Musings On The Second Trump Assassination Attempt

Another Trump assassination attempt has been foiled by the Secret Service, this time with the would-be assassin alive and in police custody. His name is Ryan Routh.

Unlike the last aspiring assassin, this one didn’t get off a shot, and has a much more public profile. The Grayzone has a report out documenting Routh’s extensive involvement in efforts to recruit volunteers to fight in the war in Ukraine, a cause he has been highly ideologically dedicated to.

Just like last time Trump’s political opponents who’ve been melodramatically claiming Trump is going to end American democracy and install himself as a dictator for life are condemning political violence and expressing relief that he’s okay. Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries and Bernie Sanders have all tweeted statements to this effect.

As soon as shit gets even a tiny bit real all the performers set aside their vitriolic rhetoric about Trump and start talking about how relieved they are that their fellow performer is okay, the same as you would see if someone took a shot at one of the performers in a pro wrestling match. It’s all a kayfabe performance.

Trump supporters are again touting this foiled assassination plot as evidence that the Deep State is after their man, but right now I’m not buying it. I kinda think if the real power players wanted him dead he’d be dead. According to Trump supporters the Deep State is simultaneously (A) a supremely powerful entity capable of enslaving the world in a neo-Marxist bug-eating vaccine mandate woke dystopia and (B) somehow incapable of successfully assassinating one 78 year-old man despite multiple attempts.

I wouldn’t care if Trump got assassinated, but for the record nothing would be accomplished by eliminating him because he’ll only be replaced by an ideological clone of himself just like Biden was. The powers that be benefit too much from having a Trump; if it’s not him it’ll be another.

Trump supporters say Trump is anti-establishment, when in reality he’s done more to advance the interests of the establishment than any individual Democrat ever has. In addition to all the longstanding agendas of the US war machine he advanced while president, he also moves US politics in the exact direction the powerful want it to move.

Because of Trump, Democrats moved from despising Bush and Cheney for their warmongering to loving Bush and Cheney and warmongering.

Because of Trump, the Democratic Party has been able to move much further toward warmongering corporatism than it could have ever gotten away with before — while still framing itself as the “moderate” alternative.

Because of Trump, mainstream US politics has been shoved so far to the right that in it’s now effectively a contest between Donald Trump’s Republican Party and George W Bush’s Republican Party.

Because of Trump, both parties are now campaigning on who’s the most Reagany Ronald Reagan.

Because of Trump, Democrats went from trashing John McCain to worshipping him as a saint.

Because of Trump, Democrats went from opposing the Bush administration’s post-9/11 authoritarianism to cheering for the FBI and the CIA and the destruction of the First Amendment.

Because of Trump, everyone’s arguing about whether immigrants are eating cats and dogs instead of the active genocide in Gaza.

Because of Trump, the last presidential debate was two corporate warmongers arguing over who loves Israel more, with the Democrat pledging to have the world’s “most lethal” fighting force to use against nations like Russia, China and Iran.

Trump Sheepdogs Both The Right And The Left Into Supporting Status Quo Politics

Because of Trump, conversations about universal healthcare and a living wage have been completely killed off and replaced with conversations about the threat of fascism and the death of American democracy.

Because of Trump, Democrats moved from mocking the cold warrior Russiabaiting of Mitt Romney and saying “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back,” to now demanding more and more nuclear brinkmanship against Russia.

Because of Trump, the Democratic Party has been able to completely ignore all the demands of their progressive base, trusting that they will still be scaremongered into voting Democrat in November despite the fact that this is the same as voting Republican in 2008.

None of this would have been possible without Donald Trump or someone just like him. No other living person has done more to benefit the imperial status quo more than this man who has successfully transformed US politics into a fight between two Republican Parties with no voice left for ordinary Americans and their basic human needs.

I will of course be reassessing my position as more information comes in, but for right now I just think Trump is far too useful to the powerful for me to bother putting my conspiratorial thinking cap on for this one.

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):

https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/musings-on-the-second-trump-assassination