The 2024 Presidential Election campaign has been without a doubt the most tumultuous in recent memory. In an election cycle that has been plagued with lawsuits, personal controversies, and a mid-election candidate switch, it is not so surprising that threats of political violence would emerge amid the increasingly divisive rhetoric from both sides. The impending feeling of a break-out of violence was confirmed when a bullet struck former President Trump during an outdoor rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
The news of the former President put the nation on edge and stunned many—but it shouldn’t have. For years, and on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans have spoken with increasingly violent rhetoric about the other. The Democratic side has referred to Trump numerous times as a Fascist or Hitler-esque figure, and the Republicans have called the Democrats Communists and Socialists, all of which are false statements meant to rile up the bases of both parties.
The cost of messaging to voters in this manner is steep—the nation almost paid that price on July 13th in Butler, when the former president was nearly assassinated. The implications and ripple effects that could have been had the attempt on President Trump’s life succeeded were luckily averted but the threat of violence has all but subsided.
On September 15th, while playing golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida, the former president was once again nearly assassinated by Ryan Wesley Routh, who tried to shoot him through the fence but was spotted by Secret Service before he could fire a shot at President Trump.
The two attempts on President Trump’s life have led to calls for increased security for Trump—a request which was answered by Congress when they passed increased Secret Service protection for presidential candidates unanimously. The increased funding has not stopped many from questioning the efficacy and protective power of the Secret Service, whose abilities have recently been cast in doubt.
While the first assassination attempt on President Trump led to an easing of political tension and more unifying rhetoric, such as the Democratic Campaign withdrawing negative ads on Trump for two weeks and in Trump’s call for unity at the Republican National Convention, the rhetoric has quickly returned to where it had been, and has remained since.
According to a recent poll by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, an astounding 73 percent of Americans fear political violence lies in the months ahead, and shockingly, 25 percent of Americans believe political violence is usually or always justified to advance a political objective. These figures worryingly do not forecast a drop in tensions between two opposing sides of American politics.
Many fear that we are returning to the turbulent period of the 1960s in which presidents, senators, and prominent civil rights leaders were assassinated, though rhetoric will likely begin to cool off after the winner of November’s election takes office in January. One thing is certain: politicians on both sides of the aisle must commit to calming tensions among their bases and finding a middle-ground again, regardless of the victor of the election, to prevent further violence and assassination attempts like the one we saw in Butler just a few months ago.
