The Background Hum of Political Violence

America has been here before. A lot.

BY DAVID DAYEN JULY 14, 2024

One of the best books I’ve read this decade was called Break It Up by Richard Kreitner, which reframes American history as a history of perpetual disunion that, practically from the founding, has been on the verge of cracking apart. In fact, it did break apart under the Articles of Confederation, after 4,000 Massachusetts rebels nearly took over the Springfield Armory and the federal government realized it had no means to stop it. (We sing the praises of our Constitution and only stage whisper that it was our second attempt.) And it broke apart at Fort Sumter, triggering four years of civil war that in Kreitner’s retelling were more a culmination of events since the Revolution than anything out of character.

The assassination attempt on Donald Trump yesterday adds another data point in Kreitner’s favor, another example of the United States of Division. Incredibly, there has been at least a plot on the lives of 11 of the last 12 presidents. Overall, four presidents (Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy) have died from an assassin’s bullet; three others (Teddy Roosevelt, Reagan, and Trump) were shot; another three (Jackson, FDR, and Ford) were shot at. During Bill Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s presidencies gunmen fired shots at the White House but didn’t hit anything. Last May a young man tried to drive a box truck through a White House barrier. Taft, Hoover, Truman, Carter, both Bushes, Clinton, Obama, Trump and Biden all saw attempts on their life thwarted. Arthur Bremer tried to shoot Nixon twice but couldn’t get a good angle on him, so instead he shot George Wallace.

This is a deeply and consistently violent country.
https://prospect.org/politics/02024-07-14-background-hum-political-violence-trump-shooting/

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