In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald J. Trump on Saturday, his critics are being unnecessarily defensive about the rhetoric they have used to describe him as a threat to democracy.
Spoken and printed words about the perils that anyone in the public arena might pose to a Republic are part and parcel of political discourse in any open society. Indeed, history is so replete with examples of failing/failed Republics, back to ancient Rome, that this sort of discourse is itself a sign of civic vigor. We should worry when we stop caring about such risks.
What’s more, Trump has earned this treatment with both his conduct and his rhetoric. His conduct as in egging on the Jan. 06 Insurrectionists, and his rhetoric as in his declaration back in March that there would be a “bloodbath” if the people didn’t reelect him in November.
Of course, if folks in other political precincts, as in those who see the various prosecutions of Trump as a form of “lawfare,” see a threat to democracy, they should be speaking out, too.
This is actually a venerable tradition in America, to warn of such dangers. And here one can do no better than to listen to Alexander Hamilton, his words to President George Washington in a 1792 note:
“When a man unprincipled in private life desperate in his fortune, bold in his temper, possessed of considerable talents, having the advantage of military habits—despotic in his ordinary demeanour—known to have scoffed in private at the principles of liberty—when such a man is seen to mount the hobby horse of popularity—to join in the cry of danger to liberty—to take every opportunity of embarrassing the General Government & bringing it under suspicion—to flatter and fall in with all the non sense of the zealots of the day—It may justly be suspected that his object is to throw things into confusion that he may “ride the storm and direct the whirlwind.”
It has aptly been observed that Cato was the Tory-Cæsar the whig of his day. The former frequently resisted—the latter always flattered the follies of the people. Yet the former perished with the Republic the latter destroyed it.
No popular Government was ever without its Catalines & its Cæsars. These are its true enemies.”
Onward.
Well stated.
I have no fondness whatsoever for Trump, but the bloodbath comment he made was him saying that the auto industry would face ruin if Biden won. Look at the full context of the quote, as even though his wording was terrible and violent, Trump wasn't saying what many people assumed.
More generally, I think the way Dems have approached this election as a referendum on democracy just hasn't been working. I want Biden to win more than anything, but the primary concern of voters, based on survey after survey, has been inflation almost from the start. Biden's defense of democracy is high-minded, but it hasn't resonated with voters, despite months of trying. As a party, we need a new strategy.