Letter from Milwaukee, Day One

Trump arrives. More dangerous than ever.

America’s kumbaya moment (if it had one at all), was fleeting. Once, perhaps, a shocking act of violence would have stunned us back to sobriety and maybe even a simulacrum of unity. But we do not live in that timeline.

After the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on Saturday, there were, of course, acts of grace and calls for restraint. The condemnation of violence came from across the political spectrum. In an Oval Office address, the president called upon his fellow Americans to "lower the temperature,” and the best among us invoked our “better angels.”

But these things pass, as they always seem to do these days, quickly overwhelmed by finger-pointing, demagoguery, and ugly blood libel. It is, after all, 2024.

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As the GOP Convention opens here today, we can expect to be slathered with the usual unctuous buncombe and jibber-jabber about “new tone.” But that will hardly mask the darker undercurrent of what is coming.

Donald Trump arrives, exulting in his heroism and martyrdom, more dangerous than ever: his sense of victimhood supercharged; his base seething with demands for vengeance, unshackled from any legal or political norms.

The Supreme Court has granted him sweeping immunity; a Florida judge has just tossed the entire espionage/docs case against him: and senior Democrats are reportedly quietly resigning themselves to the inevitability of a second Trump presidency.

So, this is a time for radical candor.

Don’t look away from how Saturday’s shooting has transformed the political landscape. Politico’s Jonathan Martin captures the moment: “Trump’s Raised Fist Will Make History — And Define His Candidacy.”

In campaigns, perception can quickly harden into reality and symbolism is often more significant than substance. The pictures and film of Trump rallying the crowd will likely be the enduring image of this election and perhaps his entire political career.

Even before President Biden’s catastrophic debate last month, Trump had run on a platform of strength, portraying himself as a politically muscular figure against a weak and aging incumbent president. Next week’s Republican nominating convention will deliver Trump a hero’s welcome and an audience to match, befitting a party leader who had a brush with death.

“The raised fist will become the iconic symbol of the convention,” predicted longtime GOP strategist Mike Murphy.

Shut up, they explained

There is already intense pressure to muffle or mute dissent, lest we be accused of “inciting” further attacks. “Almost any criticism of Trump is already being spun by Maga as an incitement to assassinate him,” the Financial Times’s Ed Luce noted.

Much of the fire was turned on critics who have reported on Trump’s malignancy. Right wing talk show host Erick Erickson — who has ping-ponged between anti- and pro-Trumpism over the years — quickly fingered the media ( which has become an exceedingly popular target for both the right and left these days.)

This is, of course, rank bullshit, because Erickson has no idea who or what inspired the shooting. And it conflates vigorous debate and criticism — the lifeblood of democracy — with an attempted murder that was itself an attack on democracy. To put this bluntly: Erickson knows better, but bad faith stupidity is apparently contagious.

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Once again, we are reminded that irony has been beaten to death with hammers. No one in American political life has done more to inject toxic menace into the political bloodstream than Trump. He has incited acts of deadly violence; mocked the attempted murder of his political opponents; and embraced rioters who attacked police as “patriots.”

As Jonathan Chait reminds us:

Trump stokes and feeds upon a lust for violence. He possesses a demagogue’s skill for manipulating his supporters’ most elemental emotions. As a private citizen, he exploited a white woman’s rape in Central Park to demand the execution of innocent young men of color. He continues to call for various critics to be executed for their disloyalty. When a maniac attempted to kill Nancy Pelosi and smashed the skull of her husband, he cheered it on. He continues to glorify and promise to free the criminals who assaulted police in the attack on the Capitol in an attempt to seize an unelected second term.

It is not Trump’s fault that someone tried to kill him. It is absolutely his fault that it has immediately set off a widespread fear of reprisals and chaos.

So where does this leave us?

Domald Trump — who now stands astride the political world — remains a grave (and growing) threat to the democratic order.

For years now, some of us have been warning about how political violence posed an existential threat to democracy. And so, it would be surpassingly strange if an actual act of violence would be used to mute those warnings about violence and the threats to democracy.

If anything, those warnings are needed more urgently than ever. And they are not in tension with condemnations of violence.

“Two things can be true at once,” Thomas Chatterton Williams posted over the weekend. “[Trump] is an existential threat to democracy and he should be opposed by democratic, legal means, not violence.”

Here’s David Frum:

Nobody seems to have language to say: We abhor, reject, repudiate, and punish all political violence, even as we maintain that Trump remains himself a promoter of such violence, a subverter of American institutions, and the very opposite of everything decent and patriotic in American life.

MAGA’s Blood Libel

The asymmetry burned. Over the weekend, the most prominent voices of the pro-democracy movement issued unambiguous and forceful condemnations of political violence — and sent messages of personal concern and support to Trump and the other victims of Saturday’s assassination attempt.

From MAGA? A flood of anger, blame, and calls for retribution.

Here’s GOP Congressman Mike Collins.

And MTG:

Of course, Lauren Boebert also weighed in:

The defrocked former admiral/physician and dispenser of pills also had some thoughts:

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How thirsty is J.D. Vance for that sweet sweet VP nod? This thirsty (which in a rational world should have been disqualifying.)

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How bad was it? Russian propagandists eagerly picked up the MAGA talking points

Russian propagandists are now blaming both the Democrats and Ukrainians for an attempt on Trump’s life. During Sunday’s broadcast of the show At Dawn on the Solovyov Live network, former New York Times correspondent John Varoli baselessly claimed, “The Democratic party is behind this attempted assassination! The Democratic party is doing everything to destroy Donald Trump!”

He added, “In all seriousness, I believe that the Ukrainian special services may be behind this—on orders from the White House.”

Dogs. When we need them the most.

The tail was a pretty clear sign that Eli was going to grow into a big boy.

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Baby Eli and Pete.