A World Set Ablaze: The Left's Violent Rhetoric
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump could be variously described. It was a horrific act of evil that threatened the life of a former President. It was grievous and tragic and resulted in the loss of innocent life. It was disappointing as Americans normally resist and denounce political violence. It was exasperating because it should have been prevented.
But it was also predictable. In fact, it was predicted not too long ago. Appearing on the Adam Corolla Show, Tucker Carlson explained why he thought an assassination attempt on the former President was imminent:
“They called him names, he won anyway. They impeached him—twice—on ridiculous pretenses. They fabricated a lot about what happened on January sixth in order to impeach him again. It didn’t work. He came back, then they indicted him. It didn’t work. He became more popular. Then they indicted him three more times, and every single time his popularity rose. So if you begin with criticism, then you go to protests, then you go to impeachment, now you go to indictment—and none of them work—what’s next? I mean, graph it out, man. We’re speeding towards assassination, obviously. And no one will say that, but I don’t know how you can’t reach that conclusion. You know what I mean? Like, they have decided—permanent Washington, both parties—have decided, that there is something about Trump that is so threatening to them, they can’t have him.”
Without having to accept Carlson’s deep-state-conspiracy-theory prediction, we can still recognize how these political and legal maneuvers have led to an intensely pressurized cultural climate. But that is not all. To understand our current context, we must also attend to the fact that the political and cultural left has both glamorized and glorified violence against Donald Trump, his colleagues, and supporters. What we witnessed in the attempted assassination of Mr. Trump, was, sadly, the predictable consequence of destructive words.
A simple query on social media will bring up sundry examples of violent speech aimed at Trump. You may remember the grotesque image of Kathy Griffin holding a beheaded Trump, or Snoop Dog shooting and killing the former President in a music video, or Marilyn Manson’s shocking music video depicting the beheading of a Trump-like figure. Crossing artistic genres, a New York City performance of Shakespeare made headlines by featuring a portrayal of Julius Caesar as Donald Trump, who was brutally stabbed to death.
In addition to these visual representations of violence, celebrities have expressed the malicious desire for brutality against the former President. Robert DeNiro ranted that “I’d like to punch him in the face.” Madonna confessed that she has “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” presumably with Trump inside it. Johnny Depp once joked about how long it’s been since an actor assassinated a President, suggesting that, “maybe it’s time.”
Left-wing journalists have spent the last seven years endlessly emoting their hatred of Donald Trump in excessive and evocative terms. It is now commonplace to read or hear Trump referred to as a “fascist” or “dictator,” and comparisons to “Hitler” endlessly abound. Last month, The New Republic magazine featured an image of Trump as Hitler, titled, “American Fascism: What it Would Look Like.” They explained their theme with these words: “Today, we at The New Republic think we can spend this election year in one of two ways. We can spend it debating whether Trump meets the nine or 17 points that define fascism. Or we can spend it saying, ‘He’s damn close enough, and we’d better fight.’” And fight we must, since Trump is characterized by his leftist counterparts as a grave and existential “threat to democracy.”
But most concerning have been the utterances of our political leaders. In addition to denunciations meant to delegitimizing Trump as an “illegitimate” President, a “foreign asset” who came to power as a result of “Russian interference,” Democrats have also directed highly charged rhetoric towards he and his associates.
Maxine Waters once passionately directed her supporters to intimidate members of the Trump administration: “if you see anybody from that cabinet, in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.” President Joe Biden proudly asserted on multiple occasions that if he were in high school he’d like to take Trump “behind the gym,” in one instance adding, “to beat the hell out of him.” In a 2022 speech, well over a year after Trump left office, Joe Biden said that “Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Unifying rhetoric, indeed.
In addition to this, the left has condoned violence to advance their political causes. In 2018, Nancy Pelosi questioned “why there aren’t uprisings all over the country.” In the summer lead-up to the 2020 election, when thousands of riots broke out after the death of George Floyd, Rep. Ayanna Pressley said that “there needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives.” Vice President Kamala Harris stated about the protests, which were leading to death and destruction across the nation, that “they’re not going to let up, and they should not.” She also posted support for a fund to bail protesters out of jail. On one occasion when these riots broke out in Washington DC, President Trump had to be rushed into a White House bunker for protection.
It is crucial to keep in mind that the foregoing examples are not taken from anonymous social media accounts or fringe members of the left. While we can cite rhetorical excesses on both the left and the right, we need not be a seer to observe a crucial difference between the two: that this intense, and at times violent rhetoric towards Donald Trump, comes from the elite echelons of American life.
Nor does it require special ability to see that these examples do not amount to occasional or momentary flashes of rhetorical flourish. Instead, they evince a sustained and pervasive dehumanizing hatred for a political leader, his colleagues, and supporters.
From the Hollywood Hills of pop culture to the highest halls of political power, the left has provoked Americans to imagine Trump and his supporters as extremist threats to democracy, expressing their desire to do him and his supporters harm. Should we, then, be surprised when these provocations are reflected in heinous acts of violence? Christians, knowing that the tongue is an untamable fire that can “set on fire the entire course of life” by hell (James 3:5–7), should be the first to recognize the power and importance of our words. The attempted assassination on Donald Trump last Saturday provides us with a grievous reminder that our words do indeed have consequences.