Even though it seems like there’s an almost continuous churn of big world events at the moment, the bullet snicking President Trump’s ear felt uniquely shocking. I sensed that strange vibration you get with moments of lasting global significance, when you’re not just watching future footnotes burst into existence but whole shelves of history books.
Yet for me, the truly unforgettable aspect was what I heard the following morning. Among the serious voices analysing the impact of that world-shifting bullet, there were a handful expressing – guardedly but genuinely – a real regret that the would-be assassin had failed.
A few of the people saying this were friends of mine, and hearing it caused me a sadness deep down in my very soul.
Because these friends are otherwise bright and considerate people. Many are activists solidly invested in any number of social justice causes, the kind who’d view themselves as being on “the right side of history”. But, it seems, underneath the ideals, their bitter repugnance for Trump has been growing like a foul weed, until it twisted all their principles and they find themselves actually wishing a man had been shot in the head. They saw his rhetoric, his bragging cruelties and nonchalant abuses and felt a hatred that simply overrode their basic moral consciousness.
A red mist descended, bright as MAGA baseball caps.
I saw later that Kyle Gass (who, with Jack Black, makes up the comedy rock band Tenacious D) told a huge crowd in Sydney that his birthday wish was “Don’t miss Trump next time”. If you watch the video, you hear many in the audience laugh and cheer when he does. He’s since rightly apologised, but that answer and those cheers should disturb us all.
To seek the death of someone whose views you dislike ought to be unarguably unacceptable, as once, not too long ago, it was. As Jews – for whom civil argument and thoughtful debate are so central – such an attitude can feel especially distressing.
But it seems there are just some things these people cannot see, blinded as they are by the fog of their hostility. Though they claim to loathe Trump because they are good people, they don’t see that they’re guilty of the very sins of which they accuse him: Rage, contempt and dehumanisation.
It reminds me of the old adage, “When you point at someone, three of your fingers point at yourself.” (Though I can’t find any evidence it’s rabbinical, it certainly feels that way.)
Not only that but for years now, to express their revulsion, they’ve cavalierly appropriated the language used to describe Nazi Germany, with Trump as an American Hitler and his followers as modern fascists, champing at the bit to end democracy. It goes without saying the comparisons are ill-founded. But if they slosh terms like that about, it’s unsurprising that common decency dissolves and damage follows (for who wouldn’t wish to stand up to Nazis?).
Further, they do real violence to the memory of those that suffered the atrocities of that regime. Nazism must remain a solemn category of one, representing only the grotesque thing itself. Every time it’s deployed against opponents so incautiously, its value is diminished. When we bend language for something that doesn’t fit, we always break it.
We might, of course, kid ourselves that we’re an exception here in the UK. After all, there have been lots of gracious handovers and amiable handshakes from the Conservatives as they bid farewell to power. But though the currents of American political life may seem brasher and bleaker than our own (and very far away), we often end up taking our cue from the States. Never forget we too have lost politicians in the very recent past – with Jo Cox murdered in 2016 and Sir David Amess in 2021. It’s folly to believe that we’re somehow immune.
We’ve all got to do what we can to take the heat down. I can only hope that this new government provides a chance to shift the public temperature from its current setting of “rolling volcanic” back to at least “gentle simmer”. Moderation of language and renewal of moral sense would be a good start, as would some mindful engagement with the issues raised by those with whom we disagree. A little listening would do a lot of good.
Because if we don’t all work hard to change things, our future could be very grim indeed.
