The Assassination Attempt Is No Reason To Stop Criticizing Trump’s Authoritarianism

The GOP’s cultish hero worship of Trump following last week's shooting could make him even more dangerous if he regains power

American democracy is in an even more perilous position today than its shaky state prior to the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

Trump’s survival of the shooting has dramatically elevated his cult-like status among his followers, giving him absolute power to mobilize this core constituency for virtually any purpose he chooses. Ironically, the political figure that has used violent rhetoric and aligned himself with violent extremist movements more than any politician in recent memory is now trying to shield himself from any accountability or criticism due to this violent attack against him. Putting someone into power with this combination of quasi-religious saint-like status within his party and a history of undermining democratic principles and norms would bring this country far closer to authoritarianism than it has ever been.

Trump’s fist-pumps of defiance and call to “fight, fight, fight” mere seconds after the shots rang out immediately framed the assassination as a deliberate act by anti-Trump political forces to remove him from power by any means possible. In doing so, Trump is attempting to delegitimize virtually any criticism directed at him, claiming that it could inspire more “political violence.” J.D. Vance is one of the few major political figures to directly make this claim in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, tweeting “The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination." He was named the vice-presidential nominee less than 48 hours after this tweet.

It is important to note at the outset that there is not a shred of evidence to support the Trump-Vance framing of the shooting as an act of political violence. New evidence may emerge, but at this point the evidence suggests that this assassination had absolutely nothing to do with Donald Trump and his politics, and everything to do with this lost young man’s self-loathing, disconnectedness, and rage about his meaningless status in modern society. The Trump rally may have been targeted merely out of convenience. Had Biden come to Butler County, Pennsylvania, the shooter may well have set his sights on him. I am stunned at the shooter’s audacity, but, so far, having studied this phenomenon for almost twenty year, it seems to me as if he was almost totally apolitical and closely fits the profile of other non-political disillusioned, angry young men that have committed mass shootings and other acts of public violence in recent decades.

This phenomenon of non-political large scale violence has been recognized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was founded to fight politically motivated terrorism, but whose mission has expanded to address “targeted violence” that is not motivated by a grand political animus. In fact, it was during the Trump Administration that DHS officially recognized this dichotomy by creating– “The Office of Terrorism AND Targeted Violence Prevention” (capitalizations added).

I certainly agree that a dignified pause on personal criticism of Trump was justified in light of the trauma he and his followers suffered and out of respect for the rally-goers killed and injured in the shooting. But once the Republican National Convention is over, the campaign against Trump’s authoritarianism has to be renewed in earnest and with vigor.

Having called for the political rhetoric to be cooled following the shooting, Biden should clearly distinguish between illegitimate forms of rhetoric that do not belong in a political campaign and arguments about a candidate’s record that are part of normal political discourse and therefore totally acceptable.

I have two suggestions.

First, both sides should eliminate references to violence and violent imagery. Biden did the right thing in his interview with Lester Holt by admitting that it was a mistake to say he wanted to put Trump in the “bulls-eye” when he was calling for more attention to be paid to Trump’s extremist policy positions. This limitation, however, should be a two-way street. There are many, many examples of Trump endorsing violent actions that have not been withdrawn or apologized for like his embrace of the January 6 rioters or his mocking of the of the attack on Nancy Pelosi’s husband. And the MAGA faithful should also be asked if they are still going to appear in Christmas cards brandishing automatic weapons or wearing AR-15 lapel pins now that one was used to try to kill their dear leader.

Discourse that demonizes and dehumanizes groups of people should also be purged from our politics. This type of rhetoric can cause unstable, disillusioned individuals to use violence because they perceive the targeted group to be non-human entities that can be harmed without moral stigma. Using this rhetoric is a favored tactic of Donald Trump. In a speech last year on Veterans Day, Trump said “we pledge to you that we will root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” He once referred to a congressional district in Baltimore as a “disgusting rodent and rat infested mess.” He has claimed that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” and are “animals” and “not human.” On the other side of the political spectrum, Hillary Clinton made. a terrible mistake when she characterized half of Trump’s supporters as “the basket of deplorables.” Our politics would be far healthier if politicians stopped negatively characterizing groups of people they do not like and simply focused on what their political opponents have actually said or done.  

Based on these principles, there is no reason that Democrats should discontinue or tone down their claim that Trump is a threat to American democracy. The facts are clear. Trump has coddled Putin and other dictators while distancing himself from our democratic allies. He fomented a plot to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election. He has openly stated that he plans to undermine the independence of the Department of Justice and abuse executive power to pursue his policy goals. He has characterized our independent media as an enemy of the people.

Democrats cannot be cowered into tempering their criticism of Trump’s authoritarianism by unfounded claims that telling the truth about Trump caused last week’s shooting or will inspire future acts of violence. The cult-like hero worship of Trump by the GOP following the assassination attempt has made fulfilling this duty more important than ever.