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After the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, both Democratic and Republican leaders have called for reducing divisive rhetoric. Some Republicans blame the shooting on the language Democrats used in attacking Trump. Meanwhile, some prominent Republican lawmakers, such as Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., have used similar rhetoric, calling Biden “a clear and present threat to democracy” in a social media post.
Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette argues that Americans on both sides of the political aisle share culpability in the attempted assassination. Navarrette says that finger-pointing, a toxic national political climate, and Trump himself are all parts of the problem.
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The following is an excerpt from the above video:
Political violence is never acceptable, regardless of who is the target. When Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was attacked in his own home late at night by hammer-wielding intruder, some Republicans were terribly amused by this. Even Trump made wisecracks about it. The right-wingers aren’t laughing now. Of course, in fact, on social media, they have tried to instill a no-joke rule as concerns the attack on Trump, look who got sensitive all of a sudden.
What I am here to do is to remind Americans that we didn’t get here by accident, and that it wasn’t only one party that brought us here. Democrats have behaved recklessly, and so have Republicans. We have all said things that we should not have said. We have all done things that we should not have done. And all that noise helps bring us to this dark place.
The trick was to dehumanize the other side. Conservatives convinced themselves that only they loved the country. And liberals were just as sure that only they loved humanity. From there, it was easy. We could say or do whatever we want, because we told ourselves we were on the side of the righteous, and the other side, well, they’re all made up of evil-doers. There is no use pointing fingers. We all had a hand in mixing up the toxic brew that the republic has ingested.
