#997: A Brief Moment in Time

Come Sunday, August 4th, or, at the latest, Monday, August 5th, I will, G-d willing, be posting the 1,000th The K.F. Stone Weekly blog essay. (In reality, there are already more than 1,050 postings on this website - don’t forget my other blog, Tales from Hollywood & Vine). By the time I officially posted my first essay on February 5, 2005, I had already given the enterprise much thought, such as its name (some will recall that for the first several years it was entitled Beating the Bushes), its purpose, intellectual parameters, and what the range of events, issues, and personages might be included in each posting. The one thing I knew of a certainty - even before I had figured out what its masthead would read - was its basic purpose: to be a hebdomadal (weekly) witness to contemporary history. Looking back over the years, many of the people and events that made headlines and now - even less than 20 years old - have already found a place in the dustbin of history.

On a personal level, one of my main interests in creating a weekly blog was - and still is - a matter of personal discipline; of knowing that week in, week out, I would commit myself to researching, writing, editing, recording, and then posting an essay of anywhere between 1,250 and 6,000 words. In short (or long) I was giving myself the task of recording a brief moment in time. And time is so incredibly brief. Imagine that from Tuesday to Friday, I was researching and writing the first draft of a piece about the current state of the Biden Campaign and here, on Sunday, I am writing about the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. The latter - the attempted assassination - knocked the former off my schedule, not to mention the front page - as well as pages 2-5. And by this time next week? Who knows?

Earlier this morning I was scouring through various online sources, checking out responses to this horrifying event. Many Trump supporters publicly - and unsurprisingly - laid blame for the failed attack at the feet of President Biden and the “extreme left-wing, of which he is the leader.” Georgia Republican Representative Mike Collins wrote on X that “The Republican District Attorney in Butler County, PA, should immediately file charges against Joseph R. Biden for inciting an assassination.” Speaker Mike Johnson blamed “the usual suspects” for the shooting: “Biden, social media and Hollywood.” Within minutes of the shooting, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, who apparently has made the final cut in the race to be Trump’s V.P., wrote "Today is not just some isolated incident," Vance wrote on X. "The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump's attempted assassination." This goes counter to statements made by both Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump on Truth Social, calling for unity. By mid-afternoon, more and more Republican notables began taking that tack. But the rhetorical damage had already been done; there continues to be a groundswell of conspiratorial fables on the internet.

As for the Democrats, many expressions of outrage mixed with prayers were delivered on the Sunday morning talk shows. President Biden has called for a heightened investigation by a consortium made up of the Secret Service, FBI, and Homeland Security agencies. President Biden, has already spoken to Donald Trump (who is currently at his residence in Bedminster, New Jersey) and plans to speak to the nation shortly (as I write this it is Sunday, 5:05 EDT). Predictably, President Biden has called for the passage of a new Assault Weapons ban; something he knows a great deal about; as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, he sponsored and largely shepherded the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act into law in 1994. That law, among other things, included an “assault weapons” ban, which prohibited the sale of certain semiautomatic firearms and large-capacity magazines that could accommodate 10 rounds or more. This is par for the course for Democrats; whether it will do any good is anyone’s guess. I regret to say that I recently dropped my crystal ball into our washing machine; ever since, it has been cloudy and grimy, offering no answers.

The first email I received after news of the failed assassination attempt was was from a long-time reader of this blog (who, BTW, has rarely - if ever - agreed with me on anything). He opined “What better image can you have of a candidate, bloodied and fisted, defiantly in the air, immediately after being shot, if you needed a hero. This has to be worth a number of conflicted voters, to believe they have a Spartacus, Robin Hood, Rocky, or "gladiator" in their midst. A million advisors and publicity personnel couldn't have planned an event greater than this, and Democratic strategists have to be thinking up counters to the picture of a fisted, bloodied Trump, which will appear worldwide.”

If Donald Trump (and my friend who wrote the above-referenced email) knew their American political history, they would realize that the last (and only) time a former President was shot while seeking a comeback turned out rather badly for him. One hundred and twelve years ago, Theodore Roosevelt was campaigning to return to the presidency when a would-be assassin opened fire (ironically in Milwaukee, tomorrow’s RNC convenes). TR gave his 90-minute speech with a bullet lodged in his chest. Despite his heroics, TR nonetheless, managed to hand the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson. It makes for a fascinating piece of political history. Where after being grazed Trump lifted a fist and shouted "FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!,=” Teddy stood erect. To this day, his bloody shirt is on display.

Another reader sent me an email asking if there was any possibility that the whole Trump assassination scenario might have been planned by his staff in order to win over undecided voters. I did my best to disabuse the reader of this notion . . . not because I had any evidence one way or another, but because I refuse to sink that low.

To my way of thinking, history has - and always shall have - the final word. Perhaps I am naïve, a fool, or even worse. But from where I sit and write . . . as a fairy well-educated patriot with a moral compass that manages to find due north more often than not, I have no other choice than to find the potential for goodness in many of humanity’s grimiest gutters.

In Fiddler on the Roof, the rebbe was asked if he had a prayer for the Tzar. Taking a breath, he chanted: “May G-d bless and keep the Tsar . . . far away from us!”

That’s my belief. . . and that’s why I continue writing this weekly blog!

From one moment in time to the next, that is my quest . . .