President Trump – and the country – dodged a bullet.  Where do we go from here?

I didn’t sleep well at all Saturday night.  I’m guessing many of you didn’t either.  There’s often a delayed reaction to breaking news events – the real ones, the ones we will remember where we were for years when we first heard the news.  Sometimes that manifests in an uneasiness that interferes with rest.

We came dangerously close to a national emergency.  The assassination attempt in Butler Pennsylvania is still a legitimate tragedy.  Corey Comperatore died a hero, shielding his family upon hearing the sounds of gunfire.  Two others remain hospitalized with injuries.

Former President Trump was grazed by a bullet.  He – and we – were inches away from a national emergency.

His supporters have been written off by too many in the press and our country’s other institutions as rubes, “deplorables”, or people that just don’t understand what the enlightened and educated know.  Those “smart” people have continued to ignore that they’ve written off the hopes and fears of half of our country.

The half that have been ignored have grown continuously uneasy with almost all of our country’s institutions of influence.  Government. Media. Academia. Federal Law Enforcement.  They feel the system is failing them at best, and targeting them at worst.  

It’s not uncommon to see social media posts noting that by targeting the former President (or using Joe Biden’s own words from just a week ago, putting “Trump in a bullseye”), they’re really coming after his supporters.  There is already a solid case to be made in double standards for each of President Trump’s current legal issues, and significant questions remain about the conduct of President Biden’s Department of Justice.

Within that backdrop, we now have what appears to be an epic failure on behalf of the Secret Service.  A rooftop within the line of sight of the stage – though outside the official security perimeter – was left unsecured.  There was apparent confusion between local law enforcement who generally protect the areas outside of the secured areas.  We don’t yet know, and may never be told, where the mistakes were made nor by whom.  

What we do know is that had this situation resulted in an actual assassination, the half of the country that already has grave institutional distrust would not accept an excuse of general bureaucratic incompetence. These kinds of mistakes can’t be allowed to happen.

So here we are.  The former President literally dodged a bullet.  So did our country.  Where do we go from here?

As citizens, we have to reconnect with each other.  On Sunday morning I re-read Luke 10, which contains the parable of the Good Samaritan.  We need to remember who our neighbors are.  We need to be neighborly, including to whomever may be the Samaritans in our own parable.

Those in government and the campaign apparatuses do need to tone down the rhetoric.  We need more talk and debate about policy and less about personality.  That would require a complete inversion of how current campaigns are run and messaged.  I’m not optimistic this will happen, but perhaps we can at least take some of the edges off.

The biggest change that is needed at the moment, however, is that our media outlets need some deep introspection.  Newsrooms and editorial boards have long since purged conservative voices.  It’s become harder and harder to even find a sensible center in many of our country’s leading media organizations.  They’ve created an ideological bubble that is out of touch with half of the country, and there is no one on the inside to point this out to them on a daily basis.

This case was made clear by the Washington Post’s Megan McArdle in an Op-Ed just days before the assassination attempt, who noted the root problem.  With Democrats mostly filling up news rooms, they tend to trust Democratic administrations and save their skepticism for Republicans.  For media to work, skepticism must be a bipartisan exercise.

If you look at recent management changes at CNN and the Washington Post – and the ideological revolt among employees who somehow truly believe they represent the center and the truth – we know this isn’t going to happen overnight if ever.  What we can do, however, is hold the mirror up to their coverage, past and present. 

These are the people that set the tone and the rhetoric every day.  It does nothing to call for change if those who set the narrative aren’t willing to be part of the solution to the problem that is very real, and very much in their own offices.