Are We Tired of Living in Interesting Times?
Maybe Confucius had it wrong and we could use a period of the boring and the routine
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“There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen.” ― Vladimir Ilyich Lenin
Given the events of recent months, I am certain many of us feel as if we are living through the latter period. The Bible tells us, that“there is nothing new under the sun”1, and even a cursory reading of history will provide antecedents to current events. History is about the Past and acts in service of our understanding of what we are experiencing in the Present. It informs us and offers us perspective. It doesn’t mean that it repeats itself but as Mark Twain purportedly quipped, “it often rhymes”.2
In this light, the attempted assassination of Donald Trump this past Saturday is not an unprecedented event. Four American Presidents have been murdered while in office (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, and Kennedy). Ronald Reagan (shot by John Hinkley in 1981) came the closest to being the fifth President killed in office. There have been unsuccessful attempts made on several others.
Candidates for the nation’s highest office have not been exempt from attempts on their lives. Theodore Roosevelt, like Trump, a former President, was shot during the 1912 campaign. Robert Kennedy, JFK’s brother, was shot and killed by Sirhan Sirhan in 1968 after winning the California Democratic Primary. And in 1972, segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace was left paralyzed after being shot after a campaign speech.3
In many of these instances, the assassins and would-be assassins were plainly lone wolves. Notable exceptions were Lincoln, whose killer, John Wilkes Booth, was part of a cabal of Confederate sympathizers, and JFK, whose murder in Dallas spawned conspiracy theories (Was Oswald working alone? How did he make those difficult shots? Who was on the grassy knoll?) James Garfield’s killer was a disgruntled job-seeker. Hinkley, the man who shot Reagan, was confined in a mental institution afterward.
At this early stage of the investigation, little is known about the 20-year-old man, Thomas Matthew Crooks, who fired the shots Saturday except that he is a registered Republican. Crooks was shot and killed by the Secret Service so we may not learn much about him or his motivations. The FBI is investigating the incident and preliminary reports are that the agency believes he acted alone. It is another case of history rhyming…
Or is it?
Some people see the divisiveness that has injected itself into our politics and the resulting harsh rhetoric and talk of volence, as unprecedented. Have they forgotten the Civil War that resulted in over 650,000 deaths when the population was less than 35 million people including 4 million slaves? For those of us of a certain age, the upheavals of the 1960s, the riots and the aforementioned assassinations remain part of our American experience. These things have always been with us. Our history informs us that we are nation with a bloody past that has fitfully appealed to, in the words of Lincoln, “our better angels”.
Writing in The Atlantic the day after the shooting, David Frum stated that
It is sadly incorrect to say, as so many have, that political violence “has no place” in American society. Assassinations, lynchings, riots, and pogroms have stained every page of American political history. That has remained true to the present day… Trump and his supporters envision a new place for violence as their defining political message in the 2024 election.
So what is unique about these times is the ascent of a narcissistic sociopath to the Presidency. No man (and they were all men) who held the Presidency besides Trump based their appeal on the denigration of their fellow Americans. No matter the policies they pursued or their popularity, they understood they were the President of all Americans. Donald Trump was-and wishes to be again- President for himself.
Trump has made well-documented use of the language of violence since he stepped onto the national political stage. David Frum makes the point in his Atlantic piece that “Fascist movements are secular religions”. Think of Trump as the High Priest of American authoritarianism, a demogogue who gins up the passions of the mob. The irony of this is that the incitement of violence Trump cynically purveys almost cost him his life. Ignorant of history, Trump is likely unaware of fate of the original protagonists of the French Revolution.
We are certain to learn more about this event in the coming days. I will leave you a thoughful series of postings on Twitter (‘X”) by Congressman Andy Kim(D-NJ) on the day after, an appeal to our better angels.
