Well, It Happened Again
A second assassination attempt will likely provide a boost to Trump's poll numbers... But it also provides Kamala a chance to win this election if she utters two simple words.
Yesterday, another attempt was made on Trump's life. Thankfully, this one wasn't nearly as close to being a success as the previous one, which came millimeters from taking Trump's life. After the first attempt, I wrote an article stating that the race was effectively over—Trump had his moment. Blood streaming down his face, fist in the air, yelling "Fight" to the crowd. At that time, the race was over. Trump was still in a battle against Biden, and Biden had no shot of staging a comeback. I wrote that the Democrats needed to force an inflection point in the election by removing Biden from the ballot.
The Democrats did just that. Eight weeks later, Trump is now going against Kamala. The Democrats successfully forced the inflection point they needed. Over the weekend, Kamala was likely to win the Presidency, with 538 giving Harris a 60% chance to win the job in November.
But with the new assassination attempt, Trump just got his needed inflection point. Of course, this attempt on his life won't have the same effect as the previous one. There is no iconic photo. No blood on Trump's face. It wasn't in a public area but on a private golf course. That said, Trump will likely get another boost to his election odds after this attempt. It also offers Kamala Harris and the Democrats a chance to secure the election from this point on. But that requires them to admit that they have lied to you about Trump.
Since Trump entered the political sphere, he has been deemed by the left as a Hitlerian figure. Trump is the guy fighting to take away your rights; he will be a dictator, and he will cause violence in the country. He will literally end democracy. All of those have been common talking points for the Democrats. It's also language that leads to not one but two assassination attempts on Trump.
The problem for the Democrats is that the average person knows that none of that is true. The average person looks at Trump and sees someone who is easily distracted on a debate stage, who always goes for the biggest reaction, but also someone who had a pretty decent presidency before COVID rocked the world. When they look at Democrats, they see the Biden Presidency—weak on foreign policy, weak on immigration, and inflation. But they look at Kamala and see someone who is not Trump. She isn't as easily distracted as Trump; she was more on point on the debate stage, but she also didn't have much in terms of policy. The average person, though, when hearing the Democrats talk about Trump, sees exaggeration, fear-mongering, and, quite frankly, hatred for the other side.
That said, most people can put the words that Democrats have for Trump in the back of their minds when they think about voting. After all, it's an election, and the Democrats just need to paint Trump in a bad light to win a few votes. However, this new assassination attempt will bring the Democrats' rhetoric to the forefront of many people's minds. It is clear to most who aren't on the left that Trump is not the Hitlerian figure they paint him as. It is obvious that no matter who wins this election, there will be another one in four years. To many of the voters who decide this election, this assassination attempt will make it so they no longer can ignore the rhetoric coming from the left. While the left claims that Trump sows division and hate, it is becoming clear that the Democrats have become exactly what they accuse Trump of being. And that's why the Democrats have an opportunity to secure the election in the next few days.
The Democrats have just been offered, for the second time this election cycle, a chance to change their tune. They can become the party of unity that they claim to be, the party of peace and joy. But it requires them to admit that Trump is not Hitler. It requires them to stop lying about Trump's language and stop saying that he will unleash a bloodbath if he loses. To the voters that matter, that stuff is already a lie. This is the Democrat's chance to come clean and admit that they lied.
Many of my fellow conservatives may say that if the Democrats admit that they lied, they will lose the independent voters. What my fellow conservatives are missing is that the average person already knows that the left is lying about Trump—most people just don't care. Lies about the other side in politics have proven to be harmless. What can actually change the election is for the Democrats to practice what they preach.
It would be a monumental moment if Kamala came out today and said that the rhetoric coming from Democrats, including from her, about Trump needs to stop. She can say that although she and Trump have political differences, he is not an evil person, and he won't end democracy as we know it.
That speech would immediately shift the perspective that people have of her. Instead of being a somewhat aloof candidate who is nicer than Trump, she would be seen as someone who is honest, kind, and ready to actually make nice with her opponents. Instead of demonizing Trump and anyone supporting him, she would be taking a step to heal the divide in this country. Quite frankly, in a time like this, a statement from her along those lines is the only thing that can start to heal the divide in this country.
Biden had a chance to make a similar statement after the first assassination attempt, but he failed to do so. He spoke about how the inflammatory rhetoric needs to come down in this country. He spoke about how the language people use in politics has gotten so heated that it could lead to an assassination attempt. But he fell short of doing what he needed to do because he failed to utter two words—"including me." If Biden had used those two words, he would have admitted that he was irresponsible with his own rhetoric. He would have admitted that he bears responsibility for the temperature in politics being turned up. He would have taken the first step towards healing the political divide in this country.
This time around, Kamala has that opportunity. This gap, this divide, can only be abridged by Kamala, and she now has the perfect opportunity to do so. She can win the votes of the independent voters by taking an actual step to turn down the temperature. She can have her biggest moment on the campaign trail if she admits that her own rhetoric has gotten out of hand.
She can win this election if she utters the two words that Biden refused to say—"including me."
