p at a campaign rally is a human and political shock, yet an unsurprising recrudescence of an American tradition.
And Trump might have been in shock when he said it was “incredible that such an act can take place in our country”.More realistic was veteran journalist Brit Hume, who remarked on Fox News immediately after the shooting that “it’s remarkable that something like this” hadn’t already happened in this political cycle.
And within that long sweep, the US has seen a recent upsurge in political hate speech and actual violence since the storming of the Capitol by a Trump mob on January 6, 2021. An October poll by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Brookings Institution found that one in four Americans agreed that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”Among Democrat voters, 13 per cent held this view; among Republicans 33.
Extremist ideas and conspiracy theories “spread via gaming websites, YouTube channels, and blogs, while a slippery language of memes, slang, and jokes blurs the line between posturing and provoking violence, normalising radical ideologies and activities.”