Only Time Will Tell If Democracy Can Survive
I was in the second grade when the school’s principal came over the PA system and announced that President Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. I have a vivid memory of Mrs. Cusak slamming her glasses on the desk as she ran out of the room crying.
I remember my father sitting me down in front of the TV and telling me to watch Walter Cronkite. He told me to pay attention because I was watching history in the making. I did watch even though I wasn’t sure I understood what he meant by the word history.
I was a few years older when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were killed. In my life I have seen assassination attempts on Presidents Ford and Reagan, and now on former President Donald Trump.
So unfortunately, people my age have experienced what happened that Saturday night in Pennsylvania many times before.
But this one was different. The other incidents didn’t include a high powered AR style semi-automatic rifle. There was no internet for anyone to immediately post their views on the subject before all the facts were known using 280 characters or a meme.
And while we could see the assassination of JFK days after the fact with the grainy Zapruder film, we saw this attempt on the former president’s life immediately in high definition.
Minutes after it happened, I got a text from a friend who was watching the rally in Butler Pennsylvania and saw it happen in real time. I immediately turned on the TV. Soon I was getting texts from friends and family asking questions and sharing information they had seen or heard.
And it didn’t take long for the misinformation to start populating the internet. Within an hour I saw where someone had shared the name of the shooter. It showed some guy wearing a Kevlar vest and they said he had ties to Antifa. I don’t know who that guy was but he wasn’t Thomas Crooks, the registered Republican, who laid dead on the rooftop.
Then I saw where folks on the internet were accusing Biden of using inflammatory language that motivated the shooter because of a comment the president made saying to keep Trump in the bullseye. It was a figure of speech that was taken out of context, but to the Trump supporters who wanted to pin the attack on Biden, it was a word to be taken literally.
Then it didn’t take long for the memes to come out. Some of them doctored pictures of the event. Some of them rallying the voters on either side. Some of them failed attempts at humor. Many of them promoting outright falsehoods.
What I didn’t see a lot of were NRA members defending the right to own AR style assault rifles. I did see a number of anti-gun slogans asking for the same concern to classroom shootings that you give a wounded Presidential candidate.
And while both President Biden and former President Trump called for Americans to tone down the inflammatory rhetoric, I’m not sure the folks who spend their lives online got the message.
Political violence in America is nothing new. In fact, the NRA has said that one of the reasons you need weapons like the one used in the assassination attempt is to fight a tyrannical government. Did the shooter think Trump was a tyrant? Did the shooter think he was being patriotic? Or was the shooter just a loner loser trying to get noticed? As of this writing, no motive has been presented. But it doesn’t matter what the real motive was we’d be wise to be on the lookout for what will most likely be an over abundance of online conspiracy theories.
I am glad that President Trump survived. I’m glad that for the time being he is talking about unifying the country. I hope that message lasts, but I’ll be honest I’m not sure it will.
For over 248 years our nation has survived assassinations, impeachments, and a civil war. But that was then. Only time will tell if democracy can survive in the age of the internet.
Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.
Opinions expressed by columnists in The Daily Record are not necessarily those of its management or staff, and do not constitute an endorsement or recommendation. Any errors or omissions should be called to our attention so that they may be corrected. Contact us at news@omahadailyrecord.com.
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