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    • Trump's assassination attempt not a political winner

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    WASHINGTON -

    In an already turbulent political season, the shocking yet brazen assassination attempt on ex-president Donald Trump is sure to be one of the many crisis-driven moments that fades into the background of a campaign season already marred by a historic guilty verdict; a debate debacle; and an attempted party coup.

    Ever since Trump descended that gilded escalator announcing his candidacy for president back in 2015, the former reality television star has invoked one violent episode after another. From his calls for police to brutalize campaign demonstrators to his both-sides disclaimer in the bloody aftermath of Charlottesville, the twice-impeached ex-president has fomented and normalized a political climate now characterized by bloodshed and brutality.

    Libel for sexual assault; accusations of inciting an insurrection; and suborning violent kidnappings of state officials; and repeatedly attacking Democratic officials (and downplaying it when it results in a real-life threat in the case of the kidnapping plot against ) -- it is no surprise the environment of violence Donald Trump conjured up would eventually come full circle.

    Danger and fear are so pervasive throughout the national political ethos it is now the norm. It is amid this backdrop that the first assassination attempt on a presidential figure in more than four decades will not linger in the collective consciousness of voters, eliminating the possibility of any political boost for the Trump campaign.

    The United States averages more than one mass shooting per day and is on pace to surpass over 500 this year for the fifth consecutive year. This, even as violent crime continues to precipitously fall all across the nation.

    Moreover, as one of the two leading presidential candidates' affinity for violence and guns drives the nation's political discourse, it seems only fitting that such brutality, associated with mass shootings, might eventually engulf the candidate himself. Therefore, Trump's close brush with death is highly unlikely to be a dominating factor that moves voters to identify with him in such a way that propels him to victory in November.

    According to a that examined his presidency, Donald Trump continues to be one of America’s most polarizing political figures in the nation's history. The study states, “Even before he took office, Trump divided Republicans and Democrats more than any incoming chief executive in the prior .†The report goes on to say, “Conspiracy theories were an especially salient form of misinformation during Trump’s tenure, in many cases amplified by the president himself.â€

    It goes on to add: Throughout his tenure, Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of democratic institutions, from the free press to the federal judiciary and the electoral process itself. In surveys conducted between 2016 and 2019, more than half of Americans said Trump had for the nation’s democratic institutions and traditions, though these views, too, split sharply along partisan lines.

    Donald Trump certainly did not begin America down this dark, dreary, and destructive path characterized by distrust, polarization and inertia. However, his political candidacy and subsequent presidency undoubtedly expedited the nation’s descent into gridlock, domestic terrorism, and a disdain for democratic ideals. Now, as Trump doubles down on grievance and retribution, hellbent on returning to power, institutions and even the citizenry seem powerless to change its course.

    Supporters of former U.S. President Donald Trump gather outside of Trump Tower on July 14, 2024, in New York (Yuki Iwamura / AP Photo)

    Still, voters are unlikely to reward the presidency to an aspiring autocrat on the sole basis of a failed assassination attempt. The very assault itself underscoring the national tone and tenor embraced by MAGA.

    As evidence, a recent conducted just before the assassination attempt shows a clear majority -- 57% of respondents -- want the ex-president to withdraw from the race and allow his party to name a replacement. While it would be interesting to see whether a new poll shows a change in support numbers since the assassination attempt, the clear conclusion of the latest poll is that most voters do not want Trump back in the White House.

    Meanwhile, the same poll showed an overwhelming 70% of respondents want President Biden to drop out of the race in favour of another candidate.

    Just recently, the U.S. Supreme Court stunned the nation by ruling that presidents in fact do have immunity from crimes based on their duties as commander-in-chief. The Trump court, three of the justices appointed by the ex-president, upended more than two centuries of legal and democratic precedence imparting the power of kings onto U.S. presidents.

    Moreover, in the wake of this startling ruling, district judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Donald Trump. As there is no accountability, there is no law and if there is no law, there is no order.

    Again, this is the world Donald Trump has thrust on the country and now that absence of law and order is playing out in real time for the man who is less than 120 days away from potentially re-taking absolute power. Power recently granted by the highest court in the land. Power that many in America deem entirely too much for one person, especially one as polarizing as Trump.

    It is under this air of unchecked power and authority that shots rang out in an open field in Pennsylvania on a warm Saturday evening. It is under this aura of looming political invincibility that a daring and apparently troubled young man sought to pierce the veneer of that power. And while many Americans, victims of gun violence today and tomorrow, will empathize with Donald Trump, it is this unyielding and never-ending culture of violence that the former commander-in-chief has unleashed on an unsuspecting and ill-equipped nation.

    The mayhem, the bloodshed, the fighting, have now replaced unity, patriotism and honor. The system too weakened, too broken, too obsequious to muster the will, the spirit, the effort to mount a defence against the rampant lawlessness.

    Yet, under these circumstances, a weary and demoralized electorate still will not reward that lawlessness; it will not champion the chaos; and it will not lionize disorder. Above all, it will not bestow victory on the arbiter of this violence; this destruction; this tumult that Trump himself has wrought simply because he too, has come face-to-face with the mayhem he inflicted on a nation.

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