After the Shots Heard 'Round the World, can a Leopard Change Its Spots?
A huge word cloud is floating around in my head as I’m hearing calls for unity following Saturday’s failed assassination attempt in Butler, PA. A word cloud filled with every single incendiary, vile, demeaning, dehumanizing personal attack hurled by Trump, the MAGA cult and the far-right ecosystem, that have been marinating and emoting now for almost a decade.
Unity.
Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss, ordinary Americans who found joy and purpose as election workers, whose lives have been forever changed because the then President of the United States accused them, without evidence and in the most racist of terms, of voter fraud. Court employees, judges, witnesses who have testified against him, J6 Committee members and staff —- all now having to personally invest in security as their lives are threatened and maligned, every day, non-stop.
Unity.
The former President of the United States, who swore an oath, with his hand on the Bible, to protect its citizens from threats foreign and domestic, incited his MAGA cult to violently attack and desecrate the sacred halls of the U.S. Capitol, our country’s seat of power, to overturn a free and fair election with the intention of halting the peaceful transfer of power. For months leading up to the 2020 election until today, he has promoted, also without evidence, the election was rigged and stolen from him. Because he lost.
Unity.
During the summer of 2020, when our country was in lockdown from a once in a century pandemic, one he refused to acknowledge as a public threat to the country because it might affect the outcome of the election, attempted to use the power of the U.S. military, National Guard and an organized militia, to attack its citizens, during the summer of George Floyd protests. In the Nation’s Capitol. On American soil.
Unity.
Trump made the political calculation years ago, that playing directly to people’s fears of “the other,” by stirring up the pot of fear, the throngs would come. Like the Pied Piper, he’s marched along with his flute of vengeance, hurling racist and atrocious words —- Central Park 5 should be executed (for a crime they did not commit), illegal aliens are taking Black jobs, Hispanic jobs, the Snake poem, migrants are rapists, terrorists, mentally ill, immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country” —- and his MAGA cult follow religiously behind him with uproarious cheers, standing O’s and unyielding support. Trump employs dog whistles but more often than not he bellows hate through a bullhorn.
Unity.
This is not a “both sides” issue. There is only one man, with complete control over a political party, his MAGA cult followers and the right-wing extremist ecosystem, who are actively and wholeheartedly promoting violent language and organizing militias with a nod from the former President.
A former President who openly and adoringly embraces dictators and authoritarians over our Democratic allies, having only a few days ago, hosted Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary, who has been criticized for undermining democratic institutions and the rule of law in his country and who just returned from visits with Putin and Xi Jinping before sitting down with Trump.
Unity.
I find the whole discussion of unity and coming together disingenuous given what this country has gone through with Donald Trump over the last decade plus. Trump and Trump alone is responsible for the tone, the tenor and political violence hanging over our heads.
So after Trump’s near death experience on Saturday, when a bullet from a would-be assassin grazed his ear, it is now being reported he’s so shaken he is contemplating re-writing his RNC Convention acceptance speech promoting harmony and unanimity.
We’ve been here before. The changed man also known as Donald Trump.
Who can forget CNN’s Dana Bash after the last Presidential debate, October 2020, who gushed when describing Trump as a “changed candidate.” He changed alright. He organized a coup to overthrow the U.S. government a few short months after that debate.
Then there is Katy Tur and Chuck Todd, reporting live this week from the RNC Convention, breathlessly declaring Trump a “changed man,” emphasizing his demeanor, the serene look on his face and his approach had shifted significantly since the attempt on his life.
It is not inciting violence when we call out Trump’s fascism, his authoritarian political ideology, his desire to forcibly suppress those who oppose him because he IS a fascist and authoritarian and an existential threat to our democracy. He is a convicted felon, a rapist. He stole classified documents belonging not to him personally, then refused to return them, stored them in unsecured locations at his resort and shared with individuals who were without security clearance. He lies with impunity. He is, as his vice presidential pick once mused before becoming a radicalized MAGA cult member, the American Hitler.
Unity.
It is not inciting violence by revealing the details of the democracy-busting Project 2025 and the freedoms that will be yanked from women’s autonomy over the health of their bodies, a nationwide ban on abortion and contraceptives, cutting Social Security and Medicare, eliminating the Department of Education and labor unions and the Head Start program, threatening the very existence of LGBTQ communities and the denial/erasure of Black history. We must stand up for our fragile democracy by speaking up without fear of retribution and/or being accused of inciting violence through our peaceful protest.
It’s not inciting violence to speak truth to power. It is the bedrock of our democracy.
We cannot stop. We cannot quit. We cannot give up.
Since 2016, claims of a changed Donald Trump have been repeated over-and-over-again. And for a brief, very brief moment, in the time it takes to blink an eye, there appeared to be some truth to it. But if past is prologue, he will quickly snap back like a rubber band.
A 78 year-old leopard cannot, will not change his spots. He can’t help it. It’s how he’s built.
What are your thoughts?