After the Cold-Blooded Shootings in Minnesota, Who Will Call Them Out?

The cold-blooded shooting of two Minnesota legislators and their spouses in what was, in the words of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, “a politically motivated assassination” elicited the expected condemnations of political polarization and violence, the increasingly uncertain invocations that “this is not who we are.” President Donald Trump condemned the shooting as “horrific,” saying that such violence “will not be tolerated in the United States of America,” while characteristically using the occasion to scorn Governor Walz as a “grossly incompetent person.

The reality, of course, is that this is increasingly “who we are.” Political violence and threats are on the rise, from the failed assassination attempt on Trump during the campaign to the increasing threats to judges and legislators to the fire-bombing of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence, to the murders in Minnesota.

Absent from the expressions of dismay and concern is any indictment of a leading propagator of this polarization and violence—Donald Trump, with his poisonous political rhetoric, and his repeated threats of retribution on his political opponents. Absent also is a modern-day Margaret Chase Smith, the Republican senator who at the height of the Red Scare in 1950 had the courage to stand up to fellow Republican Joe McCarthy on the floor of the Senate.

Smith, the sole woman in the Senate at that time, and the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress, was a strong Republican and a harsh critic of the Truman administration, which she considered weak on meeting the Soviet threat. Yet, when McCarthy’s ever more hysterical charges proved to be unfounded while ruining the reputations of more and more officials, she decided someone had to call him out.

Her 15-minute speech on the Senate floor did not mention McCarthy by name but its target was clear. “The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I don’t want to see the Republican Party ride to political victory on the four horsemen of calumny—fear, ignorance, bigotry and smear.” She was joined by six other Republican senators in a “Declaration of Conscience” that reiterated the call for protection of free speech and association. McCarthy’s downfall came four years later, but there is no question that Smith’s courage marked the beginning of his decline.

Now we need another profile in courage. Trump’s divisive rhetoric has been his signature since he rode down his golden escalator 10 years ago to announce that he was running for president and used the occasion to paint Mexican immigrants as murderers and rapists. His vulgar insults, brazen lies, cruel mockery, and juvenile name-calling are central to his spiel and appeal. As Finton O’Toole noted, he uses the vulgar and tawdry to build a “cultlike authority” with his MAGA crowd, saying the unsayable, riling the “woke enemy,” creating the idea that they are united “by being in on the joke.”

But in the 2024 campaign and, more importantly, from the bully pulpit in office, Trump’s rhetoric has a more vicious and dangerous edge. He not only scorns his opponents as fools, incompetents, and corrupt; he charges them with hating the country, paints them as the enemy within, labels them as Marxists and radicals. Consider the tweet—all in CAPS—the president released in commemoration of Memorial Day, the day that pays tribute to those who sacrificed their lives in battle:

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY TO ALL, INCLUDING THE SCUM THAT SPENT THE LAST FOUR YEARS TRYING TO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY THROUGH WARPED RADICAAL LEFT MINDS.

He went on to denounce

USA HATING JUDGES WHO SUFFER FROM AN IDEOLOGY THAT IS SICK AND VERY DANGEROUS FOR OUR COUNTRY…! AGAIN, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY AND GOD BLESS AMERICA.

As the courts have questioned Trump’s lawless actions, his insults have escalated. In March, he denounced

Radical Left Judges could very well lead to the destruction of our Country! These people are Lunatics, who do not care, even a little bit, about the repercussions from their very dangerous and incorrect Decisions and Rulings…. The danger is unparalleled.

His rantings are not limited to judges. The day after the murders in Minnesota, Trump tweeted a call for expanding deportation efforts in large cities led by Democratic mayors. “These Radical Left Democrats are sick of mind, hate our Country, and actually want to destroy our Inner Cities.”