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Depending on who you ask, America’s worst nightmare or dream scenario unfolded on July 13, 2024. For a moment, national and local rallygoers thought the impossible had happened: a presidential assassination, an event not seen in the United States since the attempted assassination of former President Ronald Reagan in 1981. In a moment of political despair, such an event was meant to unite both the left and the right in the face of adversity. But as you might expect, the reaction to the assassination attempt was reprehensible and better described as adding fuel to the fires of further political turmoil.
Before basic facts were released about the shooting at former President Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, some figures from both Democrats and Republicans quickly took to social media and in the press to voice their opinions.
Rumors among Democrats that the incident may have been staged swept across mainstream social media. The term “BB gun” began trending. One user posted on social platform X, “This is the most staged shit I’ve ever seen…there was a shooter and the secret service allowed him to stand up and start punching people?” The post has been viewed more than 16.2 million times.
Many Republicans, including vice presidential candidate Senator J.D. Vance, supporters of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign, directly accused President Joe Biden of inciting the shooting in X. “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs… This rhetoric directly led to the attempted assassination of President Trump,” Vance wrote in X. Fellow Republican Congressman Mike Collins also wrote in X, “Joe Biden gave the order.” These preemptive conclusions further divided the Republican Party’s moral foundations.
This shooting was a tragedy, there is no denying it. The assassination attempt resulted in the death of an innocent man and the injury of others who were simply exercising their First Amendment right to express their views. But Americans greeted the shooting not with horror, but with anger and knee-jerk reaction.
Personally, I am ashamed to see the “hoax” rumors and rumors that Biden ordered the assassination spurred on TikToks and Tweets. It is laughable that anyone, Democrat or Republican, would perpetrate such a travesty for political gain. But I wonder: Where has our tolerance and trust in one another gone to believe and spew such utter nonsense?
The roots of the ongoing backlash and change are difficult to investigate, in part because we do not want to divide the public. But we find that some of the most divisive and violent rhetoric comes from MAGA Republicans. Again, it is important to avoid further division, but it is equally important to address these issues head-on to understand the forces at play. If we look back at the changes in American politics, primarily in the Republican Party, we see a major ideological shift when Trump was elected. The party has now shifted to center portraits of ultra-conservative senators such as Vance and Josh Hawley, as well as the remaining members of the House Freedom Caucus.
At the heart of politics is fundamental disagreement, but differences must be worked out into agreement. Right now, rifts in both the political and personal spheres have created arrogant blockades that prevent important legislation from passing in both houses of Congress.
There is a genuine anger in the MAGA mentality that has further distanced them from the traditional Republican Party of Sen. Mitt Romney and the late Sen. John McCain, contributing to this violent and arrogant blockade. Trump will go down in history not only for his controversial policies that have significantly promoted both gun rights and fear-mongering, but also for the violence-inciting mentality that has led to the rise of hate groups such as the Proud Boys and events like the January 6th insurrection. As these divisions grow, it is more important than ever that we seek common ground and engage in meaningful dialogue to heal the rifts. Only by coming together, setting aside our differences, and focusing on our shared values can we work toward a more unified and peaceful nation.
It’s unclear how America will get out of its current predicament. Thoughts and prayers are merely words as the gunfire rapidly becomes more political than tragic. As traditional working-class Americans, we are left to dodge and pick up the pieces as politicians fire bullets again and again. But there is still room for rational thought in politics, and it starts with us.
Mari Santos is a third-year public policy student and columnist for The Eagle.
This piece was edited by Alana Parker, Rebecca Samano Arellano, and Abigail Turner. Proofreading was done by Luna Jinks and Charlie Menuti.
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