An awful anomaly: Violence can never be allowed into US politics | R. Bruce Anderson

The political news – and opinion from anyone about politics – has been entirely overshadowed by the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. 

The Republican party’s national convention in Milwaukee is not immune from this, though it was slated to be the political event of the week. It is difficult there, or anywhere, to have a conversation about politics (or, really, anything else) without it coming to the fore. 

The shooting was horrifying. It was a potentially deadly attack on the candidate, and an indiscriminate assault, resulting in death and injury, to members of the crowd. One man, a retired firefighter, died trying to shield his family from the gunfire. It was a deadly, brutal offense against our entire American community. 

I learned of it, oddly, while shuffling around in an outlet store over in St. Augustine, while admiring some plastic cups with flamingoes emblazoned on the side. A former student texted me when it first happened, and asked if I had any knowledge or insight into what had happened.

I didn’t, of course. All around me, others were experiencing something of the same revulsion and confusion I felt, as they, too, got the news. When the details became clearer, it was apparent that the shooter had sprayed bullets vaguely toward the podium, but that some had hit in the crowd. My thought was “that could have been us, there” and “it could have been anyone.” 

The people gathered in Pennsylvania were likely the common core of any political rally: staunch supporters of the candidate, undecided folks dropping in to hear what he had to say and random people who stopped by on a whim to simply see someone in the public spotlight. 

Here in Florida, there is the really super tradition of the political “hob-nob,” where candidates for office gather at a dinner sponsored by the party, by a local car dealership or by the city. They have a set time to speak, where they can say whatever they like in support of their candidacy. 

I have many fun, sometimes hilarious, even grim, memories of these events. Give a candidate the space, and they can make or forever destroy their political careers - in less than five minutes. 

In Alabama and Texas, it’s the political barbecue. A friend dragged me to one of these in Opelika, Alabama, back in the late 1990s. The microphone failed and the speakers had to shout. Supporters of each candidate would compete in trying to howl down their opponents, until the whole business turned into a good-natured cacophony.

Sweet iced tea, fried chicken and political talk, of course, to follow.  

These rituals come from a time when there was no TV or radio, much less the internet. They are also social occasions – we can almost see the farmers back in the day, pulling up their wagons, family in tow, to “see the elephant,” as it were, enjoy some food and drink and hang out with the neighbors. 

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Fellow citizens. The community. Decisions to be made. 

I’d like to think we keep the custom healthy and alive because we need to hear these folks unvarnished, unspun and face to face. Few candidates in recent memory have upheld the spirit and the reality of the “rally” as Donald Trump has. His gatherings are a celebration, a social connection and a festival, as well as a political event. 

I’ve been. I’ve taken my students. Much as I may dislike nearly everything he says, at least I heard it from him and not from a Fox News or CNN “pundit.” 

Atrocious as last week’s shooting was, we need to be crystal clear in the certainty that what has made it so shocking is not that it happens all the time, but that it almost never happens here. In some countries, violence and even assassination is part of the standard political arsenal. 

Not here.

And it must never be allowed to become so.

R. Bruce Anderson is the Dr. Sarah D. and L. Kirk McKay, Jr. Endowed Chair in American History, Government, and Civics and Miller Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Florida Southern College. He is also a columnist for The Ledger and political consultant and on-air commentator for WLKF Radio in Lakeland.