It is an election year in the USA, and while American politics is notoriously theatrical, it’s not often that about a year’s worth of big election news happens within less than a fortnight. While the withdrawal of President Joe Biden from the presidential race, the Republican National Convention, and the announcement of former President Donald Trumps’ pick for Vice President are engaging topics to say the least, they all pale in comparison to the attempted assassination of Trump.
This was a terrible event that has not only likely traumatised the entire Trump family, but critically injured two rally goers and killed a third. Of course, social media has been groaning with leftists praising the shooter. Some are spreading conspiracy theories that the shooting was staged by the Trump campaign to boost their support. None of this commentary from the left should surprise us; leftists also were wishing death on Donald Trump a few years ago when he contracted covid.
What should surprise us is the fact President Joe Biden bit the bullet in the wake of the assassination, and called for a cooling down of political rhetoric. He did not, however, appear to include himself in that advice; in an interview on MSNBC shortly afterwards, he insisted he did not engage in the type of rhetoric that could cause someone who is unbalanced to behave rashly. The problem is, Joe Biden does engage in that kind of rhetoric. He’s been engaging in that kind of rhetoric for years, both on camera and online.
There are fleets of tweets from Biden calling Trump a “threat to democracy” because he exercised his legal right as a presidential candidate to challenge an election result. He’s also tweeted Trump is a threat to freedom, the nation, civil rights and voting rights. None of which is true, of course.
However, possibly the clincher in Biden’s litany of online offerings was the tweet, “Americans want a president, not a dictator.”
Then there was the infamous speech “MAGA republicans” speech from 2022, in which Biden was lit up in red, flanked by ominously placed soldiers shrouded in shadow, and portrayed the MAGA movement as something akin to Mussolini. And, just last week, he told a crowd during a speech to the NAACP that Donald Trump was a threat to black voting rights. Again, none of which is true.
It’s clear from these and myriad other examples that Joe Biden does engage in rhetoric that could cause someone who is unbalanced to act rashly. This is augmented by other Democrats who join in with similar rhetoric, and the mainstream leftist media that parrots and amplifies it.
Since the assassination attempt, many pundits and politicians have called for a cooling down of rhetoric on both sides of politics. While there is no doubt sometimes the right agitates the political climate, to compare the left and the right is a ridiculous false equivalence. The inflammatory rhetoric that can and does incite violence comes overwhelmingly from the left.
The worst thing conservatives say about their political opponents is they’re snowflakes or communists. As for the former; it’s hardly a terrible insult. As for the latter, many leftists are perfectly happy to call themselves communists. And as for those pointing to the Capital Building riot on January 6, 2021, as an example of Donald Trump inciting violence; please. Donald Trump called for peace that day, and told the rioters to go home. That’s a pretty funny way of inciting violence.
A last-ditch effort from the left to shirk responsibility from the Democrats for potentially inciting Donald Trump’s would be assassin is the fact the gunman was a registered Republican. What they neglect to mention is this 20-year-old also donated to a progressive, Democrat associated PAC when Joe Biden was inaugurated, and according to at least one of his classmates, was not a fan of Trump.
In addition, many Republicans vehemently dislike like Trump because they have bought into the Democrat narrative that he is literally Hitler. The Lincoln Project (an activist organization formed in 2019 by moderate, anti-Trump Republicans) is a perfect example. Their latest ad explicitly likens Donald Trump to Adolph Hitler.
As such, the next time someone says to you that both sides need to tone down the rhetoric, tell them to wash their mouth out. The tone is set by the left. Conservatism is not a reactionary ideology. This is particularly evident when you consider that in the wake of the Trump shooting, there have been no riots from the right. If Biden had taken a bullet, we would likely be seeing a repeat of the summer of 2020, when Black Lives Matter rioted for three months straight.
The American left needs to take a long, hard look at itself. They long ago became all the things they claim to hate, and they need to realise and change their ways before they incite a civil war.
