Presidential candidate Donald Trump narrowly escaped death. The assassination attempt on the Republican shows how fragile American society is. Faith in institutions and each other is gone, approval of political violence is on the rise, writes Victor Pak.
Shortly following 6 p.m., shots ring out at a Donald Trump campaign rally. In Butler, Pennsylvania, a bullet hits Trump in the right ear. A spectator dies from the assassination attempt, carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. He fired his shots from a rooftop. Police kill him.
The attack on Trump marks the current low point of social unrest in the United States, in a year marked by a turbulent election campaign and occasionally violent university protests once morest the war between Hamas and Israel.
Echoes from 1968
In 2024, echoes of 1968 resound, when American society was on fire. President Lyndon B. Johnson lost his grip on power and abandoned his re-election campaign. Violent protests once morest the Vietnam War dominated the streets. Civil rights activist Martin Luther King was assassinated, as was Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy.
The Americans were able to overcome those blows and divisions. The question is whether they are able to do so now. Institutions have lost their authority, and more and more Americans support violence once morest politicians and government.
Disturbing figures
A quarter of Americans agreed with the COVID-19 pandemic by the end of 2023 the proposition that ‘the country is so lost that true patriots must use violence to save the country’. A large majority still opposes political violence, but the trend is worrying. At a poll In 2022, 62 percent said that violence once morest the government can never be justified, up from 90 percent in the 1990s.
A similar decline can be seen when it comes to trust in institutions. Only 22 percent of Americans trust the government, the lowest percentage in 70 years. Three-quarters indicates to think negatively regarding Congress, our own representative body. The Supreme Court and the presidency have never been so unpopular among citizens.
Americans have also lost faith in each other. Only a little over half indicates that they make good choices together in the democratic system. Immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001, that was still 78 percent, and in the seventies more than 80 percent.
Pessimistic picture
These figures paint a starkly pessimistic picture of American society. As in 1968, many Americans feel as if the country is being torn apart by all the bitterness and discontent. Although the social unrest did not die down immediately at the time – Richard Nixon’s presidency was also extremely turbulent, ending with his resignation in 1974 – the United States eventually came together once more.
The frays of 1968 were tied off in the 1970s. It is to be hoped that the Americans are still strong enough to achieve this.
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