
The contemporary political climate within the United States is quite polarized. Indeed, since the former 45th president, Donald Trump achieved a remarkable upset victory in the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, a career politician, the figurative flames of political discontent in the nation have only increased in height and intensity. Indeed, this is unsurprising, given that the mainstream media has, for many years now, promoted polarizing and inflammatory rhetoric in the political sphere. This rhetoric has most certainly been directed in a sizeable form towards Trump. Through the years, comparisons have been made by American politicians on the left of the political spectrum that Trump carries “similarities” to Adolf Hitler, the Nazi genocidal maniacal leader of Germany during the second world war, and so forth. Celebrity figures have even called for violence against Trump and his supporters. Tragedy almost struck on July 13th, when Trump narrowly survived an attempted assassination at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A 20-year-old gunman climbed onto the roof of a building several hundred yards away from Trump and rallygoers. He opened fire and narrowly missed fatally striking Donald Trump, who turned his head ever so slightly at the right moment. Unfortunately, one other individual perished after being hit by a stray bullet and two are in critical condition. The harrowing incident is a serious blunder on the part of the Secret Service and law enforcement officials.
President Biden, appearing after the assassination attempt, condemned political violence and called for unity after the scary incident. Political tensions remain high, though, and it is unlikely that the deeply divided country will come together anytime soon. One Democratic staffer for Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi was fired after making disturbing comments in several social media posts on Facebook following the assassination attempt. Jacqueline Marshaw claimed the shooter should have taken lessons so that next time, they wouldn’t “miss” the target. Marshaw deleted the posts soon after uploading.