On Sept. 15, there was an “apparent assassination attempt” on former president Donald Trump. Again. Although this attempt was not that serious, with no actual shots fired, the action has stirred up a national conversation.

It’s hard for some to believe that here in America, we have people of this country willing to end the life of a political figure that they don’t like. But for anyone who knows anything about America, this is nothing new or even unusual. And it’s only going to get worse.

Political violence is defined as violence perpetrated in order to achieve political goals. By that definition, America has seen political violence practically every year since its founding. 

First of all, there is no need to panic about this assassination attempt. Ryan Wesley Routh (the would-be assassin) wasn’t even close to Trump. This is not the first time a President or former President has had an attempt on their life. 

44th President Barack Obama had several assassination attempts,and before him, George W. Bush had several attempts on his own life. Frankly, it’d be more unusual if a president wasn’t a target.

This “new” wave of political violence is not new. The American Revolution was, by definition, political violence. Some of the Founding Fathers even believed political violence to be a necessary evil. 

In a letter to William Stephens Smith (the son-in-law to second President John Adams), Thomas Jefferson said. “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” And Jefferson was considered a moderate patriot compared to Samuel Adams. 

Adams founded the Sons of Liberty, a secret group of Bostonian patriots who opposed British taxation. This group would often riot in the streets and tar and feather British officials enforcing taxation. Adams was referred to by some members of Parliament as “the most dangerous man in Boston” and “the grand Incendiary.”

Ever since the Revolution, America has been one chapter of political violence after the other. The Civil War was nothing but political violence, with senators beating each other with canes and men shooting each other over the issue of slavery and clashing opinions over it. To count the number of assassination in the 60s’ alone, you would need two hands.

In the 60s we saw the assassinations of several major political figures. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, and five years later his brother and the presidential frontrunner for the Democratic party Robert Kennedy Sr. was gunned down in a hotel kitchen. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr was killed in Memphis less than two months before RFK, and Malcolm X was killed by members of the Nation of Islam. I could mention several more influential figures who were killed in the decades to follow, such as Fred Hampton, Harvey Milk, and John Lennon.  Yet we’re acting like it’s somehow gotten worse in recent years.

If anything, political violence has gone down quite a bit in this country. Before the assassination attempt in Butler, when was the last time a prominent United States political figure was shot at? 

There hasn’t been an attempt on a President on US soil since 2011 and even that was a crazy man taking wild shots at the White House. What has people worried about political violence now is that we’ve gotten so used to the relative peacefulness Americans have enjoyed.

We look around the world and wonder how these other countries like Israel, Russia and Ukraine can be so chaotic and full of political violence, when really, we are not much better than them. So don’t be surprised when political violence occurs. It’s practically an American tradition.

Categories: Opinion