It Changes Nothing

 

The assassination attempt and reactions to it are deeply depressing, foretelling a grim future. The most disgusting responses from politicians and media have come from the MAGA-aligned. Rep. Mike Collins, R-GA, for example, said Biden ordered it. (Which, according to the Supreme Court, would be perfectly legal.) J.D. Vance, R-OH, who once called Trump America’s Hitler among other now-inoperative truths, VP pick unimaginable as president, election denier, pro-Russia, anti-abortion and anti-LGBT zealot, Alex Jones proponent, blamed it on left-wing rhetoric.

That’s the inverse of Republican outrage when Democrats accuse rightwing incitement prior to attacks on mosques and synagogues. Remember Trump saying “Second Amendment people” could solve the Hillary Clinton problem? “Stand back and stand by”? Mocking the attack on Paul Pelosi? And Republican ads like these. If words are to blame, which ones?

But the T-shirts are ready. And sneakers. “God protected him,” say MAGAs. By killing a fifty-year-old firefighter, evidently; father of two. President Biden called the man’s wife. Trump didn't.

On social media, both sides are awful. A few liberals can be just as conspiratorial and nasty as most MAGAs.

Before it happened, I'd been recalling a lecture in 2012, in Seattle, by Stephen Hawking, the genius cosmologist, who lived for decades with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (“Lou Gehrig’s disease”). When we saw him he was whole-body locked, contorted in a motorized wheelchair which he operated with a single finger, the only body part over which he retained control. He spoke by laborious one-finger tapping on a keyboard attached to a speech generator. As the lecture played, he sat motionless on the stage. 

He took questions. We waited at a microphone for a turn, after which he’d tap for several minutes while attendees talked among themselves. Finally we’d hear, “I will answer,” and then his precise, responsive, type-to-speech reply.

Here’s the relevance: inability to speak or doing so with imperfect fluency or rhetorical lapses doesn’t necessarily mean impaired cognition. Professor Hawking wrote “A Brief History of Time” with that single finger. In the case of President Biden, age has made worse his struggles with public speaking. Much is made of his misstatements and confusion of names; dire conclusions drawn from members of both parties. Trump’s surfeit of similar stumbles pass on the right without mention. As did the gusher of lies he hosed forth at that fateful “debate.” 

President Biden recently met with NATO leaders. Later, they reported how in command of details he is. We don’t know how his public persona comports with his private presidential abilities; but, considering his ongoing record of historic accomplishments, there’s no certainty that he’s lost it. If, in his public appearances he misspeaks frequently, he doesn’t drift off into confounding confabulations about electric boats and sharks and windmills, or praise fictional cannibals, or inject his acolytes, like bleach, with fear and hate.

Less and less do I know what to wish for regarding President Biden staying in or dropping out. Like anyone who considers our form of government worth preserving and climate change real, though, I’ll vote without hesitation for him, or, if Ds choose another, that person.

While pliable politicians like J.D. Vance blame President Biden and truth-telling liberals for the assassination attempt, this needs to be said from now till November: Calling out the terrifying trifecta of Trump, Project 2025, and their Constitution-rewriting Supreme Court is not hate speech; neither is it sub-rosa advocacy for violence. It’s pleading to voters’ best selves; a warning, confirmed by his and their own words, of theocratic authoritarianism. It’s democracy. Attempting to shut it down by describing it otherwise is Project Trump.

Because I know all I need to about black holes, watching last week’s interview with Secretary of State Antony Blinken was more relevant than seeing Stephen Hawking. Speaking with historian Heather Cox Richardson, he made clear why inclusive foreign policy is vital to US interests; why international partnerships, including NATO, are essential. For anyone concerned about the future and the US role in it, it’s worth watching. Part one. Part two.

Though we don’t know who Trump would choose for his Secretary of State, it’s certain to be the opposite of Antony Blinken. Trump and the Project He’s Never Heard Of have made clear their intention to weaken or abandon NATO. Their “America First” policies will do the same to other cooperative relationships, leaving America isolated and, as Blinken so convincingly explains, vulnerable and weaker. Given Trump’s professed love of our enemies’ dictators, perhaps deliberately.

So, no: Whatever the motive, the attempt on his life mustn’t quiet the voices speaking out against the consequences of another Trump “presidency.” Quite the opposite: since it’ll redouble the uncritical, besotted enthusiasm of his idolizers, it should spur even more commitment amongst the open-eyed to vote against him.

Maybe, though, it’ll inspire Republicans finally to agree on banning military-style weapons.