Feelings of sorrow and disgust last night as I heard the news of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump at his campaign rally. As of this morning, the gunman, deceased, has been identified, and former President Trump is recovering. One spectator is dead, and two others are critically injured. We know little more about the context for this sad, frightening event. Our hearts go out to those close to the victims.
We do know that the attempt to kill someone running for elected office is an attack on democracy itself. However flawed our political system, it should protect our ability to participate in the public sphere, to talk with one another about issues of common concern without the threat of violence. The gunman yesterday may have been aiming at Donald Trump, but we are all victims when someone stops a political rally with gunshots.
In the past when I’ve had to write about violence on this blog, I’ve turned to the philosopher Eric Weil. This refugee from the Nazis who remade his life in France taught that that the violent rejection of meaning and direction (what he called sens) was an ongoing threat against all attempts at reasonable politics. We can, though, choose speech as an alternative to violence. Politics, like education, depends on our ability to speak freely, to engage in public conversations. We need those proverbial safe-enough spaces to construct a political sphere worth participating in. Violence makes this impossible.
We don’t, as I’ve said far too many times, have to live this way. We must publicly reject violence and embrace freedom of speech and association. These are preconditions of any attempt to create a more just political sphere.
All of us can contribute to this vital endeavor.