Criticize Trump, but Don’t Demonize Him

When I saw Donald Trump walk into the Republican National Convention on Monday night, with his ear still bandaged from the wound he suffered on Saturday, I had two thoughts at once.

First, I could see Trump’s obvious exhaustion and emotion, and I had compassion for him. If you’ve ever had a near-death experience, you know that it can have dramatic emotional effects. No one should have to endure such terror.

At the same time, I retained my conviction that he should not be president of the United States. He was and remains a morally corrupt and dangerous man. And by keeping hold of both our compassion and our convictions, we can navigate this hateful and polarized moment in American life.

We do not yet know the shooter’s motive for attempting to assassinate Trump (he reportedly was collecting information on President Biden as well), but we do know that we’re living in a time of extraordinary tension and menace. On Wednesday, The Atlantic’s McKay Coppins published a powerful reported piece, called “America’s Political Leaders Are Living in Fear.”

Coppins focused on threats and acts of violence directed at national political figures, including Gabby Giffords, Brett Kavanaugh, Mike Pence and Mitt Romney, but that same reality applies to local political figures. Reuters has published deeply reported analyses of threats against election workers and school board members. And while MAGA is reeling from the attack on Trump, its own extremists are responsible for a pervasive campaign of threats and intimidation against Trump opponents nationwide.

While it’s virtually impossible to trace any given threat or act of violence to a specific politician’s rhetoric — and wannabe assassins often strike for reasons that have nothing to do with politics — we can feel in our bones the rising tensions in our nation, and we know that overheated political rhetoric is playing its part in turning us against one another. After all, if enough people believe that an election was stolen or that democracy itself is dying, some percentage of those people may take matters into their own hands.