Amid fears of second US Civil War, Donald Trump's opponents must stand with him
In March 2017 , five people were murdered and dozens injured in a terrorist attack near the Houses of Parliament in London. The following day, the then Home Secretary Amber Rudd gave the speech in Trafalgar Square.
“The terrorists will not defeat us, we will defeat them, we are strong in our values and proud of our country,” she said. Rudd, a Conservative, then handed the microphone to the Labour mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who echoed her message, saying “Londoners will never be cowed by terrorism”.
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Hide AdA year later, Khan would call for Rudd’s resignation over the Windrush scandal, but despite their differences, when faced with murder and death, they were united. The attempted assassination of Donald Trump falls into the same category.
The first thing to be said about the shooting is simple: it was immoral and wrong, and the evil, twisted individual responsible should be condemned in the most forthright terms by all. He did not murder Trump but he did kill someone else in the crowd and critically injured two others.
Many people, myself included, fear Trump is a danger to democracy. His refusal to accept the 2020 election result, his inflammatory words ahead of the storming of the US Capitol by his supporters, and his failure to swiftly call for the violence to stop that day are just some of the reasons why.
Many Americans fear civil war
However, violence presents a far, far greater threat. Any incident runs the risk of creating an out-of-control spiral in which people who are itching for an excuse for violence, on one side or the other, launch repeated attacks.
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Hide AdThis is particularly true in the US. According to a YouGov poll, 43 per cent of Americans think it is either very or somewhat likely that there will be another civil war in the next ten years.
Writing in February, Bruce Stokes, a US-based associate fellow at the Chatham House policy institute, pointed out that splits over immigration, race, inequality, and sexual and gender identity issues were leading to an “increasingly Balkanized US”. “America’s friends and allies need to understand that the United States has become a Disunited States. There are effectively two Americas – and they are at war,” he argued.
‘Political violence is terrifying’
It is concerning that a few Republicans have sought to blame Democrats’ political rhetoric for the attack, at a time when they should be making common cause with their opponents.
They should be emphasising their shared values with Democrats like Gabby Giffords, a former Democrat politician who was shot in the head in 2011. “Political violence is terrifying. I know,” she said. “I’m holding former president Trump, and all those affected by today’s indefensible act of violence in my heart. Political violence is un-American and is never acceptable – never.”
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Hide AdJoe Biden’s response was mostly in a similar vein. However his remark that “we cannot condone this" was off-key; there is absolutely no question of condoning such an attack.
Violence is, without doubt, democracy’s most dangerous enemy. If it is to be defeated, the reaction to this failed assassination attempt will be absolutely vital. Republican and Democrat politicians, including Trump and Biden, need to show the same sense of unity as Rudd and Khan did in 2017 if America is to avoid a most serious crisis.