Donald Trump, and Only Donald Trump, is to Blame for the Rhetoric Around Political Violence—and its Consequences
On Saturday, July 13, 2024, at approximately 6:10 P.M. E.D.T., former President Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Pennsylvania. The shooter was inches—or a single inch—away from dealing a fatal blow. Trump's ear was grazed by a bullet but, he sustained no serious injuries; some attendees did, including one that died. It pains me because this act of violence—a single individual's decision—attempted to supersede the basic tenets of democracy: that our candidates can, with ideas and discussion, compete for votes and then we the people decide who becomes President. It's a direct attack on democracy here and everywhere. A single person almost took that away from us; this very precious and delicate thing.
The state of our democracy and this election has weighed on me but it's been in the back of my mind because I've been so busy with work, life, and writing. The election is a sort of monster in my mind, a monster that's in the guest room of my mind's house. Every time I consume the news—which is a lot—I open the door to the guest room and pay the monster a visit. At the end of the day, I close the door with lock and key and leave it behind, moving on with my life. I've done nothing tangible to tame this monster—to do something about this election—but I can't really afford to. Every hour of my day is accounted for, every dollar allocated, all in an effort to fulfill my dream of writing The Milkman Model book. I work to afford time to write. I'm an entrepreneur again. But, when I got home from work Saturday night, my fiancé met me outside the door and said, "Have you heard what happened?" She rushed me to the television and I sat in horror as the clip of Trump hitting the ground replayed over and over and over and over. Last night, the monster burst out of its room and ransacked the house.
I couldn't sleep.