Let’s remember his positions that he does not recognize the result of the 2020 election and his clear defeat by Biden, the invasion of fascist, atomized and anarchist elements in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, his eccentric positions on NATO issues, the close relationship his with Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Kim et al. The current toxicity and unprecedented polarization in the American domestic landscape is extremely dangerous and, unfortunately, the side effects are uncharted at all levels, inside and outside the US.
1 Political assassinations in the US have a long and disturbing history. The assassination attempt on Donald Trump underscores the danger facing anyone seeking votes in a country whose Constitution guarantees citizens the right to bear arms.
Trump joins a not-so-closed group of US presidents, former presidents and presidential hopefuls who have been targeted by gunmen. Of the 45 people who have served as presidents, four were assassinated while in office. Lincoln, Kennedy, Garfield, McKinley. Given the near-mythical status of US presidents and the nation’s superpower role, political assassinations strike at the heart of the American psyche. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and that of John F. Kennedy in 1963 are among the most important moments in US history.
James Garfield (1881) and William McKinley (1901) are less remembered, but their deaths shocked the nation at the time. It was following the assassination of McKinley that the US Secret Service was given the job of providing full protection to presidents. The last US president to be shot was Ronald Reagan, who was seriously injured and required emergency surgery in 1981. Other presidents have been shot but fortunately were not injured.
In 1933, a gunman fired five times into the car of then-President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt was not hit, but Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak, who was speaking with Roosevelt, was wounded and died 19 days later.
In September 1975, President Gerald Ford survived two separate assassination attempts – both by women. The first on September 5 when Lynette Fromm, a follower of the heretic Charles Manson, tried to shoot him as he walked through a park in Sacramento, California. Her weapon, however, betrayed her.
On September 22, Sarah Jane Moore, a woman with ties to left-wing radical groups, fired once unsuccessfully at Ford as he was leaving a hotel in San Francisco. Even presidential candidates have not been exempt from assassination attempts. Senator Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 and George Wallace was shot and paralyzed in 1972.
2 In 1912, former President Theodore Roosevelt was struck in the chest by a 38mm bullet as he fought to retake the White House. The bullet lodged between items in Roosevelt’s jacket pocket at chest height. Even though he had been shot, he continued his campaign speech with the bullet still in his chest.
Other figures of significant political power have also lost their lives by gunfire, most notably activist Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, just months before Robert Kennedy’s assassination. In a country with more guns than people and with firearms readily available, it is not surprising that shootings are always the preferred means of killing or attempting to kill political office holders.
3 As with Trump, most assassination attempts occur when candidates and politicians are in public among people.
Trump was extremely lucky to escape with only minor injuries.
Also, Trump is an ardent supporter of guns and gun ownership and is actively supported by the NRA Organization which is the main advocate of the availability, sale and use of guns. He has promised that if he wins the next election, then he will abolish all the restrictions and laws imposed by Biden.
4 The rest of the world is also experiencing the polarization of politics and what can happen to a deeply divided society when far-right and far-left political discourse is full of exaggerations, fake news and lies that are then amplified exponentially through social media. From Asia to Europe and South America, assassination attempts have been made once morest a number of political leaders in broad daylight in recent years.
In May, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico (a Trump-style populist leader) was shot four times at close range by a lone wolf. He survived and immediately seized the opportunity to intensify his attacks on the media, prosecutors and the opposition.
5 And as for all that might happen in the US, just look back to 2018 at the incident with the Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro, a political figure who is almost a Latin American version of Trump. The far-right leader was stabbed in the stomach at a campaign rally a month before the election. It was a defining moment that catapulted his electoral base and carried him into power for four years.
Be that as it may, the situation is very critical, politically and socially combustible and we have a lot more to see in the next 4 months until the US election and probably right following…
#USA #the.. #Sphere #Division #Shocking #Assassination #Attempts
