By Joe Montero
The attempted assassination of Donald Trump yesterday made big news. It’s a significant event with great potential for the political elite and the big media associated with it, to manipulate and use to crack down on American society. To target certain sections of the population even more than they are now.
The United Sates is in a political mess. The response of one section of Wall Street is to create and nurture the MAGA movement. Those who take issue with this assessment should consider that this faction of Wall Street is its financier and publicist. Donald Trump has been installed as its figurehead. He is not in control.
MAGA is on the rise because the other Wall Street faction, the one backing and controlling the Democrats is making a complete mess of things. They prop up a lame Joe Biden as their figurehead. While Trump offers change, the democrats offer more of the same. The shotting has lifted Trump’s stocks further and is now certain to re-enter the What House as President in November.
This is in the context of a society with a history of violence, and where this violence is escalating. The nation is seriously divided with escalating tension. This threatens increasing violence, and the machinations of the Wall Street factions make it worse. The United States is on a dangerous trajectory, where a large percentage of the population carries guns, from pistols to military grade automatic weapons. Some are already calling for a new civil war.
It was only a matter of time before there would be a major assassination attempt. It came at Butler in Pennsylvania yesterday, when 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks fired a series of shots from a nearby roof. He was shot and killed in turn. Security forces had apparently already been onto him. An attendee at the rally was shot in the head and died quickly.
Reports so far have identified Crooks as a close by resident and member of the Republican Party. Why committed this act hasn’t been uncovered, or the investigators are refusing to divulge what they do know. Consequently, all sorts of rumours are circulating. Part of the MAGA crowd is blaming the Democrats. Donald Trump’s sun immediately blamed leftists on his X account. Others suggested it was forces within the MAGA camp that were behind it. The truth is that nothing is clear.
Shootings and other violent attacks on political identities are rising, in a country where these types of attacks aren’t unusual. There has been an escalation in the frequency of mass shootings. A common thread is that they are usually committed by individuals with serious mental health issues. There is a good chance that that this is the case with the attempt on the life of Donald Trump. The frequency points at a sick society.
The difference is that in the current political context is that what Crooks did has put the United Sates in a dangerous place.
The political establishment and media tied with it, within the United States and across the western world have taken the line that this shooting poses a threat to American democracy. It’s a threat all right. But the American political system is far from democratic. How can it be when those with huge sums of money and media connections have much more say than those without? How can it be when the biggest donors to the political parties choose the candidates, nor the fact of state political colleges of a handful of handpicked individuals wo have the ultimate say on who wins a ballot?
What the escalation of violence leading to this attack has paved the way for more violence, and further improved the odds for a MAGA victory in November. A turn to even more repressive government and a new level in the targeting of certain groups in the American population.
This is all because the nation is a tinderbox. Not because of Trump, but because American society is in crisis. Living standards for a large proportion of the population have fallen towards developing world standard. Homeles people crowd the streets of cities and towns. Real jobs are hard to find. Non-whites get the worst of it. The manufacturing industry is tiny. Agriculture has been damaged and is declining. Few Americans have faith in government. Whatever colours it wears, they are constantly betrayed.
Americans want change. MAGA claims to offer this and attracts some support. Trump says some things that promise a better life for most. Those who are in control will not allow it. The democrats offer business as usual. In reality, there is no huge difference between them. Both want to impose the will of Wall Street. The main difference is that MAGA will do it more aggressively.