Perspective: What assassination attempts tell us about ourselves

The response of Americans to the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump reveal deep-seated contempt across the nation’s political spectrum. In a rarity for me, I was actually more disturbed and troubled by the reactions of American citizens to those events than I was from American politicians.
A new survey released today by the Napolitan News Service and conducted online Sept. 16-17 by Scott Rasmussen and RMG Research found:
While it is somewhat predictable that those affiliated with the respective political parties would see the assassination attempt differently, the survey also lays bare deeply concerning levels of deep-seated contempt. Both sides have absolute certainty that the opposing side is not just wrong, but wrong and evil.
Even more stunning and staggering, the survey of 1,000 registered voters further revealed that 28% of Democrats believe America would be better off if Trump had been killed. Another 24% were not sure. That means fewer than half or 48% could bring themselves to say no, America would not be better off if the opposing candidate for president had been assassinated.
Lest Republicans feel some personal justification or righteous indignation that Democrats would be so divided over the positive impact of the death of a political opponent, I am quite certain that if the question were asked to Republicans about whether the death of Vice President Kamala Harris would make America better off or not, the numbers would be sadly and eerily similar.
“It is hard to imagine a greater threat to democracy than expressing a desire to have your political opponent murdered,” said Scott Rasmussen, president of RMG Research, which conducted the field work for the survey.
This second assassination attempt on the life of the former president and Republican nominee has produced little more than a pause and a prayer on the political campaign trail and among the American people. Our nation seems to have little interest in pauses or prayers these days or in pursuing conversations that could cure the contempt found in so many places and spaces in our society.
Both the Harris and Trump campaigns continued campaigning with full-blitz media advertising, massive fundraising appeals and regularly scheduled rallies. If there was a pause in the political sphere, it was just long enough for some finger pointing and placing of blame along with the usual shoulder shrugging classic, “Well, it’s not my job and not my fault,” excuses that follow. What was most noticeable by the absence of its presence was authentic leadership.
“These results are the latest evidence of how polarized the electorate has become this election season,” stated the Napolitan News Service survey release. “Voters for both Trump and Harris overwhelmingly say they can’t understand how a reasonable person could vote for Trump or Harris.”
Not just wrong and unreasonable, but wrong, unreasonable and evil.
Our nation has experienced seasons of anger and division along with actual assassinations and attempts throughout our history. Many of those moments have been seared into the souls of Americans old enough to remember. In the wake of such violence, America has always found a way to come together, galvanize the goodness that makes our country great and access the binding power of the principles of liberty. However, it seems that history has fallen below the horizon for too many.
Sadly, we seem to be a society past feeling when it comes to those with whom we disagree. A society that loses its ability to feel compassion or see dignity and even a spark of divinity in others is endanger of losing a great deal more. The lessons of history and the principles they contain hold the keys to better days for America.
On Sept. 17, 1787, George Washington included a letter to accompany the freshly finalized Constitution to Congress. It is perhaps more inspired and instructive to our current circumstances than it was to the Congress of the fledgling nation.
Washington wrote, “In all our deliberations on this subject we kept steadily in our view, that which appears to us the greatest interest of every true American, the consolidation of our Union, in which is involved our prosperity, felicity, safety, perhaps our national existence. This important consideration, seriously and deeply impressed on our minds, led each State in the Convention to be less rigid on points of inferior magnitude, than might have been otherwise expected; and thus the Constitution, which we now present, is the result of a spirit of amity, and of that mutual deference and concession which the peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable.”
According to Washington we could change the current level of contempt by:
1. Keeping steadily in view the things which are of the greatest importance to every American.
2. Being less rigid on points that don’t matter that much. We don’t have to dig in our heels on every issue. And just because your political opponent is for something, doesn’t mean you must be against it!
3. Possessing the spirit of amity. (friendship).
4. Giving mutual deference. (Dignity and respect across our differences).
5. Offering concession. (Being willing to compromise).
What Washington was really saying about the miracle of Philadelphia that produced the Constitution he was sending to Congress was that the “secret sauce” was friendship, dignity and respect, and compromise. Those are transformational principles America desperately needs in these difficult times.
Rather than celebrating violence against opponents, or casting aspersions on their motives and actions or judging them as evil or mad — we would do well to look in the mirror and question ourselves and then pivot our focus to the principles, rather than the politics, that founded and then forged a most extraordinary nation.
Interestingly, a previous RMG Research poll found that 82% of voters believe that the United States was founded on the ideals of freedom, equality and self-governance. The survey also found that 89% believe those ideals are worth fighting for. Only 5% say they are not.
Some 93% of Americans want leaders to unite the nation and believe that America’s founding ideals of freedom, equality and self-governance are a good foundation for bringing people together and unifying the nation in the same way George Washington declared 237 years ago.
The American people actually believe that the founding ideals, many of which have been under attack from the very partisans and elites who keep telling us we are too divided, will actually heal and reconnect the country.
In the wake of assassinations attempts and political violence and especially as the 2024 campaign heads into hyperdrive over the remaining 48 days until the first Tuesday of November, we should at minimum pause and pray. We should pause and pray for the ability and determination to remember and then apply the principles that have made and preserved us a nation.
*This Napolitan News Service survey of 1,000 Registered Voters was conducted online by Scott Rasmussen on September 16-17, 2024. Field work for the survey was conducted by RMG Research, Inc.
— Boyd Matheson is the host of KSL Newsadio’s Inside Sources. Previously, Matheson was the opinion editor and head of strategic reach at the Deseret News.