🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The gravely serious news over the weekend that an assassin had shot former President Donald Trump, while leaving another man dead and two others critically wounded, was hugely disturbing regardless of one's political viewpoint. Trump was incredibly lucky not to have been killed. The calls from both President Joe Biden and his predecessor for national unity have struck the right tone to allow for some sober reflection on the feverish pitch of our highly polarized politics.
What ultimate impact the attempted assassination will have on the race, and what impact there will be from what seems to be a pause in efforts to get Biden to drop out as the Democratic nominee, are still unknown. Many expect, however, that even if the polls do not reflect a significant change in the race, this incident and the images that have come out of it will further enhance the perception of Trump as a strong leader compared to Biden.
What I can't help but contemplate, though, is how our nation's destiny might have changed if the former president had not slightly turned his head out of the trajectory of the bullet by less than an inch. While we don't have answers to any of the questions that an assassination of Donald Trump might have raised—and with gratitude that we do not need them—it is still worth considering some of the potential repercussions:
● Would political violence on a major scale have erupted around the country in reaction to the death of the leader of the MAGA movement?
● Would reaction to quell that political violence have further polarized the country?
● How would Russian and Chinese social media propaganda have worked to fuel and spread massive civil discontent?
● Who would have stepped forward claiming to inherit the mantle of Trump's MAGA movement?
● Would a delayed Republican Convention have turned into a multi-candidate free-for-all taking days to reach consensus on a candidate?
● With Biden's argument that he is the only one who can defeat Trump no longer operative, would such a tragedy cause Biden to drop out of the race?
● If the country was facing a totally new set of presidential nominees with neither Biden or Trump running, which party would likely have had a greater chance of victory in November?
● Would an incident as tragic as the assassination of the former president have finally catalyzed real action to ban assault weapons or other forms of stricter gun control?
● With Trump no longer the possible next president, would Russian President Vladimir Putin be more likely to negotiate on Ukraine quickly or otherwise find an exit to his current strategy?
● Would the MAGA movement, without Donald Trump leading it, begin to fizzle, or would his inevitable martyrdom cause it to grow even further in intensity?
There are so many more issues to ponder, some of them too difficult to even suggest. As a nation, we were very fortunate to be spared the consequences of an assassination. We are at a very important turning point in American history. The point above are simply intended to suggest what the impact of a very different turning point, that missed us all by an inch, might have been.
