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Monday Miscellany, 7/15/24

Monday Miscellany, 7/15/24

Last updated on: July 15, 2024 at 10:14 am by Gene Veith

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Monday Miscellany, 7/15/24 2024-07-15T10:14:31-04:00 Gene Veith

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The attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Also, Republicans have their convention, and Generation Z takes politics way too seriously.

The Attempted Assassination of Donald Trump

The would-be assassin’s bullet grazed his ear, meaning that Donald Trump escaped death by a fraction of an inch. “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” Trump said after the shooting, and he was surely right.

The video of the shooting showed Secret Service agents shielding Trump with their bodies and forming a human shield around him as they ushered him away, a moving example of self-sacrifice in vocation, since, as far as they knew, there may have been more incoming shots. Then again, some of their colleagues may have failed in their vocation in not securing the rooftop of the building and possibly even ignoring bystanders’ warnings that they saw a man with a rifle on the roof. Agents eventually killed the shooter.

A member of the crowd, fire fighter Corey Comperatore, was also shot and killed when he shielded his wife and daughters with his body when the bullets started flying. He really did take a bullet for them. This is a moving example of a father’s self-sacrifice in vocation. “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Two others in the crowd were critically injured.

Trump’s reaction when he was shot was especially stirring. Pumping his fist in defiance as blood streamed down his face. Talk about being bloody but unbowed. A photograph taken by A.P. photographer Evan Vucci captured the moment–a bloody Trump surrounded by solicitous Secret Service agents, lifting his fist, with the backdrop of an American flag. The photo, in its composition and in its emotional impact, is a brilliant work of art, showing not just what something looked like (which is the most that amateur photographers like me are capable of), but what it felt like and what it means. Give Evan Vucci a Pultizer Prize for photojournalism. Nico Hines of the liberal, anti-Trump Daily Beast, praised the photo and called it, in the words of the title of his article about it, “One of the Most Iconic Photos in U.S. History.”

The shooter was 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks. As of this writing, we don’t know whether he was ideologically driven or was an mentally unstable young man driven over the edge by the hysterical rhetoric of the campaign–that Trump would destroy democracy; that he would impose a fascist state; etc. At any rate, it seems clear that the strategy of demonizing your opponent and raising apocalyptic fears about him risks provoking political violence. It’s telling that President Biden, to his credit, pulled all campaign ads for the moment, which suggests that this is what they consisted of.

I appreciate what an editorial in the Wall Street Journal said about the shooting and what it means for the country:

The shooter alone is responsible for his actions. But leaders on both sides need to stop describing the stakes of the election in apocalyptic terms. Democracy won’t end if one or the other candidate is elected. Fascism is not aborning if Mr. Trump wins, unless you have little faith in American institutions.

We agree with former Attorney General Bill Barr’s statement Saturday night: “The Democrats have to stop their grossly irresponsible talk about Trump being an existential threat to democracy—he is not.”. . .

The photo of Mr. Trump raising his fist as he was led off stage by the Secret Service with a bloody face was a show of personal fortitude that will echo through the campaign. No one doubts his willingness to fight, and his initial statement Saturday night was a notable and encouraging show of restraint and gratitude. . . .

The near assassination of Donald Trump could be a moment that catalyzes more hatred and an even worse cycle of violence. If that is how it goes, God help us.

Or it could be a redemptive moment that leads to introspection and political debate that is fierce but not cast as Armageddon. The country was spared the worst on Saturday and this is a chance to pull out of a partisan death spiral.

UPDATE: Trump is reportedly going to change the tone of the convention in light of his near-death experience, away from whipping up his followers to instead promote national unity. He said that he had originally planned to hammer President Biden in his acceptance speech:

He said that his address would focus on unity and bringing the country together in light of what happened.

“It is a chance to bring the country together. I was given that chance,” he said. “This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together. The speech will be a lot different, a lot different than it would’ve been two days ago.”

The Washington Post reported earlier on Sunday that someone close to the president said that Trump was almost “spiritual” about the assassination attempt.

Republicans Have Their Convention

The Republican National Convention gets underway today in Milwaukee. Donald Trump has virtually all of the delegates, so his nomination is assured. The biggest question is who Trump will pick for his vice-presidential running mate.

Pro-lifers are reportedly angry that the Republican Platform, at Trump’s behest, says little about abortion, being content to leave the issue up to the states instead of pushing for a national ban. Cultural conservatives don’t like it that porn star Amber Rose is slated to give a speech. This doesn’t sound like the victory of Christian nationalism to me, but expect Democrats and their media allies–desperate to switch the nation’s attention away from President Biden’s disabilities–to raise an alarm to that effect.

For the schedule of events, go here. The overall theme will be, of course, “Make America Great Again.” On Monday, the theme will be “Make America Wealthy Again.” Tuesday, the theme will be “Make America Safe Again.” On Wednesday, it will be “Make America Strong Again.” On Thursday, when Trump will formally accept the nomination, the theme will be “Make America Great Once Again.”

You can stream the convention at YouTube, X, Facebook Live, Rumble, Amazon Prime, Twitch, Direct TV, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel website. Fox, PBS, and CNN will offer extensive coverage. CBS will offer primetime coverage from 8:00-11:00 ET each night. NBC will devote two hours on Monday and Tuesday (9:00-11:00 ET) and three hours on Wednesday and Thursday (8:00-11:00 ET). ABC will devote just an hour each night to the Republicans, 10:00-11:00 ET.

Much more interesting will be the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19-22. If Biden steps down, the convention will have to pick a new nominee, and who knows who that might be? If Biden continues to stay in the race, the Democrats who have loudly proclaimed that he is incapable of running against Trump and being president will be hung out to dry. On top of all of that, anti-Israel demonstrators are vowing to disrupt the proceedings.

Generation Z Takes Politics Way Too Seriously

Young adults of Generation Z, those born between 1997 and 2012, are limiting friendships and their dating possibilities on the grounds of politics. This is especially true of young women.

From Dace Potas of USA Today, Gen Z’s widening gender divide has turned political. It’s ruining our relationships:

In America, 40% of young women in America identify as liberal compared with only 25% of their male peers. On the other hand, 29% of young men identify as conservative compared with 21% of their female peers. . . .

Polling suggests that more than 70% of college Democrats wouldn’t go on a date with a Republican, whereas the opposite is just 31%. Thirty-seven percent of young Democrats wouldn’t even be friends with a Republican. Women are much more likely to take this position, with 59% of women from both parties saying they would not go on a date with someone who voted opposite them.

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