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I just received a call from my Dad. Trump has been shot. I won't go over my misgivings about the guy, they are here if you care, but those misgivings are irrelevant right now.
A leading candidate for the presidency has been shot.
Given the immense polarization in the country right now his is how you get a Civil War.
Don't do that.
It appears that Trump is OK with only a graze and the loss of a bit of his right ear, though one of the rally-goers behind him was reportedly shot in the head and killed.
Everything is in a state of flux at this time and the story changes moment to moment. Trump appears to be OK, but I'm old enough to remember Reagan being shot. They thought he was OK until he coughed up blood.
I'm still dubious about Trump's ability to win the election given the intense institutional and self-imposed headwinds he faces, but, given the optics, I do suspect this incident is unlikely to add measurably to those headwinds.
...this despite CNN's headline, still desperately trying for a "Biden vs the stairs" moment.
The combination of this manner of media coverage, with the reality that a candidate that many in the desperate, hurting half of the country see as some sort of savior was shot (and one of his supporters murdered) is not likely to calm the tensions this nation is under.
My fear is that someone will seek retribution. Be assured, THAT will not get diffident coverage. Once a nation goes tit-for-tat assassinations it goes into a dark place.
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After hearing about this, I talked to an elderly (Silent Generation) friend of mine (I'm an Xer) who I used to talk to about current events during a carpool to work back in the 'oughts. Back then she was a pretty good barometer of the middle. Very intelligent and worked in a lab for most of her career. She proceeded to shock me about how if only Trump wouldn't be a dictator and how he models himself after Putin. But she couldn't provide any cases where this was true in his first term. She'd always been down on him for not "acting Presidential" despite the fact that Trump is really more a throwback to pre-WWII presidents than the more Europhilic post WWII Presidents. She also, for the first time, came out as fully rabid man-made climate change due to the heat wave.
I contrast this with some family friends I met up with last May. A very good Christian Family that I was closely connected to as a kid. Pretty-much the epitome of what I would thing of from the term .I had pegged the parents as likely to be sympathetic to illegal immigrants and probably mildly left leaning given they'd lived their lives in Taxachusetts and the father was a teacher. Nope. Hard core MAGA all the way, and, even to me who largely agreed with them, very harsh sounding. There was no Christian charity there.
I knew the hardening of positions was going to happen according to Fourth Turning theory, But to see it in action has been shocking none the less. If ther theory holds true, and it's been like clockwork thus-far, we've got another 6-9 years of this, and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Sat Jul 13 21:03:02 2024 (sG4Li)
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"She proceeded to shock me about how if only Trump wouldn't be a dictator and how he models himself after Putin. But she couldn't provide any cases where this was true in his first term."
There's a lot of that going around.
Posted by: Rick C at Sun Jul 14 12:36:37 2024 (MItL9)
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Jul 18 10:43:42 2024 (LZ7Bg)
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That so many Democrats profess a belief that the assassination was faked proves PT Barnum's (?) saying, the part that includes: "You can fool some of the people all of the time..."
Posted by: ubu at Sat Jul 20 15:18:04 2024 (jH+gB)
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248 years ago a group of men gathered together in Philadelphia to declare their independence from the largest, most powerful empire the world had ever known, as well as set forth their reasons for doing so.
Despite their diverse backgrounds, (some were German descended, some Swedish, at least one of African ancestry, and some French and Spanish), they were, in effect, fighting for the rights of Englishmen, against what they saw as a despotic German king. (The fact that George the 3rd, whose grandfather had been brought in from Germany due to an unlikely series of events following the despotism of the Commonwealth was actually just suffering from dementia was unknown to them, but that does have a certain bitterly amusing relevance today.)
After nearly a decade of struggle, against impossible odds, with help from foreign powers and their own unbridled determination they achieved an imperfect, but ultimately impressive and somewhat happy conclusion. This is not the norm for such affairs as they often tend to turn the lands they transpire in into abattoirs.
This latter is a lesson we should heed for our current circumstances bear less in common with the demands of those products of The Enlightenment, who were affronted by the trampling of their natural rights, than another similar struggle that happened a few years later.
In that instance an arrogant and spiteful aristocracy, imbued with a sense of their moral superiority and right to rule, tormented their social inferiors , rendering them destitute and keeping them down through a combination of aristocratic contempt, provincial ignorance, indifference and, occasionally, pure sadism. Such an environment breeds not magnanimity and justice, but bitterness and resentment. Movements based upon the latter tend to go to very dark places indeed, as the French revolution so effortlessly morphed into The Terror, much like the Russian upheaval of 128 years later that crushed, raped and strangled the soul of that benighted land.
These are lessons that should be noted and learned from, especially as people who are indeed hurting and even have just grievances make desperate pronouncements and L.A.R.P. intensely online. They seem to think that the outcome of such an affair will ultimately end as happily as our secession from England did.
That unusually benign result was a bizarre historical anomaly, depending on a literate and ethical cadre of revolutionaries and no small amount of fortuitous providence. It is an extreme rarity in the grand tapestry of human history. Remember that well as times become dark.
Remember all that especially today and appreciate the wisdom, fortitude and good fortune of those who, 248 years ago, signed the document that resides below this post's 'fold'.
Rudyard occasionally has some very hot takes, but his ideas are always interesting. Nick Freitas serves in the Virginia House of Delegates and also hosts a very thoughtful & literate channel on You Tube. Today they talk about...suboptimal political scenarios.
