by Shaun Kenney
Virginia House Speaker Don Scott and Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert issued a joint statement just hours after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in Pennsylvania:
“We were shocked and disturbed to learn of the violence that occurred at today’s rally. It does not reflect our shared values.
“In America, we resolve political differences through free and fair elections. Violence has no place in politics. Every American has the right to peacefully assemble and participate in our political system. We pray for the victims, President Trump and their families.”
Little is known about the shooter at this time. President Joe Biden was asked if he believed the shooting was an attempted assassination — Biden declined.
Traditional news media, for its part, performed miserably. Headlines that proclaimed Trump was pushed off stage, that he fell, that “crackling” was heard, or Newsweek’s headline that “MAGA responded with outrage after Trump was injured at rally” — the political left operated with one voice and one central nervous system.
The situation was further exacerbated by comparisons to the events of January 6 by Democratic Party activists, who suggested that the attack could somehow be justified because people died during the riots at the US Capitol.
“They’re shooting at us”
I really wish I could sugarcoat this. The fact is, the rhetoric in this country — and Democrats are targeting Republicans both rhetorically and literally at this point — is one that encourages this kind of violence.
People, I’ve had about 10-12 calls from friends and activists and the like. What might have been anger 24 hours ago has turned into something closer to another word: settle.
Even tonight, there seems to be a tendency among Democratic friends to point outside the box and justify the violence. That this wasn’t an assassination attempt, or worse, that he deserved it. Trump deserved it.
This line of reasoning is completely inexcusable.
Sorry — today it was the result of rhetoric. Aiding and abetting mental illness as policy. Excusing bad behavior as dissent. Treating any disagreement as a form of hate speech. Democrats can point fingers at spiteful tweets all they want — it won’t go away.
You can’t talk to people who are shooting at you.
Are Democrats going to tardy down?
We already know that the answer to this question is direct and uncompromising. NO.
They’re trying to kill our presidential candidates. They tried to kill a Republican congressman. They’re actively burning down Catholic parishes and pro-life pregnancy resource centers.
They burned down three dozen cities, causing billions of dollars in property damage, and called it mostly peaceful.
They’re pushing gender ideology on kids as newborn as six. They’re pushing Critical Race Theory in government schools and calling it diversity, inclusion, and equality. Food is more steep. Gas prices are rising. Wages are stagnant.
Søren Kierkegaard once wrote that it is very uncomplicated to do the most terrible things to another person. All you had to do? Do it out of principle:
“Acting ‘on principle’ removes the indispensable distinction which constitutes propriety. For propriety is immediate (whether immediate is original or acquired). It has its place in the feelings and in the impulse and coherence of inner enthusiasm.
“In this way, everything becomes permissible if it is done ‘on principle’. The police can go to certain places ‘on duty’ where no one else can go, but as a result nothing can be inferred from their presence. In the same way, one can do anything ‘on principle’ and avoid all personal responsibility. People tear to pieces ‘on principle’ what they personally admire, which is senseless, because while it is true that everything imaginative lies dormant in polemics because it has to make room for the fresh that it brings into the world, a purely destructive process is nothing, and its principle is emptiness – so what does it need room for? But modesty, contrition and responsibility cannot easily take root in a place where everything is done ‘on principle’.
— Søren Kierkegaard, “The Present Age” (1846)
The political left hates us all on the basis of. This is the basic fallacy of every Marxist logic. If you don’t fight the system, you are part of the system, and if you are part of the system, you are just as likely to hurt people as if you were brutally stealing their stuff. Ergo, as the overdue socialist Herbert Marcuse reminds his students, mistake there are no rights – and you are allowed to do the worst things on the basis of to these people—yes, even hate them!—as long as you can convince yourself that they are evil.
Folks, this is the trap the Democrats have fallen into. They really hate us.
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Once you feel it, that feeling that they… I hate you for the crime of dissent? In principle, they can bend the rules to reach the man. In principle, their violence is justified, while resistance to that violence is fascism. In principle, any means necessary becomes an indispensable function of Our Democracy (TM) in the face of extremism—and anything that even questions such tactics is, by definition, extreme.
Our job is to counter this impulse. But I readily admit that I don’t know how to make our friends on the left see that they, not us, are the problem. They demand change, but from others, not themselves. They demand revolution, but not from their elites. They demand equality, but not effort, rights without responsibility, respect without duties.
This is not a state of free people. This is a state of Kid — and we all know what their position is on this matter baby. (HINT: If they are uncomfortable, they die)
Quo Vadis? Is Their Rhetoric Getting Better?
What advice can you give for the coming days?
Sleep on it.
Go to the church.
Take a walk in the forest.
Talk to your friends.
The US Secret Service and FBI will investigate. So will online chatter, and there are a million little paths you can take. Don’t bother with that – the board isn’t moving anywhere, and the rules aren’t changing anytime soon.
Yet I keep coming back to a very similar impulse: SETTLE.
Here is the trap – hatred for them does not fix hatred, nor does violence solve violence. Self-defense is certainly a cardinal virtue. We do not have to become their in order to defeat their.
By all means point out the dilemma to your democratic friends, and politely—but firmly—don’t let them shirk the duties and responsibilities they have to all of us. Not taxes, not government, but the unwritten social contract that sustains and holds together every political community. What’s more, they are evil for this.
Instead, ask them specific questions. What They What do you think about the attempted coups? If we can shoot fascists, can’t they shoot Trump? What about You for supporting Trump? What is it They what are they doing about extremism in their ranks? How are they They engaging in relationships with people they disagree with? What position do they take They take it is beyond the progressive monolith? How They argue that among their friends? If at all? Where They do you agree with the Republicans? Where They you agree with trump? he must be right about something. All??
The best question? Can they present your argument in the best possible lightweight? Can you do the same for theirs? You’d be surprised how few Democrats can do this; Republicans almost always can, thanks to a steady diet of media.
But I worry deeply that our friends on the left simply cannot see the forest for the trees. Their fanaticism — and it is a religious fanaticism no less hazardous because it is secular, not sacred — blinds them on the basis of.
As Marx and Marcuse warn, admitting any humanity in an opponent is not just treason but apostasy. Admitting it signals that they, too, may fall victim to the violence in which they themselves—first rhetorically, now quite literally—once engaged and will now fall victim. Nobody volunteers for the gulag, right?
So what’s happening now?
In the meantime, there are a whole bunch of people who were undecided about Donald Trump before this failed assassination attempt. Not now—when they start shooting at us, that’s a pretty clear indicator that politics have changed from the force of argument to the force of argument.
Either the Democrats start to seriously grapple with their shortsightedness, or things will get worse in a very bad way. The most I could encourage anyone to do is to remember Solzhenitsyn and reject the lie — because violence Is lie. Our means should be in accordance with our ends, and if our ends are honorable, then so should our means be.
If you understand that? Welcome to the Republican coalition — because if you can forgive what happened today and not question your loyalty to the Democratic coalition that refuses to call a spade a spade? I have nothing for you.
Beyond that, I don’t have much hope that Democrats as a whole or individually will take any kind of retrospection. I really don’t. There’s a chance this will spark a national conversation — but if the early hours are any indication, and Biden’s initial refusal to condemn this attack as an attempted coup is any indication — they’ll blame Trump for wearing that dress. My hopes aren’t very high.
Of course, I may be wrong.
I personally give them… one chance in three.
More tea, anyone?
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Shaun Kenney is the editor-in-chief of The Republican Standard, former chairman of the Fluvanna County Board of Supervisors, and former executive director of the Republican Party of Virginia.
“Donald Trump Defiant” painting by Donald Trump.
