Sometimes, what doesn’t happen is the most important thing.
In the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump, many in the mainstream media pointed a finger at…Trump…for raising the temperature of the political rhetoric. They quickly insinuated that Trump’s followers, who have been labeled “domestic terrorists” and “white supremacists” would roam the streets looking for revenge.
ABC, CNN, and CBS each featured pundits or even reporters turning the heat up on Trump and his supporters, suggesting that they were responsible for the climate of violence due to Trump’s rhetoric.
.@ABC jv host @MarthaRaddatz rationalizes the assassination attempt on President Trump life on his previous rhetoric https://t.co/VEQNcW3LJk
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) July 14, 2024
This is beyond ironic, since the president who they claim is trying to bring this country together has predicated his entire campaign–and the one in 2020, and much of his presidency–on the assertion that Donald Trump is an existential threat to America, akin to Hitler, that his supporters are terrorists, and he is intent on becoming a dictator.
Would you kill baby Hitler to prevent World War II?
I will write a post later today about the overheated rhetoric of the left when it comes to Trump. Still, I want to focus on the dog that didn’t bark: after a bystander was killed, another was critically wounded. The former president of the United States was grazed by a bullet that missed, killing him by a few millimeters.
“That man cannot see public office again…he has to be eliminated”
Is this you, @RepDanGoldman?
pic.twitter.com/QelbGJHG75— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) July 14, 2024
Despite our supposedly being “domestic terrorists” bent on hunting down minorities and liberals, actual MAGA Republicans committed no acts of violence, demonstrated no violent rhetoric, called for no revenge, and committed ourselves to winning the political argument in the election.
CBS’s Margaret Brennan defends her comments lecturing Trump and his supporters as the ones responsible for changing the “rhetoric” in our body politic, claiming it’s incumbent on them to protect our fragile democracy pic.twitter.com/ka1iR8khZx
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 14, 2024
Trump released a fine statement calling for unity, Melania put out a simply beautiful statement, and the former president expressed gratitude to his protectors and his fellow Americans.
— MELANIA TRUMP (@MELANIATRUMP) July 14, 2024
It wasn’t the Reichstag fire, and it wasn’t Antifa after almost any event that the left doesn’t like. Republicans stood strong, stood together, and prayed for peace.
Sen. Chris Coons: “Part of why I admire and support Joe Biden is that his tone, his leadership as president, has been geared towards trying to bring us together.” pic.twitter.com/3W2A5gVXqd
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 14, 2024
The dog that didn’t bark was so striking to me. Not that the BlueAnon folks will notice, and certainly not revise their distorted opinion of Republicans, but I think that the disconnect between how Republicans and MAGA are portrayed will be noticed by many.
The fact that Republicans and MAGA are, for the most part, middle-class people who want to recognize their country again and not feel constantly beset by people bent on “decolonizing,” “queering,” or “fundamentally transforming” our country is reflected in how we are comporting ourselves in this time of extreme stress.
CBS lectures Rep. @SteveScalise about rhetoric even though Scalise himself was nearly assassinated in June 2017 by a far-left kook. https://t.co/p8oGktISNH
— MRC NewsBusters (@newsbusters) July 14, 2024
Don’t get me wrong. Republicans and MAGA supporters are angry, sometimes furious, about what is going on in this country. Trump has tapped into that outrage, and it is a source of his political strength.
But the anger isn’t directed into violence, but political activism and support for a movement to restore sanity to our country. Nobody is plotting to “eliminate” Democrats, as has been suggested about Trump.
Lowering the temperature, liberal style. https://t.co/tArVMq92GZ
— Pradheep J. Shanker, M.D. (@neoavatara) July 14, 2024
I spent a lot of time on Twitter/X yesterday, as I always do, and it didn’t disappoint. There was a flurry of nasty tweets about Trump MAGA, and several Democrat staffers have already lost their jobs and Democrat local elected officials had to delete their accounts because of things they said.
But, at least from what I saw, nothing similar from Republicans. Lots of anger, but channeled into “this is why we must ELECT Donald Trump.”
You know what MAGA didn’t do last night? Riot.
We’re not like them.
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) July 14, 2024
This is what a Democracy should look like. Not the truly perverse alternative universe portrayed by the FBI (MAGA “domestic terrorists”) or the mainstream media.
We still believe in our Republic.
Republican violence? Nope. It was the dog that didn’t bark.
