For the stability of American democracy, it is crucial that voters resist extremism of any kind, and repose their trust in elections.
The shocking turn Saturday in an already fraught election season is a warning that the US, and indeed democracies across the world, cannot afford to ignore. It will be hard to forget the image of Donald Trump, former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee in this year’s race for the White House, raising a defiant fist as he was ushered off stage by security officials, with a bloodied ear, moments after shots were fired at his election rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. While America has had a long tryst with political violence and has shown resilience in its face, this moment is unique. This assassination attempt — the FBI is investigating the incident as one — is set against a troubled and troubling backdrop of growing cultural and political polarisation, a lurch towards hard extremes and an increasingly shrinking middle ground. Inflammatory rhetoric, online and offline, and conspiracy theories combine with the ubiquity of guns and entrenched gun culture to contribute to a toxic environment that has not only made political violence more likely, but also more acceptable to larger numbers. The challenge before America — its political leaders, parties and citizens — is to resist a disquieting slide. This incident must bring on a larger reckoning, and lead to a healing, instead of being used as a weapon for further incitement.
This is much easier said than done when both Republicans and Democrats have pushed their bases, each one to its own ideological brink. Political figures like Senator J D Vance of Ohio, one of the choices to be Trump’s running mate, and South Carolina’s Republican Senator, Tim Scott, rushed to place the blame squarely on the Democrats and the Biden campaign. Among the Democrats, too, apocalyptic spectres of “the end of America as we know it” have been used in an attempt to turn voters against the political opponent. On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump has said that, “it is incredible that such an act can take place in our country”. A warning bell rang, however, on January 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol. Consider, also, the alarming results of a recent poll on American attitudes towards political violence since the Capitol attack, conducted by political scientist Robert Pape: About 10 per cent of the respondents — a third of whom also owned a gun — said that “use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president”, while seven per cent — half of whom owned a gun — said they “support force to restore Trump to the presidency.
For the stability of American democracy, it is crucial that voters resist extremism of any kind, and repose their trust in elections as the only means to solve the country’s most fundamental social and political problems. That several leading Democrats, including President Joe Biden, have condemned the shooting and spoken of the need to unite, shows the way forward. This moment serves a warning not just to America, but also to democracies across the world, against a zero-sum politics in which campaigning is a bloodsport, where both sides see it as a fight to finish and where the winner must take all. The shining city on the hill may always be elusive but the oldest, richest, and most powerful democracy needs to find its way back to its foundational values of respect, dialogue and civility. The rest of the world is watching — and, while doing so, it must also look within.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 14-07-2024 at 15:22 IST
