Yes, Americans should lower the temperature when it comes to political discourse, although that's unlikely to happen. President Joe Biden said just that during an Oval Office address to the nation Sunday evening, only a day after a young man shot at former President Donald Trump while he was speaking at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Of course, shortly after the shooting, U.S. Senator JD Vance (R-Ohio) took to social media to blame the assassination attempt on Biden. He wrote in a social media post on Saturday that the shooting was "not some isolated incident" and suggested Biden's campaign was, at least in part, to blame, as the Hill reported.
"The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs," Vance wrote. "That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination."
That sure dials things down — not. Authorities don't yet have a motive as to why Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, shot at Trump from the roof of a building near the rally site. Crooks was subsequently killed by Secret Service snipers. He was a registered Republican, and, according to reports, also made a small donation to a progressive political action committee three years ago. There is a lot we do not yet know about the circumstances of the shooting, in which a Trump supporter was killed and two others were injured.
But being a sycophant paid off big time for Vance, whom Trump named as his vice presidential running mate this week. The two men appeared at the Republican convention Monday and Tuesday night and listened to speakers. Trump was wearing a bandage on his right ear, which he previously said was grazed by a bullet during the shooting.
It didn't take long for Republicans to quickly bounce back to their hate-filled rhetoric at the convention. Congressmember Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) took to the stage Monday and proclaimed that there are only "two genders," a nasty dig at trans people.
NBC News reported on other speakers who denigrated the community. Congressmember John James (R-Michigan) criticized transgender women playing in women's sports, a popular conservative talking point.
"Our daughters were sold on hope, and now they're being forced on the playing fields and changing rooms of biological males," James said.
U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) referred to another prominent conservative target, included in Florida's so-called Don't Say Gay bill: the teaching of gender ideology or sexual orientation in schools, NBC reported.
"This fringe agenda includes biological males competing against girls and the sexualization and indoctrination of our children," he said as the audience booed.
Republican speakers warned of lawlessness and socialism if Democrats win in November without mentioning that their own presidential nominee is now a convicted felon. (Trump got a convention-day gift from Aileen Cannon, a federal judge he appointed in Florida, who dismissed all of the charges in his classified documents case. That's a real example of lawlessness run amok.)
Vance's own record is bleak — from "Never Trumper" to complete acquiescence in a few years. GLAAD has pointed out that Vance endorses the false "groomer" trope often lobbed by conservatives at LGBTQ people. And he opposes the Equality Act, which would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the 1964 Civil Rights Act and prevent such discrimination. It has been stalled in Congress for years, and has little chance of passing unless Democrats retake control of the House of Representatives and hang on to the Senate, not to mention keep a Democratic president in the White House.
Most significantly, Vance is among those who doubled down on 2020 election denialism.
While many Republicans continue to take the low road, Biden is working to help unify the country, although given the prevalent polarization, we don't think much will change. Still, it's important for the country's leader to speak up. Remember that after Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer in his San Francisco home in 2022, conservatives were vicious in mocking the incident. He was seriously injured all because the attacker was searching for his wife, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco).
"My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies," Biden told the nation Sunday. "We're neighbors. We're friends, co-workers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.
"Yesterday's shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here," Biden said.
If there's good news for the LGBTQ community in Vance's selection as Trump's running mate, it's that he doesn't really broaden his appeal beyond the core MAGA base. But Democrats have their own problems, now that more officials have called on Biden to withdraw from the race after his dismal debate performance, presumably elevating Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the ticket. Since the assassination attempt on Trump, however, those entreaties seemed to have decreased. It's a fluid situation, however, and will probably remain so until the Democratic convention next month.
What the community absolutely cannot do is give up. We must vote in November in order to prevent the authoritarian Trump from returning to power. We must vote for Democratic candidates in congressional races. In short, it may seem depressing now, but it will be a lot worse if we wake up on November 6 to a MAGA takeover.
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