves.
Joe Biden has said that the very concept of democracy is on the ballot. That our freedom is on the ballot. The implication is that should Trump win, then democracy dies and freedom along with it. There are millions of Americans who have come to believe that is true, not just Joy Reid.
So what happens to those who believe that democracy and freedom have died if Trump wins in November? Can you imagine for a moment the sense of despair they will feel? Hopelessness? Combine those powerful emotions with the dehumanization of Donald Trump. Can you see the powder keg at the end of this lit fuse?
Last week, before the shooting, I finished the outline for a book idea I have been kicking around about how both sides have contributed to the diminishing faith Americans have in our institutions. I am not sure how long it will take me to write it, but it seems really important now that I at least try,
Our system of government is so much bigger than one person. Even a President. Calling one person an existential threat to our country is dangerous hyperbole.
Among my prayers is that this can be the moment the dangerous hyperbole will stop.
Democracy is not on the ballot, candidates for office are. And they are bound by a beautifully designed system of checks and balances. We must protect those institutions and not engage in rhetoric that only leads to a growing lack of faith in them. And we must work towards making sure our institutions are not only defended from falsehoods but worthy of the faith we should have in them.
