Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore / Flickr
For months, President Biden and many prominent Democrats have warned that former President Donald Trump is a “threat to democracy.”
In the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump, leaders on both sides of the aisle publicly called for unity and to tone down extreme and hyperbolic language.
But those calls have been better in theory, than practice.
On Monday, for example, US District Court Judge Alleen Cannon dismissed the classified documents case against Trump, just two days after Trump was shot in Pennsylvania and hours before the Republican National Convention.
Within minutes, the Stop Republicans PAC sent out an email to Democratic supporters calling on them to sign a petition to impeach Judge Cannon. The email says “Cannon manipulated the rules to help Trump” and “let Trump off the hook.”
Judge Cannon dismissed the case on the grounds that “Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.” The decision comes a couple weeks after the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.
Stop Republicans PAC, instead, tells voters that Judge Cannon simply manipulated the rules. Now, it's time to impeach her.
On Sunday evening, however, Biden called for Americans to unify behind the shared belief that political violence is never justified. He said the political rhetoric in the country has become "too heated" and "it's time to cool it down."
Even prominent New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman has gone so far as to claim that if Trump is re-elected, it would be “the last real national election America holds for a very long time.”
Some Democrats have tried to push back against world-ending rhetoric, like US Rep. Jared Golden, who comforted both Democrats and Republicans by saying that US elections have “withstood civil war, world wars, acts of terrorism” and survived.
Golden explained that the democratic process would endure another Trump presidency.
But calmer voices are drowned out in a partisan political environment that emboldens and incentivizes hyper-partisanship.
And to date, Trump has not been a calming voice.
Instead, his pitch to voters has been largely focused on painting our institutions as irreversibly corrupted … unless he wins.
“If we don’t win, I think our country is finished.” Trump says at his rallies.
But following the attempt on his life, Trump posted on Truth Social that it "is more important than ever that we stand United, and show our True Character as Americans." He also said he rewrote his RNC speech to focus on unity, not on attacking Biden.
The message to the public is to unify, but a behind the scenes look shows that the heated partisan rhetoric continues. In response to Judge Cannon's decision, Trump turned again to Truth Social, railing against “Witch Hunts,” including the “January 6th Hoax in Washington, D.C.”
Both sides have used their platforms and their supporters to claim that the “other side” is the pinnacle of corruption and tyranny and have raised the stakes so high that the existence of the US as we know it is in the balance.
It's not a very hopeful message for anyone who is not already in their political camp.
On Thursday, Trump is likely to deliver one of the most watched political speeches in the history of the world. The question is, will he be talking to his convention, or the world he says only he can unify?