Kerre Woodham: It would be great if we could see the Trump rally shooting as a reset

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Goodness gracious me, what a weekend, wasn't it?

If he wasn't a shoe-in after Joe Biden's bumbling mis-speaking performance that we were incredulous about on Friday, you can bet the presidency is the Donald’s for the losing now, after the failed assassination attempt at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania over the weekend.

Yet to be officially confirmed that it was an actual assassination attempt, but when it looks like one, sounds like one, feels like one, you can probably assume it was one. Absolutely extraordinary scenes.

And the show of defiance in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, that image of Trump being led off stage with the raised fist and the American flag just so, reminded me of that iconic Iwo Jima photo of the GI's raising the flag. It was one of those photos for the ages, really.

Those who believe in God and Trump will believe that God protected their man, while taking the lives of others. Dissenting voices within the Republicans who aren't a hundy on Trump, they won't dare to raise their voices at the GOP convention - which is just hours away from confirming Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. As US correspondent Nick Bryant points out, there won't be a platform for any dissenting voices.

"One of the key points to make about the convention - there are Republicans who have serious misgivings about Donald Trump. There are many Republicans who wanted Nikki Haley. There are many Republicans who are who are still deeply uneasy about his authoritarian tendencies, and they have fears that American democracy really isn't safe if he is returned to the White House."

"And it's going to be very difficult to make that case in a in a voluble sense, to raise your voice against Trump in this moment, given that the party has just rallied around him. And this kind of cult that Trump has kind of created ever since he came down that golden escalator in 2015, it's become even stronger as a result of this failed assassination attempt."

Well, it really has.

He looks quite literally bulletproof, doesn't he? There have been calls for the campaigning rhetoric to be toned down in the wake of the shooting. Republican Representative Steve Scalise was among six people shot when a gunman opened fire at a baseball field in Virginia in 2017, when the Republican congressional baseball team was practising ahead of a charity game.

The gunman, who was killed by police, was angry with the Republican Party, so instead of writing a letter to the editor, or ringing talk radio, he picks up a gun and goes to shoot at them. He said he wanted to see all sides tone down the rhetoric surrounding the election. And he said after the 2017 there was a reset moment and he hopes one will be possible again.

He said - moments like yesterday refocus, everybody, reset everything, and in the shooting in 2017 for a long period of time, there did seem to be a dialling down and hopefully there'll be a dialling down again. I think everybody's got to look in the mirror.

And Melania Trump, wife of Donald Trump, released a very moving statement - an unusual one, because she has stayed well out of this. And you can kind of see why in her statement.

She said - a monster who recognised my husband as an inhuman political machine attempted to wring out (her words) Donald's passion, his laughter, ingenuity, love of music and inspiration. The core facets of my husband's life - his human side - were buried below the political machine. Donald, the generous and caring man who I've been with through the best of times and the worst of times.

Let us not forget that differing opinions, policy and political games are inferior to love. We're all humans, fundamentally, instinctively, we want to help one another. American politics are only one vehicle that can uplift our communities. Love compassion, kindness, and empathy, and necessities.

I’ve paraphrased a bit here, but basically, is she saying don't let the politics drown out the people. Don't let the political machine reduce you to a one dimensional stereotype.

And isn't that true of what's been happening the world over? When you think of the anger and the inflamed passions that we've seen around the world and here, we're not immune to it.

There were some terrible things that were said about people across the political spectrum, you know, rape, murder, rape of children, these are New Zealanders saying that, thinking that they can say it on the dark web and nobody will know it's them. Because of politics.

And you can get angry and you can believe that people make wrong choices and you can believe that they don't have the best interests of a community at heart, but how does violence and violent rhetoric help in any way, shape or form?

You wonder if people feel that they haven't got a platform to speak, that they're not being heard, which results in this kind of anger and this kind of violence.

And I'm not just talking about this particular shooting, I'm talking about what's happening the world over. Do people feel they don't have the skills to be able to speak up and articulate how they're feeling? Is that is that why we're seeing so much violence? Literal violence and metaphorical violence.

Do people feel as soon as they speak their mind, they're going to be shouted down and called bad people? You know, we used to be able to have differing opinions. We used to be able to talk about it. We used to be able to have passioned impassioned debates, and many of us still can.

But there are a group of people who either feel so misrepresented or completely ignored, or reviled, and who are unable to take a stand on a platform and have their say, express how they feel and be heard, that they resort to violence.

And it would be great if we could see this as a reset. I rather fear that than the US gun violence is so common. Not as common in the political realm, but you know, if you heard Richard Arnold, there have been plenty of examples of political shootings in recent times, not assassinations of former presidents, but certainly, as we saw with the the Republican baseball game, there have been political shootings.

It may be too late for the US, but I hope to hell it's not too late for us.

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