Democracy is not war. It is not violence. It is not threats of enemy incarceration and personal attacks. It is not revenge.
But the country that considers itself the greatest democracy on Earth has a painful history of violence, including assassination attempts and successful assassinations.
And we should remain vigilant in Australia—to never let the battle of ideas, sides, and debates degrade to personal attacks, threats, and especially violence or anything perceived to be inciting violence.
In the moments just after bullets were fired at former president Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania, the Republican nominee paused as his Secret Service agents moved to escort him off stage. Trump put his fists in the air and yelled, “fight, fight, fight”.
He yelled this at a rally for his presidential election hopes, in his own country.
Who is he at war with? Is it the Democrats? Is it the American people? Is it those he considers ‘woke’ or ‘weak’ or those who hold different values? Is it his eighty-one-year-old rival, President Joe Biden, whose chances of success come November appears to be dwindling with every speech he makes?
No one can expect or predict how someone will behave after being shot at: whether they show a display of panic or calm or weakness or courage or perhaps even an immediate call to “fight”.
But a fist pump to ‘fight’ indicates the extent of division present in the United States.
Trump couldn’t have known the shooter was, as the FBI has since revealed, a twenty-year-old Pennsylvanian man – a member of the Republican party who has donated to a progressive cause linked to the Democrats. A man who looks painfully young with a name that will become a central piece of wild conspiracy theories we can expect to emerge – and one who is a byproduct of America’s gun culture. He wasn’t old enough yet to vote, but had enough years behind him to access a semi-automatic rifle.
Plenty of theories were spreading in the immediate aftermath. Some claim it was orchestrated by the Democrats, others that it was a “staged” event from Trump’s team – taking on the risks associated with either party would surely well outweigh any potential benefits.
This shooting is a tragedy. One person is dead — a father who died while trying to protect his daughters — along with the gunman, others are injured. It could have been worse, with multiple casualties given the powerful weapon in the hands of a twenty year old man. It could have resulted in Trump being killed, live on television, sparking catastrophic levels of violence across the country.
The photos of Trump with his fists in the air and blood on his face have gone viral. A former president who peddled the lie that the election he lost was stolen is now a martyr. This time, he has the pictures and the wounds to prove it. He’s called for his supporters to “fight”.
America’s division and the violence that it’s sparked is a cautionary tale to Australia and any country wanting to protect their democracies.
Both Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton have made statements expressing relief that Trump is OK and calling out violence as having no place in society. Rejecting violence in politics is essential, as is living and communicating in ways that reflect such values.
Democracy is a contest, but it is not a war.