It\u2019s a strange thing to say regarding someone who just dodged a bullet, but Donald Trump is on a roll, politically, legally, and personally. His surging popularity proves Troy\u2019s Law Against Political Violence. Forget about civility, morality, and democratic niceties! Political assassinations usually backfire \u2013 which is why assassins are usually mentally deranged, not politically inflamed.<\/p>\n
One hundred and eleven days before America\u2019s Election Day, anything can happen. But Trump\u2019s third acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention this Thursday seems likely to attract many more viewers than it would have \u2013 and may debut a different Trump. Trump planned \u201ca humdinger,\u201d but it\u2019s \u201cgoing to be a whole different speech now,\u201d he told a reporter. Convinced that \u201cGod Alone\u201d saved him, Trump now sees \u201ca chance to bring the country together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Win or lose, Trump can appreciate these three weeks as one of the luckiest stretches in presidential campaigning history. Since June\u2019s presidential debate divided Democrats over President Joe Biden\u2019s mental acuity, every day\u2019s been a jolly holiday for Donald. Even Saturday\u2019s crimes \u2013 which killed a lovely 50-year-old father of two, injured two bystanders, and unnerved America \u2013 boosted Trump. While stirring his fans, his fist-pumping defiance impressed millions yearning for the machismo energy Democrats disdain and cannot deliver with the current incumbent.<\/p>\n
This gift wrapped in blood won\u2019t surprise historians \u2013 most political assassins shoot themselves in the foot, whether they hit or miss.<\/p>\n
The last sitting president who was shot at, Ronald Reagan, was flailing politically, two months into his presidency in March 1981. Then, suddenly, a loner trying to impress the actress Jodie Foster shot the president. Reagan\u2019s survival and humor \u2013 kidding his wife \u201cHoney, I forgot to duck\u201d \u2013 charmed Americans. Reagan became Reagan precisely when that bullet entered his chest, dangerously close to his heart. As he recovered, he became far more popular than he had been during the campaign. That May, he passed budget cuts that had looked doomed in late March.<\/p>\n
The last presidential candidate who was shot at, George Wallace, also saw his image transformed. Wallace ran in 1968 as a proud \u201csegregationist,\u201d which most Americans heard as \u201cracist.\u201d After his shooting in 1972 \u2013 which left the 52-year-old wheelchair-bound and in pain for the next 27 years of his life \u2013 he emerged as a \u201cpopulist.\u201d Partially, he changed his tone. But reporters also changed their perceptions.<\/p>\n
FAR MORE tragic were 1968\u2019s double assassinations, with Martin Luther King, Jr. murdered in April and Robert F. Kennedy killed in June. Both losses, personally and nationally, were profound, and both leaders became American saints, eternal icons whose liberal ideas went mainstream partially due to their martyrdom. King\u2019s resurrection was particularly dramatic. He had begun 1968 feeling pressed. Many Democrats disliked his opposition to the Vietnam War and his new, radical, war on poverty. Within the civil rights movement, Malcolm X\u2019s contempt \u2013 himself killed by political rivals who made him a legend in 1965 \u2013 still stung. More and more of King\u2019s disciples echoed Malcolm\u2019s sneer: \u201cWho ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing \u2018We Shall Overcome\u2019 \u2026 while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against?\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, many Israel-literate readers may be wondering \u201cBut what about Yitzhak Rabin\u2019s assassination \u2013 didn\u2019t that derail Oslo as the murderer intended?\u201d Please, all those Israeli partisans with anger management issues take note, it\u2019s not true \u2013 that\u2019s just the myth Palestinians and Leftists perpetuate.<\/p>\n
Bash-Israel-firsters, convinced Israel can do no right and Palestinians can do no wrong, love claiming that Rabin\u2019s murder \u201ckilled the peace process.\u201d They deem that dastardly deed \u201cthe most successful political assassination in modern times.\u201d While simple and colorful, the story contradicts inconvenient facts.<\/p>\n
By November, 1995, Oslo was unraveling, especially because of Hamas\u2019s bloody wave of suicide bombs \u2013 and the lies of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) leader Yasser Arafat. In 1995 alone, bombs killed 21 innocents at Beit Lid, eight near Kfar Darom \u2013 including Alyssa Flatow, a 20-year-old American student \u2013 six in Ramat Gan, and four in Jerusalem, including another American, Joan Davenny, 47.<\/p>\n
The Oslo-deluded cheerleaders didn\u2019t notice, but Rabin did. His daughter Dalia Rabin-Pelisoff later learned from Rabin\u2019s confidants that he \u201cconsidered stopping the Oslo process because of the terror that was running rampant in the streets.\u201d And Moshe \u201cBogie\u201d Ya\u2019alon reports that Rabin was going to \u201cset things straight\u201d with Oslo, having realized that Arafat \u201ccould no longer be trusted.\u201d Rabin attended the rally, where he was shot because he was trying to rally support for Oslo \u2013 while figuring out how to modify it.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless, Rabin\u2019s funeral consecrated Oslo as his legacy, with then-US president Bill Clinton deeming him \u201ca martyr for peace.\u201d The assassination then probably did more to imprison Israel within the Oslo Peace Process \u2013 even after more Hamas bombings helped Benjamin Netanyahu defeat the greatest Oslo evangelist, Shimon Peres.<\/p>\n
As Natan Sharansky and I write in Never Alone: \u201cAll of Rabin\u2019s growing doubts were buried with him. Shimon Peres\u2019s childlike, gullible version of peace became the only virtuous game in town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Politicians love shaping complex facts and events into often simplistic narratives. Usually, the more dramatic the event \u2013 the cruder their spin. Donald Trump was lucky \u2013 the assassin missed. The race to recast the story about this assassination attempt, however, has just begun.<\/p>\n
Rather than learning from this horrific crime to whine \u201cwoe-is-me\u201d about how their political rivals are out to get them, Israel\u2019s politicians \u2013 and others \u2013 should learn some civility and restraint because political violence rarely pays \u2013 practically or morally.<\/p>\n