Unbalanced is the new black

Here’s a question for you: Why hasn’t there been more shock about the second (apparent) attempt on the life of Donald Trump in as many months?  I mean, the biggest headline in my newsfeed this morning was Ohio Sen. JD Vance’s claim that he and his running mate “created” the “cat memes” about Springfield, Ohio, seemingly bragging about telling enough lies about Haitians stealing and eating neighbors’ cats and dogs to bring the national spotlight to the small town.  Further down in the list was a story about the clearly unbalanced creep who was arrested in Florida for allegedly attempting to kill Trump.   The guy, a 58-year old fantasist who tried to volunteer to fight for Ukraine against Russia, and was turned down, was charged Monday with two violations of federal weapons laws – possession of a weapon as a felon, and possession of a weapon with its serial number filed off...but not, as yet anyway, for attempting to assassinate the former president.

Get that?  They had a suspect who was arrested after a Secret Service agent saw the barrel of his gun sticking out of the bushes several hundred yards away from Trump, who was golfing, and they had to dust off two federal laws to get something to charge him with.

What’s his name?  Does it even matter?  Do you remember the name of the Butler, Pennsylvania guy who actually got off a shot at Trump that grazed his ear (or did something to make it bleed anyway)?

Which sums up where we stand as a nation rather nicely.  When you can’t even remember the names of people who tried to assassinate a former President of the United States, something is unbalanced other than the two weirdos with the guns. 

Their names, just for the record, are Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, the one who actually drew blood from Trump and killed one person attending his rally, and Ryan W. Routh, 58, who “did not have Mr. Trump in his sightline and did not fire his semiautomatic rifle,” according to a statement by the acting director of the Secret Service.

Nobody has been able to make any sense of either of these two-bit wonders.  Crooks was a registered Republican who reportedly posted anti-Semitic and anti-immigrant rants on social media.  Routh is said to have voted for Trump in 2016 but voted in the Democratic primary election this year.  Routh flew to Ukraine in 2022 and attempted to volunteer.  When he was turned down, he began an imaginary campaign to supply Ukraine with former Afghan fighters.  A spokesman to Ukraine’s Foreigners Coordination Department of the Land Forces Command told CNN that Routh’s “messages and ideas” were “delusional.”  Suffice to say that neither the FBI nor anyone else has been able to nail down a motive for either Crooks or Routh.

So, naturally, Trump and his minions have settled on blaming it on the Democrats saying that their “nasty campaign language” about Trump being a threat to democracy…because, you know, both of the apparent assassins paid so much attention to the nature of the political language in this election.  Not.

We clearly have a problem in this country when it comes to presidential elections, and the problem has a name, and the name is Donald Trump. 

This is an excerpt from my weekly column in Salon. To read the full column, follow this link:

Unbalanced