Election Commentary by Matt Angle, Lone Star Project Director
The MAGA rally shooting in Pennsylvania was reprehensible. A loving father was killed protecting his family. Two other men were hurt badly. Thank goodness Donald Trump suffered only minor injuries.
Most of the commentary in the days that have followed the shooting has been responsible and constructive, with the notable exception of Trump’s vice presidential pick, JD Vance. The immediate statement from President Biden and calls from many Republican leaders to turn the temperature down on divisive rhetoric are important and badly needed. It seems naïve given the red-hot politics of recent years, but we do have an opportunity to change the tone and finally begin to debate differences – both in policy and in ideology – civilly and constructively.
Changing the tone and returning to civility, however, does not mean rewriting history and ignoring the hard truth that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement are fueled and driven by divisive rhetoric along with extreme actions and proposals. The very real things Trump has said and done and the un-American policies he and his allies promote should not be set aside or downplayed. Accurately recounting and describing them requires terms like extreme, immoral, and authoritarian.
As a candidate in 2016, Trump encouraged rally goers to “knock the hell out of them,” referring to Americans that didn’t support him. At the same rallies, and even at the 2016 convention, chants of “lock her up” were used to stir the crowd. As president, Trump ordered police with rubber bullets and batons to clear peaceful protesters so he could stage a photo-op holding a Bible. He sent a mob to the Capitol to stop the fair election of Joe Biden. When told the mob was threatening to hang Vice President Pence, Trump said he “deserves” it. Even now, he praises the mob he sent that attacked and beat police officers while trying to overthrow the 2020 election. Days after Nancy Pelosi’s elderly husband, Paul, was nearly beaten to death with a hammer by a Trump supporter, Trump attacked Pelosi and ridiculed her critically injured husband.
Project 2025, the policy guidebook for a new Trump administration, is a “how to” for authoritarians. At least 50,000 professional civil servants will be replaced by partisan loyalists doing only their leader’s bidding. Books will be banned. Public money will be used to fund private religious schools. Abortion will be outlawed in all circumstances. Access to contraception will be denied. Incarceration camps will be built, and mass deportations will take place. Many of these same policies are contained within the Republican platform itself.
Donald Trump really was convicted by a jury of his peers after committing 34 felony crimes. Another jury of his peers found him liable for tax fraud and fined him nearly a half billion dollars. And another jury of his peers found that Donald Trump illegally defamed a woman who he sexually assaulted. It all really happened. It is history. Recounting and explaining these hard facts to voters in the days between now and the election is neither unfair nor inciteful.
The media’s job is especially hard right now, but it’s more important than ever that they get it right. Giving Trump credit for adjusting his tone to a slightly more civil register while continuing to promote policies that diminish our democracy is a disservice to the public. The truth is necessary for voters to make a fair and fully informed choice regarding the type of person who should be trusted to lead our nation.
Trump, Biden, both major parties, allied interest groups, and the media covering them must all help change the tone and take the temperature down. But changing the tone can’t mean avoiding hard facts, the truth, and accurate history. Trump and his MAGA movement set the divisive and violent tone that permeates our current politics. They lowered the bar to this dangerous level, and we saw the consequences play out in Pennsylvania.