When Lincoln was shot he wore a coat embroidered with “One Country, One Destiny.” I’ve turned to those 4 words to help me process this moment. This assassination attempt was one of the worst events I’ve seen in our democracy. It feels like we are a country unmoored…THREAD
I’ve never experienced a time more unpredictable yet with such generational consequence. So what does this particular moment mean? I remembered a passage in a book I read. “Power and violence are opposites; where the one rules absolutely, the other is absent.” 2/10
The deep unease we carry is in part the fact that we witnessed with the shooter one person trying to use the means of violence to impose their will upon a nation of 330 million and subvert the power of people that underlies our very democracy. 3/10
And now trepidation across our nation as “The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is to a more violent world.” We fear retaliation, reprisal or escalation. But let us remind ourselves that it doesn’t have to be that way. 4/10
In the aftermath of other recent shocks to our country, we failed to unify and instead sadly grew more divided. I had hoped that these shocks would be what I called defibrillator moments that would shock our irregular heart beats into normal rhythm, but we fell far short. 5/10
It’s not just that our divisions have grown so wide in our country, but our willingness to allow contempt to accompany us. It’s not just a disrespect that we see towards one another, it’s a deeper disregard and a disgust of one another. 6/10
We are losing touch with the understanding that we are all part of something bigger than all of us. As those 4 words of Lincoln - One County, One Destiny - remind us, the commonality we share runs deep and cannot be forgotten or dismissed. 7/10
Violence is cowardice not strength. It is fiercely undemocratic. As we process this shock, we can choose to realize that we’ve gone too far as a society down the path of contempt. We are not each other’s enemy. We are not at war with each other. 8/10
Choosing to unite instead of incite does not mean we dismiss the magnitude of our differences. But it compels us to be cautious and precise about our next steps, our words, and our actions in this unbelievably precarious moment. 9/10
One Country, One Destiny doesn’t mean we all agree, but instead reminds us that we share the same fate. We collectively mourn the death of the rally attendee, we are relieved that Trump wasn’t seriously injured. Now let’s unite around Lincoln’s vision One Country, One Destiny.END
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Ecclesiastes 1: 9
What can you expect of a country which citizens follow blindly their leaders? You ask any MAGA Trump supporter why he follows the GOP any more and you don't get anything real. The brainwashing is complete in such people who remain ignorant of the portents of fascism like a Hitler, Putin, Xi or Kim. That's the far right which can summon 'reasons' for their beliefs, but it's nothing compared to reality or truth. Why doesn't that illness afflict Democrats, you ask? It does to a degree, but higher education, as opposed to indoctrination makes the difference in critical thinking.
Many Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, KKK and the like hate groups, are ex-military trained basically to kill. Without a national draft any more, we have trained killers, not trained thinkers who are separated into civilian life with the killer skills, but not civilian skills. We have religious people who believe in vengeance, an Old Testament notion of Jews, instead of Love One Another, as Jesus, the New Testament Prophet taught. Where are the pastors of Evangelicals dedicated supposedly to Christ, not Mosaic Law, provided to Hebrews. Where is the 'walk a mile in another's shoes' notion to stop assassinations, yes, but also everyday murder or manslaughter? Millions of people are now self-educating or home schooling--escaping from the common citizenry of public schools where citizenship is taught, more or less. Why are school boards yielding to the extremist stripping of their tax revenues for unregulated charter schools the far right prefers, people aiming to overthrow this democratic republic? Why are there so many millionaires and billionaires supporting a move toward authoritarianist fascism and dictatorship like Elon Musk enabled by legislation and courts calling inanimate corporations the same as people? It's education in various forms that has failed its national goals aimed at unity, peace, love and democracy.
It seems significant in this light that emails and phone messages I get from both sides of the political divide reveal something. That proper English, both written and spoken, have declined. That the political right expects one to fall in line whereas the reasons to fall in line are explained on the left. These notions are nearly always attached to donation request, asking for money. That sources of knowledge and thinking are gone on the right and continue mainstream on the left. And the center? Large civil rights groups like Common Cause, American Civil Liberties Union, Southern Poverty Law Center, Democratic Party in the center of the political spectrum are leaning left to stabilize the ship of state which tilts so far to the right today due to ignorance and bigotry. I can't help but thinking that most Americans want to continue in their peaceful, if not loving, pursuit of happiness free of authoritarian dictates which are so selfish and self-serving to elected office on the extremist right; most Americans, if made aware of the perilous jeopardy of their lives by the right, will turn out to vote for continued democracy, as we have known it for centuries. Trump and MAGA should rightly be eliminated from office holding by the citizens who are more thoughtful and educated, by those immigrants who valued democratic tenets so much they risked their lives to crash the border and want to become citizens, by people who value truth, justice and the American Way, thanks to comic book Superman. By those who retain and pursue their religion seriously with good teaching and shepherding by clergy. The good must prevail at the ballot box this November or it may be generations before Americans can regain and retain the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness goals so many have worked, fought and died for since 1776. By those who have dedicated their lives ala teaching and philanthropy to continuation of our 'noble experiment'--democracy.