Political Violence and Hypocrisy

What drove registered Republican Thomas Matthew Cooks to make an attempt on Donald Trump's life? We will know in due course. But as night follows day, the failed assassination - which killed another rally attendee and severely injured two others - has occasioned an outpouring of sanctimony and hypocrisy, a moment where what goes unsaid is just as significant as what is said.

The Trump camp, for one. When a far right conspiracy theorist broke into the home of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and attacked her husband, Trump mocked the attempt and cast doubt on whether it actually happened. For her part, Pelosi has joined in the official concern and well wishes showering upon the former president. And then we have the small matter of instigating an insurrection, which placed members of Congress in harm's way and led to a handful of deaths. Leading Republicans were also quick to blame the Democrats for their inflammatory rhetoric. The same Republicans who've been flirting with the fascistic - not a word to be used lightly - Project 2025 plan.

Joe Biden was quick to condemn the attempt and mumbled some homilies about political violence being bad. But this is a president who's done nothing to curb state violence at home. Along with attacks on peace encampments by pro-Israeli activists, Biden has sat on his hands as elementary democratic rights were trampled on. He said "order must prevail" as the police undertook mass arrests of students protesting against US complicity in the massacre of Palestinians. Political violence is always fine when it's dished out to dissidents outside permitted political discourse, and innocent people being bombed to bits by a valued and pampered proxy don't count either.

Here at home we've had our fair share of hypocritical hand wringing. On Laura Kuenssberg, Nigel Farage was invited on for his thoughts about the attempt on his "friend". And entirely predictably he wound up the rhetoric a notch blaming "liberal intolerance". He likened the events in Pennsylvania to the "persecution" he's faced. Persecution that involves endless press and broadcast media coverage, and lashings of sympathy whenever he has to have his suit dry cleaned following another milkshake incident. Never mind his own dog whistle rhetoric and scaremongering over mass immigration. But not to be outdone, new Leader of the Commons Lucy Powell linked Trump to the problems Labour MPs faced during the election campaign. Being fired at by a shooter with a grudge is, as per failed MP Jonathan Ashworth, exactly like walking down the street and being asked by elderly Muslim men to explain your stance on Gaza.

It's not difficult to understand why, even in Britain, MPs are touchy about their safety. We remember that Jo Cox and David Amess were murdered inside the last decade. But always, the condemnation of political violence is highly selective. Compare and contrast what's happening now with just under a year ago, when the then Home Secretary was egging on police and far right violence against entirely lawful Palestinian Solidarity demonstrations. Likewise, Labour MPs might have been called rude names while out and about, but there was deafening silence from the people making noises now when activists were attacked during the 2019 campaign. There was no collective outburst of concern when the son of the Workers' Party candidate in Sutton Coldfield was hospitalised while leafleting.

Assassinations are wrong and stupid. Violent attacks on politicians are wrong and stupid. The labour movement across the world have long understood this as it provides a pretext for authoritarian legislation and begets more political violence. Albeit in a police uniform with an official imprimatur. Seeing as this country has just elected a government with the thinnest popular endorsement since the advent of mass suffrage, politicians feel the anxiety of their shallow roots. The creep of imposter syndrome has its hand on their shoulder as they claim to speak for their constituents, and it's this sense of doubt that will make it easier for them to use the attempt on Trump's life for more repressive laws and clamp downs on free speech.