Weeks after the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I traveled to North Carolina to visit my conservative Grandparents. Due to contrasting views, I was strictly banned from purposely bringing up politics around them. However, in the first few days during dinners, conversations danced around the topic until my grandparents finally took the first step and admitted they thought the future of American politics was bleak. They weren’t alone among their conservative community in their concerns about Trump’s ability to securely lead the country to a better future, and I had hope, despite Biden’s fumbles at the debate, that he still had a chance of winning.
Then, right before dinner, my phone started blowing up, my friends screaming the words ‘Trump got shot!” (whether the exclamation mark was out of excitement or surprise is unclear). My mom was snapping at me to put my phone away because of our strict no devices at meals policy, but as soon as I read the text out loud, all devices were out, and the TV switched on. We watched the news restate the facts and replay clips of him standing out of the swarm of agents, his fist held high in defiance, a perfect picture of a martyr fighting for the rights of the people. At this moment, surrounded by my conservative family, I was struck with a horrible thought.
If I wasn’t so firm on my stance, if I wasn’t so anti-Trump and I was still on the fence, I would vote for him.
Most people would have stayed down and let the security safely take them out of harm’s way. Yet, he stood up. Fist raised to the sky, blood on his ear, looking like a modern-day version of Lady Liberty, he showed his enemies that despite all, despite being shot, he will not surrender. He will fight until the end.
Now, whether he is fighting for himself or fighting for the citizens of America, is still being determined. However, if you take it in terms of the latter, you see a president who will sacrifice everything for his people, never cower in fear, and will fight until the very end and pave the way to victory. He looks like a martyr, a hero, a savior.
Seeing this patriotic image in comparison to the image of Joe Biden as someone who could barely stay awake and form coherent sentences would likely push people to the red side of the fence. Donald Trump had just made himself the ideal candidate in the eyes of the American people. The fighter they need in these turbulent and uncertain times is someone who can run one of the greatest superpowers in the world. Even my very liberal parents admitted that he looked the most favorable out of the two candidates. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, instead of shooting him off the presidential leaderboard as intended, shot him to the top.
Through this, the Republican Party was also able to attack the Democrats, kicking an already wounded dog. JD Vance, who is running alongside Trump, tweeted on X; “Today is not just some isolated incident. The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.” Many Republicans hold the belief that because liberal media tends to demonize Trump, it directly led to the assassination attempt. We still don’t know the shooter’s intentions. We do, however, know this incident caused even more political polarization between the parties, which is the leading cause of the degradation of the quality of the US’s democratic system. With members of both parties pointing fingers at each other, Republicans could now turn to demonize the Democrats in their media, preventing their followers from looking at the liberal viewpoint and perspective, further closing off their minds. Even if any Republicans were on the fence, they now will most definitely vote for Trump to keep the ‘evil’ Democrats out of office.
This incident showed the world how dangerous Trump is. The technique of painting yourself as a hero is a familiar one in politics. Mussolini used propaganda to paint himself as the savior of Italy, Castro painted himself as a defender of Cuban sovereignty, and the Kim dynasty in North Korea painted themselves as indestructible divine beings that could withstand anything. Already, Trump’s behavior has been compared to those of Dictators in the way he rallies people, attacks his opponents and encourages violence. This new hero complex emphasizes that he is not running to save America’s Democracy but to destroy it.
That night, I felt genuine fear for my future because I knew deep down that, at this point, he was going to win. I think Joe Biden knew, too. I firmly believe that the attempted assassination, Trump’s survival, and his coming out stronger were the tipping points that led Biden to step out of the Race. Now, who knows what would have happened if he stayed? Would he have lost because of the assassination attempt? Was he doomed to fail before it, anyway? Would the American people come to their senses, and Biden would win? Now that Kamala has taken his place in the Race, we will never know, but what we did learn is that guns and violence will never help you achieve peace and can only split gaps between people rather than unite them for a cause.
