a day in history

Yesterday was by all accounts one of those days that we shall recall fifty years from now, when we are old and frail and filled with PTSD: "Where were you when Trump was almost assassinated?" I was at my parents' home, when I got a text from J. where he just said: "Dude news". I knew immediately something of great import had occurred, so I ran to the other room and turned on the news, thinking maybe Biden had announced he was stepping down. The initial footage of the attack on Trump looked pretty tame. I didn't think he'd been hit. Then as he stood up, you could see blood on his right ear. Even then, people were saying it might have been a BB gun or he may have cut his ear when his Secret Service detail dogpiled him. As Trump was helped to his feet, the first thing I thought was, "So that's the truth of his hair" – his infamous combover that's a genre of conspiracy theory unto itself. He punched the air and his supporters went crazy.

It was only an hour later that it came out that a member of the audience had been killed and another was in critical condition. It was only then that the gravity of the situation hit me. This was a genuine assassination attempt. The bullet that had grazed his ear could easily have ended him. (Social media posts in dubious taste to the effect of "They missed" or "Make America Aim Again" abound, doing little to bring the country together.) I wonder at what point he realized how close he had come to going out like a candle flame. It's too much to hope that this close brush with death would be a moral reawakening for him and that'd come out of this a better person. The fist pump proved it.

As for the would-be assassin, he was a 20-year-old kid who woke up this morning with the goal of doing a thing, and having done it, he was dead within seconds as the Secret Service lit up the rooftop where he lay. It's crazy how fragile life is. At any moment a bullet could go through your skull, and everything that is you would simply disappear from the universe. Republicans were sure the kid was a lunatic from the left; when Democrats learnt he was a registered Republican, they were sure he was a lunatic from the right; when it transpired that the kid had probably only registered Republican to vote against Trump in the Pennsylvania primary and had previously been associated with left-wing groups like Antifa, Democrats pretended they didn't hear this.

I'm convinced Trump is going to win now. This basically handed the election to him. He is a martyr and a king. It doesn't change the fact that he's a convicted felon, a sex offender, and an all-round sleazebag, but by the time people ask me where I was when President Trump was almost assassinated, these things will no doubt have been erased from history.

Addendum 8/14/2024: A lot has happened since I made the above entry that I scarce need repeat. Let's just say my powers of prognostication are as reliable as those of the late great Nostradamus. I never thought Kamala Harris a serious contender in the 2020 elections. She fell away predictably and quickly in the primaries. It was a bit of a surprise when Biden picked her for his VP. A lot of us thought it might be Stacy Abrams, who was in the news at the time for her efforts to mobilize the grassroots in Georgia. As for whether Kamala Harris was a "DEI hire", I definitely don't think she was any less capable than other Vice-Presidential candidates and Vice-Presidents, but I think it's pointless to deny (or indeed to bring up) Biden or his campaign's/the DNC's thoughts were at least partly occupied with the optics of it. Regardless, after Biden's bombshell announcement that he'd be stepping down, I became so excited for a Harris presidency that I surprised even myself. Optimism in politics is a feeling that I haven't felt since Bernie's campaign in 2016. But now I am 100% with her. I am excited for a President that we can be proud to represent us before other world leaders and not to have to be concerned about their health. I'll update this very entry with another addendum in November, when hopefully I shall have only good news to report.