Secret Service agents rush Donald Trump off the stage.(AP: Evan Vucci)
Donald Trump, one-of-a-kind Republican candidate for president, arguably irreplaceable for his personal tenacity, courage to speak, and patriotic convictions, was shot Saturday evening – nearly killed. Another innocent was killed. The moment should sober our country. Democracy is fragile.
Several years ago, in a conversation with former Reagan National Security Advisor, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Secretary of State Colin Powell, my sense was we had too much chaos. Back then, my observation was that the past was a safer place than the present. Powell corrected me.
Powell reminded me that a free society, dedicated to openness, is perpetually vulnerable. Leadership must be mature, aware, calming not agitating. More, he reminded me the 1960s were dark, a president, presidential candidate, and civil right leader killed, busses encircling the White House to prevent it being overrun, DC and other cities burned, as political violence radiated.
In short, open societies can be destabilized, are always only steps from lawlessness. That is why reasoned leadership, attention to lawfulness, respect for laws, opinions, and reason are important.
Reckless words, urging Americans to think ends justify means, that political violence is permissible, that we should divide on ourselves and call political opponents enemies, is profoundly dangerous.
In 2020, we saw 200 cities implode on idea that violence was somehow permissible, justified by grievance, that attacks on law enforcement, killing, wounding, property damage were excusable.
In the past two years, we nearly had a Supreme Court justice assassinated after rhetoric appearing to justify political violence from leading Democrat voices, including a House Speaker and Senate Majority Leader. We have seen racial, anti-Jewish, anti-Christian sentiment rising to violence.
Meantime, we see little or no effort by national leaders who dislike the tenets of conservatism, including the Biden White House, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Democrat congressional, gubernatorial, or administrations member – to consciously discourage political violence.
This shooting will affect security around Donald Trump, but it is more than that. It is about who we are and will be. If this trend toward justifying violence continues, if reckless words are promoted by those who should be tamping down violent acts, we risk violence not seen in half a century.
Words pushing political violence – hyperbole aiming to demonize, create desperation, stir vengeance, or describe political opponents as enemies of the people – have no place.
The nub is this. That a candidate for president has been shot, nearly killed, shows that political vitriol, demonization of that candidate and those of differing opinions, must stop. If political violence is unleashed, like the 1960s, we will see fear, violence, and escalation, not peace.
Bottom line: This act of violence is a red letter day. It should sober even the strongest Democrat partisans, cause them to be less reckless, more self-aware. Those quick to push radical rhetoric, fan hysteria, imagine the worst in their fellow Americans should be careful. Democracy is fragile. We saw that again, today. Pray for sanity, not a return to the 1960s.
Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC.
