In the wake of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, voters in Central Virginia are still grappling with the bloodshed and its implications in an already divisive political climate.
“It’s an absolute tragedy. It shouldn’t happen ever in American life at all, let alone politics,” said David Shreve, a Democrat in Crozet. “I think all my fellow party members feel the same way, just appalled by the occurrence.”
Both Democrats and Republicans told The Daily Progress they were shocked by the attempt on Trump’s life and relieved he survived. They’re also concerned it may only lead to more violence in the future.
“People are being manipulated into mindsets where they feel either hopeless or desperate or just hateful. It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw additional violence or assassination attempts against a whole variety of other political figures,” said Karen Angulo, a Republican in Appomattox County.
Angulo is an alternative delegate at the Republican National Convention and was on a train to the RNC in Milwaukee when she heard the news; her phone was inundated with text messages and voicemails.
“It was so wonderful to hear obviously that he survived, but if he hadn’t turned his head at the last moment, he’d be dead. The Lord really, really saved him,” Angulo said. “There’s no other explanation as far as I can tell.”
Both she and Bruce Kirtley, a Democrat, hope that people, including elected officials, will be mindful of their rhetoric going forward.
“I think we’ve got to calm down a bit and talk about the issues for a change. What’s inflation like? Do we stay in NATO? What’s the proper way to deal with the economy and make everyone prosper?” said Kirtley, who is chairman of the Albemarle County Democrats.
“I think it’s all of us who need to wake up and recognize there are people that have their own goals and are trying to keep us divided,” Angulo said. “We should resist their attempts to manipulate us to do something we normally wouldn’t do.”
Mere hours after the shooting, which left one spectator dead and two others injured, conspiracy theories began to swirl. Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, for instance, made a baseless allegation that President Joe Biden ordered the shooting. On social media, some erroneously suggested it was “staged.”
State records show the shooter was a registered Republican, but in 2021 donated $15 to ActBlue, a Democratic political action committee. It remains unclear what motivated the attack, leaving ample space for conspiracy to fill the void.
Ginger Burg, a Republican in Amherst County, was sitting on her couch and watching the rally on Newsmax when the shots rang out and Trump ducked to the floor of the stage in Pennsylvania.
“I didn’t know what to think at first. I was choking up, very upset and very emotional,” she told The Daily Progress. “The adrenaline pumped when I saw him get up, raise his fist in the air, telling the American people to stand up and fight. That’s history right there.”
She rejects the theory that the shooting was somehow staged, but did not rule out another unsubstantiated theory that “somebody in the outer perimeter was in on it.” Burg also said it was possible that security officials simply “screwed up.”
With so many questions unanswered, Angulo cautioned that people should avoid jumping to conclusions.
“Everyone needs to take a deep breath and realize they don’t know all the information. After an attempt on Trump’s life, it’s usually best to withhold judgment 24 to 48 hours until more decent reports come out. And even then understand you don’t know the whole situation,” Angulo said.
Kirtley called the assassination attempt “bad for the political discourse” and worries about copycats.
“It’s clearly not what you want in this country. You can’t be afraid of walking around and doing your job as a politician on any level. And you’ve got to be able to make decisions that you know are going to offend some people, whether it’s on the board of supervisors or in Richmond or at the national level,” Kirtley said.
Like Burg, Kirtley wants incendiary rhetoric to be tamped down. But, in yet another sign of the divided political climate, they don’t agree on whose rhetoric in particular. While Kirtley and other Democrats have been concerned for years about rhetoric from Republican officials, including Trump, Burg argues blame for the shooting rests on Democrats.
She believes Democrats must issue an apology, referring in part to Biden’s comment in a private call to donors days before the shooting, when he said to “put Trump in the bullseye.”
In a Monday interview with NBC News, Biden said it was a “mistake” for him to use that word.
“I meant focus on him, focus on what he’s doing, focus on his policies, focus on the number of lies he told in the debate,” Biden said.
Carlton Ballowe, chairman of the Nelson County Republican Committee, also blamed Democrats, saying that he expected an assassination attempt on Trump would happen eventually.
“[Democrats] had repeatedly said to anyone that would listen that [Trump] simply had to be stopped, could not be allowed to resume the presidency,” Ballowe wrote in an email. “It was only a matter of time until someone with Trump Derangement Syndrome attempted the last resort, assassination.”
Kirtley said political rhetoric has become divisive since the rise of Trump. He wants elected leaders to cool down rhetoric and was happy with Biden’s comments in the aftermath of the shooting. Biden has called the assassination attempt “sick” and said there is no place for violence in American politics.
“I think you have to do what Joe Biden did. You have to come right up front and say, ‘No, this is not the way we’re going to do things.’ But the rhetoric has been so inflammatory for the past seven or eight years. Everything is couched in almost a threatening way,” said Kirtley. “‘Lock her up.’ ‘We’re going to throw people in jail.’ ‘We’re going to hang Mike Pence.’ It’s just become an accepted part of the dialogue.”
There is a long history of political violence in the U.S, including in the 20th century. Multiple political figures were assassinated in the 1960s, President Gerald Ford survived two assassination attempts in 1975 and President Ronald Reagan was shot and seriously injured in 1981.
More recently, former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords survived an assassination attempt in 2011. Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise and others were shot during a congressional baseball game in 2017. In October 2022, a man broke into the home of California Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband Paul; the intruder beat Paul Pelosi with a hammer, fracturing his skull.
Those violent incidents do not appear to have lowered the temperature of U.S. political discourse.
“None of these things unfortunately have changed the tenor of American politics in long, lasting ways,” Kyle Kondik of the University of Virginia Center for Politics told The Daily Progress.
It remains to be seen whether the shocking attempt on Trump’s life will have a different impact than those previous episodes of political violence. That impact could be affected by the speech Trump plans to give at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night.
“I’m curious to see if Trump sounds different than he usually does when he gives his address Thursday night. I won’t believe it’s different until I actually see it’s different,” Kondik said.
While concerned about the possibility of more bloodshed, Shreve said that, based on U.S. history, he’s optimistic tensions will drop.
“Even when emotions run high and there are civil disturbances, we’ve shown we know how to tamp them down and come together,” Shreve said. “The signs I’ve seen coming from our leaders suggest that will happen. We’ll try to heal instead of dividing ourselves even further.”
Others are less hopeful.
“I expect [more political violence] will come, and it will not be from the right,” Bob Heffley, a Republican voter, told The Daily Progress.
For Kristin, a Democratic voter in Charlottesville who asked not to use her last name, the assassination attempt raises concerns that there could be further political violence. She said both she and her sister have Biden-Harris bumper stickers but are nervous to put them on their cars, fearful it could make them targets. And after seeing a torrent of conspiracy theories online, she said Saturday’s shooting has not had the unifying effect she briefly hoped for.
“Not only did it not bring us closer together, I think it made us more divided,” she said.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
Be First to Comment