The week America was undoubtedly at its worst

The week America was undoubtedly at its worst
And it all started with Donald Trump's Miracle of Butler

By DAVID MASCIOTRA
Contributing Writer
PUBLISHED JULY 21, 2024 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) The late Gore Vidal explained that one of his ambitions as a historian and novelist was to determine “when the great cretinism began in the United States…when people got really dumb.” While there is plenty of room to debate the origin, it is beyond dispute that we’re living in peak cretinism.

The attempted assassination of Donald Trump has exposed America at its worst – not only dumb, but hysterical, cowardly, and sickly sentimental. It has placed in the spotlight a dysfunctional political culture incapable of performing the heavy lifting necessary to maintain a vigorous democracy at precisely the moment when democracy is under assault.

....(snip)....

Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., asserted that Biden “sent the orders” to have Trump killed. While it is not a conspiracy theory, other members of Congress, including Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and, most significantly, Senator JD Vance, who is now Trump’s running mate, blamed Biden and the Democrats for the assassination attempt. They claim that the “incendiary language” of accurately calling Donald Trump a “threat to democracy” pushed the would-be assassin to act.

They also revealed an inability or refusal to deal with metaphor by arguing that Biden’s innocuous statement to donors – “It’s time to put Trump in the bullseye” – was partially responsible. Lester Holt, NBC news anchor, brought up the “bullseye” comment to Biden when interviewing him on Monday night, suggesting that it “contributed” to the volatility of our age. Holt became the team captain in the media’s game of feigned ignorance and real timidity. Ignoring that, even according to the FBI, the overwhelming majority of political violence comes from the right, media hosts, like Holt and CNN’s Jake Tapper, who has called for “everyone” to “lower the temperature," have turned dangerous rhetoric into a “both sides” issue. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2024/07/21/the-week-america-was-undoubtedly-at-its-worst/