I want to see this as an ad campaign:
End the violence — Vote for Democrats!
Republicans have known for decades that their policies are unpopular, and that Democratic ideas and actions are popular and actually make people’s lives better. Rather than come up with better ideas, or better selling pitches, their approach since Nixon (“Southern Strategy”) has been to denounce Democratic ideas with lies and misinformation, and to try to stop Democrats from talking about it. They did this — again! — almost immediately after Trump was shot:
Trump allies immediately blame Biden, Democrats for their rhetoric
“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs,” Vance wrote. “That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), another Trump ally, shared a similar sentiment. “Let’s be clear: This was an assassination attempt aided and abetted by the radical Left and corporate media incessantly calling Trump a threat to democracy, fascists, or worse,” he wrote on social media.
(Not at all by the way, Trump just made Vance his VP pick.) The Republicans are pushing the narrative that telling the truth about Trump is what almost got him killed. By doing so, they hope to shut up all talk about just exactly what Trump has in mind for the country if he gets back in power. They are trying to use the shooting to to make Trump into a victim.
We don’t know why the shooter — a young White male and registered Republican — tried to kill Trump — and we will probably never know. From what we have heard so far, it does not appear he was politically motivated.
But what we absolutely do know is this: The many calls over the past years for political violence have almost without exception come from Trump and from his GOP echo chamber.
And that was just from a quick sampling.
And then there is this obscenity: A Gunman Shot at Trump With an AR-15. RNC Visitors Can Win a Free One. That’s a Rolling Stone story from this morning. I haven’t found any confirmation, though there is this story from a week ago — RNC host committee secures sponsorship deal with West Bend-based company (the company is USCCA (United States Concealed Carry Association), which is offering the prize) — and another story from Forbes yesterday: Guns Still Allowed In Area Outside RNC Despite Trump Assassination Attempt—Here’s Why.
On the other side, despite the media’s constant descent into bothsiderism, it’s still clear that the “left” is not behind the violence. Political violence in polarized U.S. at its worst since 1970s (Reuters Aug 29 2023):
[M]uch of today’s political violence is aimed at people – and most of the deadly outbursts tracked by Reuters have come from the right. Of the 14 fatal political attacks since the Capitol riot in which the perpetrator or suspect had a clear partisan leaning, 13 were right-wing assailants. One was on the left.
The recent violence coming from the right, Carnegie’s Kleinfeld said, “is focused on stopping people or ending people’s lives.”
President Biden has been calling for a reduction in gun violence for years: Fact Check: Joe Biden Says Guns Are Biggest Killer of American Children (July 13, 2022):
During the video, the president claims gun deaths among children account for more loss of life than cancer or car accidents. . . .
The sheer strength of feeling about gun control, on both sides of the argument, can also create a breeding ground for misinformation and misleading claims.
However, in the case of the president's claim, his argument holds up to scrutiny.
Meantime, Republicans squash any call for gun control following a school (and any other) mass shooting by insisting that we should not “politicize” the violence. But that is exactly what they do each time by refusing to allow any discussion.
This is fodder for an assertive ad campaign against the Republicans: It’s Trump who’s been calling for violence, while Biden and the Democrats are trying to stop it. I’m in no way an ad man, but the video clips are everywhere and the scripts almost write themselves. And the Republicans — as they certainly will — scream foul and charge that we are the ones escalating things, ignore them. And do it some more.