On Sept. 15, a second attempt on the life of former president and current Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump occurred. This happened just 64 days after a would-be-assassin attempted to blow open the skull of the former president, which resulted in a death of an innocent bystander, Corey Comperatore, and multiple other injuries. America is facing a political crossroad that may become dangerous in time.
Last week’s shooter has been identified as 58-year-old Ryan Routh. Routh has a history of multiple counts of firearm possessions, including a fully automatic machine gun, and stolen goods. While the firearm charge alone is concerning, there has been a multitude of other noteworthy factors mainstream outlets seem to ignore.
For example, Routh had ties to the Ukrainian Foreign Legion and Azov battalion, for which he did adverts, and attempted to recruit U.S.-trained Afghan fighters. Another issue was his numerous essays and rhetoric parroting the campaign slogans for the Biden-Harris campaign, donations to prominent democrats—although he is not a registered democrat himself—and his platforming by left-leaning media outlet The New York Times.
Law enforcement’s multi-year knowledge of Routh also raised questions. The FBI admitted to have received a tip about Routh as a potential danger and his illegal firearm possession.
The left-leaning media has responded with contempt. “No ears were harmed. Carry on with your Sunday,” Rachel Vindman, a prominent Democrat, said in a now deleted tweet.
“Today’s apparent assassination attempt comes amid increasingly fierce rhetoric on the campaign trail itself,” liberal NBC news anchor Lester Holt reported. “Mr. Trump and his running-mate JD Vance continue to make baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio.”
Rather than reporting on the details of the assassination attempt, Holt seemed to blame the increase in political temperature on Trump’s comments and seemingly justified the assassination attempt, or at least did not outright condemn it.
It’s clear from the attempts on Trump’s life that the political climate is reaching a fever pitch. Rhetoric toward Republicans, especially Trump, has been majorly inflammatory over the last four years. It has only continued to rise since the onset of his presidential campaign.
Looking at the last four years, the behavior of Democrats toward Republicans have included such incidents as the attempt on the life of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh and the protests outside Justice Samuel Alito’s private residence.
Lest we also forget similar moments over the last eight years, including comedian Kathy Griffin holding up a fake bloodied severed head of Trump or Hillary Clinton stating that “you cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for.”
“And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd,” California Representative Maxine Waters said. “And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”
“It is just unquestionable at this point that that man cannot see public office again,” Don Goldmann, a Congressman from New York, said. “He is not only unfit, he is destructive to our democracy, and he has to be, he has to be eliminated.”
The quotes pile up. Years of calling Trump an existential threat to democracy and continuing to do so, trumpeted by claims that we can no longer be civilized to the other side, have brought the proverbial pot to a vigorous boil.
While President Joe Biden, Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Kamala Harris and some prominent Democrats have expressed gratitude that Trump was not injured, they come across as apologies devoid of goodwill. For example, on a campaign trail, Harris called Trump an existential threat to democracy and compared his speech to that of Adolf Hitler.
The question is this: What precisely is expected to happen? The logical response when one encounters Hitler is to eliminate Hitler. Hitler, of course, was a genocidal maniac who leveled the whole of Europe — a true existential threat to human freedom who murdered millions of innocents and left Western Europe in shambles.
When Democrats weaponize rhetoric in such a manner as to demand civil unrest from their supporters and litter the campaign trail with Hitler comparisons, it is unsurprising that a lunatic attempted an assassination to blast the former president to kingdom come.
After all, what does one do with a man they truly believe to be the next Hitler—simply let him walk free? Of course not. Unless of course you’re cleverly aware of your rhetoric. Democrats need to watch what they wish for; they may just get it. After all, what profit a man if he gains the world but loses his soul?
