'Even more damaging' events ahead as 'name-calling, finger-pointing' ensues: analysis

14 July 2024

The United States' 2024 presidential election took a violent turn on Saturday afternoon, July 13 when presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump became the target of an assassination attempt during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Prominent Democrats, from President Joe Biden to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro to former President Barack Obama, forcefully condemned the attack in no uncertain terms — emphasizing that such violence has no place in U.S. politics. But Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) was among the far-right Republicans who blamed Biden for the attack.

In an article published on July 14, Salon's Andrew O'Hehir warns that an already-tense election could grow even more intense in the weeks to come.

"What is about to happen will very likely be even more damaging, as we move from fragmentary news reporting into the realm of speculation, name-calling, finger-pointing, conspiracy theory and half-baked political forecasting," O'Hehir laments. "Any pause in the 2024 presidential campaign following this incident will be brief: The Republican National Convention begins on Monday, (July 15) in Milwaukee, and Trump is scheduled to accept the party's nomination in a nationally televised speech on Thursday evening."

O'Hehir warns that the United States' bitter political divisions will not become any less bitter following the July 13 attack in Butler.

"It wasn't surprising that as soon as reports emerged that shots had been fired at Trump, social media erupted with outlandish allegations that Joe Biden had ordered a hit on his nemesis or, conversely, that the incident was a false-flag operation meant to cast blame on Trump-hating liberals and provoke a wave of sympathy for the recently-convicted ex-president," the Salon editor observes. "In the days ahead, liberal or left-leaning pundits will no doubt soberly propose that the MAGA movement brought this event on itself by constantly invoking a fascist-flavored rhetoric of violent retribution. Conservatives will counter that this attack was the result of Trump derangement syndrome and the left's congenital contempt for the desires and yearnings of 'real Americans.'"

O'Hehir continues, "Blaming the outbreaks of unhinged violence that make American society virtually unique in the world on one political faction, one socioeconomic group or one cultural grouping strikes me as missing the point entirely. We — if there is still a 'we,' which is open to doubt — created this tragic, farcical situation, in which two elderly candidates no one particularly likes are running against each other in an election most of us dread, and someone tried to kill one of them this weekend for reasons we simultaneously do not understand and understand all too well."

Andrew O'Hehir's full article for Salon is available at this link.

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