DL Open Thread Sunday, July 14, 2024
Have you noticed that nobody is surprised at the attempted assassination of Donald Trump? I’m only surprised it took this long for someone to do it, because for eight years now we’ve been told that Trump is an existential menace. You have to assume that eventually someone will take that seriously enough to act on it. Stochastic terrorism doesn’t only work on conservatives. And before you say “too bad he missed,” consider what happened to the Roman Republic. A cabal of senators tried to save it by killing Caesar, and it kicked off a civil war that ended in the dictatorship the cabal was trying to forestall.
I’m not linking to anything because reports will continue all day and anything that’s already been written will be out-of-date by this afternoon.
The floor’s yours.
I turned on the car radio to hear the breaking news, and it was tuned to a music station playing “Miss You” by the Stones.
Latest report I saw says Trump was wounded not by a bullet but by the glass of a shattered teleprompter.
The trump people are disputing that. Because of course they know that a bullet is a much more powerful myth than a shard of glass. Our dear leader.
I don’t think this is going to change a damn thing when it comes to this election. But maybe I’m wrong. It seemed like he was doing just fine before this and will be doing just fine afterwards. Any time I see people with bylines in the Atlantic quivering with fear for our democracy and societal collapse, I immediately get skeptical. The msnbc class has done us no favors.
If I can go get a sizzli sandwich and iced coffee at Wawa in the morning and people hold the door for me, I’m pretty sure society is ok for the moment.
And no I’m not saying everything is perfect or close to it but I am saying that the catastrophizing by some elements of the “left” is bogus and leaves us with only the ability to offer nightmares and not dreams.
The Trump people will do what Trump people do. By tomorrow they’ll be claiming that he deflected the bullet with his will alone.
I sort of agree with your last point, but not for the same reason. The problem is that if you preach nightmares, people expect it to arrive quickly, like a jump scare in a horror movie (thanks, Hollywood). But it creeps slowly, so people don’t recognize what’s happening until it’s too late. I no longer wonder how Germany slid into fascism.
There’s no sense offering dreams, though, because you can’t deliver them. So there’s an inevitable backlash when they fail to come true.
For example: If Biden is replaced, I would expect great hope to be followed by great disappointment as Harris or whomever proves to have flaws of their own and hence is not a miracle solution to winning in November.
…”the catastrophizing by some elements of the “left” is bogus and leaves us with only the ability to offer nightmares and not dreams”
“…some” elements”? Try “The constant catastrophizing by the Democratic Party,” and you’ll get closer.
Since Bill Clinton all we’ve gotten from Democrats is “OH NO, THE SUPREME COURT!!” and “We are slightly better than the terrible alternative.” There has been no affirmative vision from the Dems at all.
As your scare quotes indicate, it’s the party’s centrists who craft that message. There was, for example, no full-throated support for universal health care before Obamacare, and hasn’t been much after it, either.
Like many others I’m surprised it took this long, see it as a case of “thou shalt reap what thy sow”. As noted I suspect it will change nothing, unless we get a wave of copy cat shooters.
In Caesar’s day, you needed a cabal of powerful people to get close enough to pull off an assassination. Today, you just need one rando shithead with a rifle, and there are thousands upon thousands of them out there. Probably a couple of dozen from the right hopping in their cars and on their way to DC right now.
Really have to question how a guy with a rifle was able to crawl up there in full view and get those shots off. A monumental security failure.
You would think they’d have drones deployed to keep an aerial view of the vicinity. Let’s see if the hearings Republicans immediately ordered will review security lapses that allowed this to happen, or just act as a show trial to demonize Democrats.
Why is it that reporting on Trump’s wound is third hand? The assassination took place yes, but the wounding is all speculation. What’s up with that? The assassin is a Republican and what’s up with that? An old say was Republicans eat their own and now they have to change it to “SHOOT THEIR OWN”.
And he has a giant cartoon bandage on his ear.
The would-be assassin Van Goghed him.