"End Divisiveness!" GOP Implores, then... Doesn't
After the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump on Saturday almost everyone wanted to know, "Whodunnit?" It wasn't just to ensure that the perpetrator(s) were identified and further risks could be countered but to understand what inspired the attack. Satirist Jon Stewart described it aptly in a monologue this week as "reverse demographics". We all want to know who the attacker was to make sure he wasn't one of us. As I described in my blog yesterday on alleged shooter Crooks, we on the political left worried that if he seemed to be aligned to the political left the right would seize on any such relationship to weaponize the false narrative they've been telling for years that the political left is extreme and uses violence to achieve its goals (when, in fact, virtually all acts of political violence in the US in recent years have been perpetrated by those aligned with the right).
The right didn't get the bogeyman they might have wanted in Crooks. His motivations remain unclear, and most of what little evidence does exist shows him lining up on the right of the political spectrum, not the left. So the right couldn't cite him as proof the left is out to get them. Instead they used the attempt on Trump's life to call for everyone, on both sides of the political spectrum, to tone down the divisiveness. That's a laudable move... except the Republicans didn't really mean it.
1) First, what the Republicans quickly showed they meant by "End divisiveness" was stop telling people how bad we are. They faulted Biden for saying in a speech last week that Trump is an "Enemy of democracy". Nevermind that Trump has proclaimed numerous times that he "Would be a dictator on Day 1" if elected president or that he has, for at least the past 8 years, characterized the mainstream press as an "Enemy of the people" for factual reporting about him he doesn't like. Or that Trump orchestrated a massive fraud to attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and fomented an violent mob attack against the Capitol. ...An attack which, BTW, virtually every current sitting GOP member of Congress dishonestly characterizes legitimate political protest and denies was violent.
2) Second, Republican leaders forgot within 24 hours that they'd been calling for an end to divisiveness as they returned to their usual rhetoric at the Republican National Convention that Democrats are trying to destroy America and must be stopped.
The right didn't get the bogeyman they might have wanted in Crooks. His motivations remain unclear, and most of what little evidence does exist shows him lining up on the right of the political spectrum, not the left. So the right couldn't cite him as proof the left is out to get them. Instead they used the attempt on Trump's life to call for everyone, on both sides of the political spectrum, to tone down the divisiveness. That's a laudable move... except the Republicans didn't really mean it.
1) First, what the Republicans quickly showed they meant by "End divisiveness" was stop telling people how bad we are. They faulted Biden for saying in a speech last week that Trump is an "Enemy of democracy". Nevermind that Trump has proclaimed numerous times that he "Would be a dictator on Day 1" if elected president or that he has, for at least the past 8 years, characterized the mainstream press as an "Enemy of the people" for factual reporting about him he doesn't like. Or that Trump orchestrated a massive fraud to attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and fomented an violent mob attack against the Capitol. ...An attack which, BTW, virtually every current sitting GOP member of Congress dishonestly characterizes legitimate political protest and denies was violent.
2) Second, Republican leaders forgot within 24 hours that they'd been calling for an end to divisiveness as they returned to their usual rhetoric at the Republican National Convention that Democrats are trying to destroy America and must be stopped.