Violent words, violent consequences

(RNS) — Ever since the assassination attempt on the U.S. presidential candidate whose most typical response to anything is “fight,” everyone has been talking about violence.

Knee-jerk reactions abound — violent thoughts, violent words, violent acts. And the finger-pointing has not yet peaked. Folks are blaming the “deep state,” the F.B.I., the CIA, the Democratic Party, the Secret Service, and the amorphous “them,” who they say planned the entire event.

The problem for civilized people, not only in the United States but around the world, is whether there are more American voters who want to “fight” than there are those who hope to preserve democracy.

Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to find either truth or hope in the daily barrage of information. But if we manage to look past every opinion column, news analysis and social media comment to the facts, a very different picture will emerge from within the clutter.

These are the facts:

Twin problems underly the situation. On the one hand, a convicted felon, liable in a sexual assault judgment, claims he intends to be a dictator on day one. On the other hand, an elderly statesman faces the internal disarray of his own party, which can not see past his most recent gaffs.

One candidate, the dictator-in-waiting, has a documented disregard for the truth. The other, the statesman, happens to still be running the country in the midsummer heat.

This combination of photos shows President Joe Biden, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump during a presidential debate hosted by CNN, June 27, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

What’s a voter to do?

Everyone seems to be angry, and the temperature of political discourse has melted it beyond recognition. That is why the statesman’s debate performance was so lacking. Aside from everything else, he was battered with a string of non-sequiturs and falsehoods as he tried to present facts. It was not a debate; it was a one-sided metaphorical fistfight.

And the fighting is spilling out. We see it on social media, we suffer it in personal confrontations, and we read about it in actual violence in the streets and, unfortunately, in campaign rallies.

It is not going to stop. It is only going to get worse. Complicating the situation is a country filled with AR-15-style rifles. No one knows exactly how many there are, but some estimates say 1 in 20 Americans owns one, a breathtaking percentage of the 342 million U.S. residents. Then there are the million Glock handguns sold in the United States each year. And we cannot overlook the fact that you can manufacture each with a 3D printer. Meanwhile, they are testing ammunition vending machines in Texas.

With a significant percentage of the country armed, and at least a percentage violently angry, we must agree the only hope for peace is, as they say, to “dial back the rhetoric.”

That must happen on the national stage, but even if it does, in the corners of the internet and in the corner bar, anger will continue to percolate and perhaps spill out.

One hopes the dictator-in-waiting reins in his bombast and stops shouting “fight.”

The statesman will continue to mix up a word or two, but he will speak the truth.