With blood streaking across Trump’s face, America learned the price of toxic politics | Opinion

We are glad former President Donald Trump survived what the FBI said was an assassination attempt during a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. His fiercest rivals and those who are fighting against a second Trump term should be as well.

There is no place for political violence in America. Luckily, many of Trump’s political opponents, including President Biden, quickly condemned the attack.

“It’s sick. … It cannot be like this. We cannot condone this,” Biden said Saturday evening.

We’ll soon learn what moved the suspected shooter to such violence. For now, this should be a moment of reflection for Americans.

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But not since 1981 when President Ronald Reagan was shot outside the Washington Hilton Hotel by John Hinckley Jr. have we seen a president or former president under a gunman’s attack.

It’s a frightening moment, one that, unfortunately, isn’t surprising given the current state of polarization and how toxic American politics has turned — and how Americans have turned against each other.

Violence is the worst-case scenario when a country is torn apart by ideological differences and Americans retreat into their echo chambers. Less notable consequences are seen everyday with the normalization of inflammatory rhetoric and disinformation.

Trump posted on Truth Social he was hit in the upper right ear. He is fine. The suspected shooter was killed and so was at least one bystander. How tragic to have lost one’s life for attending a political rally.

The best photographs of Trump’s political career came from the tragedy and the chaos that followed. When Trump was lifted from the ground on the stage by Secret Service agents that had rushed to the podium to protect him, at first he looked dazed, but then quickly defiant.

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As he was led off the stage, photographs show him pumping his fists up in the air, streaks of blood across his face. The American flag flying in the air behind him.

Trump said to the crowd: “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Is Trump our next president? Maybe.

Regardless of the outcome of the November elections, Americans must accept the ebbs and flows of electoral politics and its results.

The shocking events of Saturday prove that democracy only works when we all subscribe to its principles. We cannot change electoral outcomes by invading the U.S. Capitol or trying to take the life of a politician we dislike or even hate.

Political violence is the opposite of democracy.

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