The Shot Heard Round the World
America on the Brink
Like most Americans, I was shocked and saddened by the events of last Saturday, when a would-be assassin’s bullet nearly ended the life of former (and potentially future) President Donald Trump. Watching the horrific and yet all-too-familiar events of the day unfold, I couldn’t help but be reminded of other times in our nation’s violent past when the actions of some malevolent or misguided individual sought and often succeeded in changing the course of American history. And though, in this instance, the former President may have thankfully — and quite literally — dodged a bullet, I fear the heart of our democracy may have been struck instead.
For almost immediately, the deep-state conspiracies began to circulate throughout MAGA world that perhaps the Secret Service had permitted the attack to occur, or possibly even President Biden himself had given the order. (After all, the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Trump v. United States would almost certainly provide him presidential immunity if he did, so perhaps the justices were somehow involved as well.) And such dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric has not been confined to the echo chambers of the far-right fringe but has instead been amplified by such now mainstream voices within the Republican Party as Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently posted that “The Democrat…
