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.Americans murdered at least 39 of their fellow Americans over political beliefs in the following two years, according to a Reuters tally. It’s the worst since the 1970s, according to the consensus of researchers on the topic.
The inclination to violence is advancing in every constituency, and in none: “The media’s focus on groups such as the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and Boogaloo Bois has obscured a deeper trend: the ‘ungrouping’ of political violence as people self-radicalise via online engagement,” explains Rachel Kleinfeld from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Kleinfeld’s shocking conclusion: “These shifts have created a new reality: millions of Americans willing to undertake, support, or excuse political violence.”Will the shock of the Trump shooting and the death of a bystander give America pause for introspection? Many American worthies were calling for a political “cooling off” on Saturday night.More likely, the assassination attempt will intensify the existing feverishness of polarisation.
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