We should show grace to Donald Trump - and fight to keep him from office | Opinion
A man who has rarely extended grace to his opponents is receiving grace from his opponents — and he should. He must.
And we must be unified in our horror that 20-year-old Thomas Crooks tried to murder Donald Trump.
There is no wiggle room, no clinging to the safety of partisanship, no giving into our dark angels. The world is watching. Our hearts should ache, our souls shudder. History will judge if we don’t find the compassion to keep the torch lit during a difficult period the way so many others did before us, and judge us harshly.
But in a country that is just, no man would get to spend years fomenting violence then benefit when that violence visits his front door. Trump is still not worthy of leading this nation. His indecency helped bring us here. To deny that is to deny truth and undermine the greatness we proclaim but often don’t uphold.
And yet, in this place, the unjust prospers far too often. Trump has. He shouldn’t again.
We should pray for his health just as we should for any victim of violence. We should also continue doing everything we can to ensure he doesn’t return to office. He remains a threat to democracy. The way to beat threats to democracy is with the ballot box, not the bullet.
It’s not an easy moment. We must extend empathy to a man who mocked former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi after David DePape nearly beat her husband Paul to death with a hammer, fracturing his skull. DePape broke into the Pelosi home looking for the former speaker but only found her husband. DePape was motivated by the kind of conspiracy theories Trump spreads.
We may have to dig deep to extend empathy to a man who seemed pleased thousands of his supporters violently attack the Capitol building as part of efforts to overturn an election he lost.
But dig deep we must.
In 2015, Trump came down his golden escalator calling Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers. He has since talked about the poisoning of the nation’s blood, harkening back to even more horrific historical moments, among a litany of other hideous comments that have motivated his most ardent supporters to say and do appalling things.
It was just a few weeks ago that Trump supporters were calling for armed insurrection and the execution of a judge because their candidate for the first time was being held to account by the criminal justice system.
“We are in a battle between GOOD and EVIL,” Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted. “The Democrats are the party of pedophiles, murdering the innocent unborn, violence, and bloody, meaningless, endless wars… The Democrat party is flat out evil, and yesterday they tried to murder President Trump.”
Never mind that every top Democratic official, from President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama — and Nancy Pelosi — wished Trump well, the opposite of what many Republicans did in recent years when it was Democrats on the wrong end of political violence.
That’s the thing. Though this isn’t the worst period of political violence in American history, it feels as though we are nearing a tipping point. It feels as though one wrong move could be the one that makes a time already unprecedented in many ways unprecedented in ways none of us should want.
That’s why those of us who believe Trump a threat to democracy must rely upon our better angels, fight our worst instincts and avoid responding to the Marjorie Taylor Greenes in kind.
Men and women who came before us were resolute in circumstances more dire, freely gave of themselves. We must give no less of ourselves. That’s why the least deserving man is receiving empathy by the boatload — and must.
Those of us who oppose him most must grit our teeth and keep giving it to him. Because this is bigger than any one of us, and we must act accordingly even if we don’t want to.
This story was originally published July 15, 2024 at 9:27 AM.