Gunfight at the Mar-a-Lago Corral
Ryan Wesley Routh, a man for whom the phrase “universal background checks” seems to have been invented, has joined the ranks of would-be political assassins, although few others have demonstrated such stunning ineptitude. Had the Secret Service, which has yet to learn that Donald “Tiger” Trump, requires a much larger detail than other presidents, not shown equal ineptitude, Routh would have been apprehended while—literally—lying in the weeds.
But an assassin is an assassin—even if he had voted for Trump in 2016—so Republicans were required to express appropriate outrage. But who to blame when they were the party that has repeatedly blocked the sort of legislation that might have prevented a convicted felon and dozens-times-over defendant from obtaining a weapon, especially one whose range was long enough to reach their standard bearer in mid-putt?
Trump himself had no such problem. Biden and Harris had somehow orchestrated the whole thing, just as they had initiated his criminal indictments, his civil suit woes, and likely his current frosty relationship with his once adoring third wife.
Supporters tried to match Trump’s indignation, but even such stalwart defenders of national honor as Lindsey Graham and Mike Johnson could not go quite so far as accusing Harris and Biden of direct complicity. Instead, Graham, Johnson, and just about every other Republican, blamed the two failed assassinations on the current spate of overheated political rhetoric.
Not theirs of course. Have they not always been understated and reasonable? Their harrumphing was reserved for Democrats. Taking the lead in this quixotic pursuit was, not unexpectedly, JD Vance.
In his quest to add hypocrite-in-chief to his already growing resumé of repellent character traits, Vance, speaking to his fellow hypocrites, evangelicals at the Faith and Freedom Coalition in Atlanta, bemoaned the second attempt on the life of his innocent-as-a-baby running mate. “The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months,” he wailed. “And two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months.”
And the cause of this appalling descent into anarchy? “I’d say that’s pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. Somebody’s gonna get hurt by it, and it’s gonna destroy this country.”
It might be news to Vance that many have already been hurt, and some have died, because of incendiary political rhetoric, including police officers trying to protect the United States Capitol from a mob egged on by the man whose own words had now been turned against him.
Of all the possible means to try to prevent another killer from carrying out his or her nefarious plan, the most obvious was off the table. Guns, after all, don’t kill people—people kill people. (That guns make it quite a bit easier does not seem to be worth discussing.)
If one refuses to consider controlling the means, the only other alternative is to protect the target. Alabama’s Tommy “Coach” Tuberville has the perfect solution—assign America’s most feared combat troops to guard his beloved leader. “There needs to be SEAL teams. There needs to be military.” (In something of a surprise, he did not propose arming the caddies.) It escaped the coach’s notice that just about every Secret Service agent is ex-military, many from elite units.
If it seems as if, while flailing about, Vance, Tuberville, and other Republicans, have tied themselves into knots, it is because they have. In doing so, they have given Democrats an opportunity that should not be squandered.
It is mandatory, of course, for Harris, Biden, Walz, and other Democrats to denounce political violence in the strongest terms—even when it is directed at someone none of them would miss one whit if he were gone. As they have. Unlike Republicans, Democrats seem aware that any political system in which violence becomes an accepted means of political expression, no matter who is victimized, can no longer lay claim to being free and fair. Conflict must be resolved in the institutions of government, not on the streets.
But after the denunciations, Harris and Walz need to go on the attack. They cannot let Trump co-opt the actions of one profoundly disturbed, middle aged, white man who, for all the recriminations, was intercepted well before he could even think about getting off a clean shot.
Democrats cannot be shy. They have gotten where they are in this race by attacking Trump and Vance ferociously and they should not stop now. Voters should be reminded in every campaign ad and every speech of the vile, inciteful rhetoric that has become the core of Republican politics. Harris and her surrogates must link the attempts on his life to Trump’s own verbiage and emphasize over and over again that if Donald Trump wants to discourage violence against him, he needs to condemn violence against political opponents, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and anyone else to whom he has taken a dislike, including Haitian factory workers in the country legally. (There were not, in fact, fine people on both sides.)
She won’t have an open field. Trump is going to do everything he can to exploit his survival and turn it into political capital. There is an old Yiddish joke about a man who murders his parents and then throws himself on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he is an orphan. It is not clear whether Trump knows of the joke, but he certainly lives it. An inveterate liar who accuses others of lying, a criminal who calls others crooked, an unread lout who claims others are dumb. In fact, the easiest way to determine Trump’s faults is simply to listen to what he accuses others of.
The Harris campaign and other Democrats must not for one second delude themselves. This election is a gunfight, with words, ideas, and truth as bullets. So far, their aim has been perfect. They cannot afford to miss now.