The Shooting At The Washington Hilton: What Is Not Being Addressed
By
Leonard Zwelling
In what has been deemed the third assassination attempt on President Trump, a well-educated tutor of physics with a Cal Tech degree stormed through security a floor above the ballroom at the Washington Hilton, site of the annual Correspondents’ Dinner. Fortunately, he was stopped by the Secret Service. In the wake of this successful defense of the president, there are still questions being raised.
How did the assailant, who was a registered guest in the hotel, get past the first line of security?
How did he get weapons like he had into the hotel to start with?
Is this incident justification for the new White House ballroom which could, presumably, be more readily secured and defended?
Why is the level of political violence as well as threats on the lives of members of Congress feel like it is at an all-time high and is it?
First, just because the President of the United States will be at a dinner for 2600 does not mean the entire hotel complex can close for two days before. The hotel needs the revenue from those two days to continue to operate, despite what the Secret Service might prefer. Nonetheless, the alleged would-be assassin got closer to the President than he should have.
Second, whether or not security at the door of hotels or, for that matter, on trains such as the one the would-be assassin took from California, should be increased is one that Homeland Security might address now that the department is funded.
Third, it is presumed that dinners at the new White House ballroom will be official state events. The White House Correspondents’ Dinner is a private party. Unless Mr. Trump becomes the first president to offer the White House for such a dinner, this party is unlikely to be at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Furthermore, there were about 2600 at the dinner Saturday and the new ballroom will hold only 1000. This incident has nothing to do with the ridiculous desecration of the White House by a man with no taste, no sense of country, and no respect for tradition. Bringing up the issue of the Trump White House ballroom is not relevant to the discussion about what went wrong and what went right at the dinner and whether or not so many of those in line to the presidency as well as members of the Cabinet ought to be gathered in one room at the same time.
Finally, we come to the only real question of importance. After all, the attacker never even made it to Trump’s floor in the hotel. The security team did its job well. Why is violence and its threat in the political arena feel like it’s on an upswing and I am not going to talk about guns? And is it really one the upswing? (see NY Times, April 29, p. A14 by Sabrina Tavernise who interviews Sean Westwood, an expert on acts of violence, who notes that three US Presidents were assassinated between 1865-1901. Today’s violence is not that bad comparatively.)
Mr. Trump and what he stands for are despised by many people. This mindset has been dismissed by many as Trump Derangement Syndrome. Yet, Mr. Trump’s approval rating is dropping. The economic challenges for most Americans, especially for the many in Red States who voted for Trump, are growing. We are in a war of our choosing which has greatly worsened the economic well-being of most people in the world. Federal storm troopers (ICE) are patrolling American cities and have killed American citizens. Our standing as a country in the world is plummeting. Our friends are deserting us (you don’t see any European ships joining our blockade near the Strait of Hormuz). There is little doubt that we are worse off as a people with Trump in the White House.
Given that guns are widely available (sorry, I couldn’t resist) and the people who are four standard deviations off the sanity curve have access to both weapons and computers to make threats, this overheated climate is likely to go on until a leader can convince the country that there is a better way.
I don’t know who that leader might be, but with an inept Congress and a blustering president, it was ineluctable that someone would take a shot at someone. Until the atmosphere cools and the president’s bellicose rhetoric is dialed down, the events of Saturday night in D.C. should be considered yet another canary in a very large coal mine. It is not because Donald Trump is a consequential president in a good way that this is occurring. It is because he relishes being a polarizing figure, insulting many, and generally making very bad decisions for the very people who voted for him. In essence, he is a consequential president in a bad way.
America is at war in Iran, but America is also at war with itself. Maybe this had to occur again as it has in the past (e.g., the Civil War) when people in the country are so at odds with each other. We need a Lincolnesque figure to get us out of this. That person is not Donald Trump.
In the 250th year of our nation, the permanence of the United States as a force for good is being questioned. We all need to meditate on that.
