This has been a very bad, terrible week for Democrats – and, at long last, a hopeful one for our democracy.
The failed assassination attempt against Donald Trump and the dismissal of the classified documents case against the former president offer a real chance for us to lower the temperature of our inflamed politics. But if a cooling off takes hold, it will undermine the inflammatory fearmongering Democrats have been banking on to win in November.
A softer campaign built around respectful policy debates and calls for national unity will only help Trump. Just as the Republican benefited from rules in the first debate that forced him to rein in his aggressive impulses, a kinder, gentler race will soften the hard edges and blunt the character issues that have made persuadable independent voters hesitant to support him.
Playing nice can only help Trump now that he is ahead. Given his movie-hero, clenched-fist response to the assassin’s bullet, no one can ever question his toughness. Once you’re in the badass hall of fame, you can emphasize other qualities. Following his near-death experience, the warrior may also see the wisdom of being a peacemaker; a smart political calculation might also come from an authentic place.
It is hard to underestimate how much good a more Reaganesque Trump would do for our body politic. Even if you believe that much of his vitriol has been in response to unfair attacks, it’s also clear he loves the fight. Where the Great Communicator defused attacks with wit, Trump often inflates them by throwing a punch. This did not raise the tenor of our national discourse. As my grandmother used to say, lie down with dogs, come up with fleas.
Let’s hope reports are correct that Trump has rewritten the Republican National Convention acceptance speech he is scheduled to deliver this Thursday to strike a more conciliatory tone, emphasizing the need for national unity.
This posture may be even easier for him to assume now that a federal judge in Florida has thrown out his classified documents indictment. Many analysts said this might have been the strongest of the cases against him – he certainly was retaining material that had been marked as classified. But it was also the weakest, and most politically fraught, after Special Counsel Robert Hur recommended against charging President Joe Biden for similar behavior. Just as a hanging focuses the mind, exoneration – at least for the time being, as the judge’s ruling will certainly be appealed – can free one from anxious fears.
All of this puts Democrats in a bind. Since Trump announced his candidacy in 2015, attacks on his character have been the alpha and the omega of their counter-strategy. While it is true that Trump handed them a fat noose on Jan. 6, they were casting him as a would-be dictator long before the attack on the Capitol.
Despite deeply unpopular policies and low approval ratings, Biden was in a toss-up race with Trump until his revelatory performance in last month’s debate, because the apocalyptic warnings about a second Trump term resonated with many voters. His best hope was to continue beating the Trump-as-Hitler drum.
The failed assassination complicates that effort. I am not blaming Democrats for the shooting, but would anybody have shed a tear if Hitler had been taken out? How would we feel today if someone removed Vladimir Putin? We can pretend to reject any political violence, but that is virtue signaling. Sometimes, it is a blessing. That was the implicit logic of Democrat claims – not from kooky Tweeters, but leaders such as Hillary Clinton – that Trump is an existential threat to democracy who would “disappear” journalists, LGBT Americans, and others he supposedly disdains (another smear).
Free speech is a fundamental right, but words can kill. A very thin, light gray line separates sharp language from deadly rhetoric. That is the tightrope both parties may have to walk in the coming months – unless, of course, one or the other decides the heck with that.
Given the current state of play, this balancing act should be easier for Trump – the high road is always smoother when you’re ahead. And, if Democrats are to be taken at their word, they see the Republicans as such a threat their task is doubly hard.
History cannot be rewound. If all the vitriol of the last decades influenced one troubled man wrestling with his own demons to put Trump in his sights, we must reckon with the world we have made. Are we going to be bound by the past? Or will we try to find a more graceful path forward?
