The Vicious Cycle of Political Violence: Could America Go Up in Flames?

A Donald Trump former US president assassination on July 13 it was the first time in more than 40 years that someone had shot a current or former US president. Even if the true motivation of the 20-year-old perpetrator is revealed, it will not change the fact: the attack took place at a time when there is already enormous political tension in the United States.

The Republican presidential candidate basically has “bush fighter rhetoric”, which also played a role in the outbreak of the riots in the capitol, so they could not legally hold him responsible, he explained to our newspaper Balogh Roland foreign policy journalist, who drew attention to the fact that Donald Trump is now on the threshold of a historic act that was last seen in the 19th century: as a former president, he can return to the White House after four years after a failed election.

Doubling Grover Cleveland in the 19th century

A democrat Grover Cleveland he won the 1884 election, but lost to Republican Benjamin Harrison four years later, only to win again in the 1892 presidential election. Thus, he is the 22nd and 24th President of the United States in one person.It is interesting that Cleveland made a name for himself in the very thing that got Trump in trouble with the justice system, among so many other cases. In the years before his presidency, he served as mayor and governor of New York state, and gained a lot of popularity as an anti-corruption fighter, something that can’t be said for Donald Trump.

After the assassination, something unprecedented happened among the Republicans: all of his rivals within the party stood behind Trump as one person, and they entrusted him with the support of the presidential candidate. Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis the challengers of previous presidential candidates did the same. This is a very strong mandate for the former president. Otherwise, Haley was considered a better candidate than Biden for a long time, yet she did not become the challenger to the Democratic president.

To what extent should the aggressiveness of the campaign be turned down?

If you saw Joe Biden’s speech in Las Vegas on Tuesday, you could see that the campaign message of the Democrats was not softened in any way by the attack. “Although at the beginning, the president started by saying that the political public discourse is extremely overheated and violent, from which it will be time to take it back. Compared to this, in the sequel, Biden constantly addressed his challenger with stone-hard epithets, and his people of color only used Trump’s black american hellcalled it because of skyrocketing unemployment,” said Roland Balogh.

According to the foreign policy journalist, more and more things are happening during the campaign that reduce Biden’s re-election chances enormously. The current assassination is clearly encouraging voters who have been vacillating so far, but who are leaning towards the Republicans, to definitely go to the polls and cross the checkmark next to Trump’s name.

Communication is key in these tumultuous times, and the Trump campaign is using its positional advantage to mobilize as many people as possible from the vast majority of those without a clear party preference about the election. And the slogan is none other than the unification of America, the purpose of which is to draw the maximum number of voters into the camp of the Republicans.

Roland Balogh remarked.

The Democrats have been taught a lesson: they should react to this extreme political situation in such a way that Joe Biden and the party come out of it well, turning public opinion in their favor. On Tuesday night, Biden told the audience that during his opponent’s term as president, far more people under the age of 18 died from gun use, a trend that had been on the rise throughout, ending only during his presidency. The other important issue with which Biden is trying to expand his camp is employment, which last did so well during Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Vulnerable American democracy, worrying polarization

To understand what this incident means for both the presidential campaign and the future of the United States, a Foreign Affairs editor-in-chief Robert Liebermannaltalked to Johns Hopkins University political science professor.

“History shows that American democracy has always been vulnerable,” the professor wrote in a 2020 article for Foreign Policy magazine co-authored with political scientist Suzanne Mettler. The especially divisive Trump presidency, the Covid pandemic and the George Floyd shaken by the riots caused by his assassination, the country had never before faced such a test.” Now, however, another difficult chapter has opened.

1968 the political murders, Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy the year of his death, in the middle of a very turbulent presidential campaign in which the incumbent was in trouble. Lyndon Johnson the president eventually backed down, leading to the Democratic Party convention in Chicago.

“Instead, it becomes something like a fight to the death, where people believe that if the other side wins, it is a mortal threat to their values ​​and the existence of the country as they understand it. And it doesn’t take such a big leap from such a polarized political world to serious violence,” explains the professor.

There were other moments when the United States faced a democratic crisis, such as the tense presidential campaign of 1798, the Civil War, or the Watergate scandal. According to Robert Lieberman, there are four characteristics that facilitate the development of democratic crises.

• The first is political polarization,
• the second is who belongs to the given political community,
• the third is the large and ever-increasing economic inequality,
• and the fourth is the excess of executive power. At least one of these forces has been present at every moment of democratic disruption in US history.

The last four years differ from previous crises in that all of them are present. They helped the rise of Donald Trump and were part of the reason that an incident like the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021 happened in the country. And the current shooting further weakens American democracy.

Militaristic political style and celebration of violence

The fact that many of his supporters are committed supporters of the use of weapons and expressed fans of a militaristic political style gives an interesting light to the assassination attempt against Trump. However, the professor of political science fears that American society may also face more collective and organized forms of violence.

“Donald Trump has never shied away from embracing or celebrating violence. Just remember his comments in Charlottesville. His rhetoric around January 6 was also particularly violent. He likes to talk about his political opponents without regard for their humanity. So what I’m really afraid of is that Trump will use this incident to further incite violence among his followers,” noted Robert Lieberman.

Some Trump fanatics claim that President Joe Biden’s political rhetoric sparked the attack. They pointed out that the reigning president spread the word that Trump was dangerous and that his victory would be a blow to American democracy. According to the professor, the more this message spreads among the already angry and armed population, the greater the risk of attacks.

However, it would be important for the White House to find a way to calm the mood. “But I’m afraid that Biden doesn’t have the rhetorical skills of, say, Robert F. Kennedy. After the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968, Kennedy stood up and gave an impromptu speech, calling for unity and calm and for something positive to come out of this terrible event,” Lieberman added.

The second Trump era could be tough

The most optimistic scenario would be if a crackdown on political violence leads to greater unity. THE Ronald Reagan in the weeks after the 1981 assassination of the president, his approval rating rose to the highest level of his entire presidency, and when he returned from recuperation, even his political opponents welcomed him generously.

However, for the country to unite against political violence today, some restraint would be needed on both sides, but the chances of this are slim.

The shooting came shortly after the Supreme Court ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from actions taken in office. The court’s decision was another step in a process that means the gradual growth and consolidation of presidential power, the concentration of power in one person instead of being distributed among many. It is one of the four forces that produce democratic crises.

According to Lieberman, a second Trump term would mean that the executive branch could become a tool for the president’s own ambitions, obsessions or campaigns of revenge. “The worrying thing is that this incident could only push him further in that direction. It is conceivable that this will prompt Trump and his inner circle to crack down on anyone suspected of opposition, with the help of the Department of Justice or prosecutors.”