Echoes of '63: The Trauma of Assassination Revisited
The shooting in Pennsylvania triggers collective memory of JFK's death.
The thrill of a presidential appearance, the sunny day, the admiring crowd, the friendly faces, the sound of gunfire, the flinching leader, the spectators diving for cover, the Secret Service agents swarming.
The template for the American assassination attempts was imprinted in the American imagination by Abraham Zapruder’s home movie of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963, which was first broadcast in 1975, 12 years after the crime.
The footage of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump on July 13, 2024 was broadcast within minutes of the shooting. Luckily, the bullet missed the candidate by inches and we were spared what Zapruder’s film captured: murder. A bystander was killed and the bloodied Trump was hustled to safety while shouting “Fight, fight, fight” to his followers.
But the cultural reflexes engrained by the trauma of November 22 and the ensuing governmental coverup have been unleashed by the near-miss of July 13: deep suspicion of the authorities, distrust of democratic institutions, fear of a high-level plotters, and the sense of things falling apart, all turbocharged by a social media information system unknown in the 1960s and 1970s.
Liberal commentators who likened Trump’s candidacy to Adolf Hitler’s rise to power expressed gratitude for his safety, while conservative commentators who praised January 6 insurrectionists as “hostages” and ignored Trump’s call for the death of Gen. Mark Milley blasted liberals for condoning hateful rhetoric. And the gunman, shot dead at the scene, apparently fired an AR-15 which Trump once said should be banned but more recently said should not.
Fear of fascism feeds the fear of liberalism, which discredits both. Rage, incoherence, and fear vie with sorrow, pity, and sympathy in a country that has a soul-deadening tolerance for gun violence found only by nations engaged in civil war.
What Americans learned over the years after November 22, 1963 was that the government could not be trusted and the CIA could not be held accountable. The lesson stuck. One proliferating meme today shows Trump transposed to JFK’s limousine on November 22 with the caption, “Not Today Deep State.”
Which is not to say the gunman acted at anyone’s behest. We don’t know much about Thomas Crooks save that he is dead. What is obvious is that the trust necessary for democratic politics is hard to find, at least on social media, the weathervane of our politics.
Can trust be restored?
“We need to take a step back,” said independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. who has blamed the CIA for his uncle’s murder. "I went through this with my own family ... I know the implications that this has for our country probably as well as anybody does.”
“When my uncle was killed in 1963, there was this kind of division again. There was this kind of hatred when my father was killed. It was in the midst of a time that was probably the most divisive in American history at that time since the American Civil War, and we're back into that kind of milieu today. We all need to take responsibility for it. When we post something that is mean-spirited, that is condemnatory, that is poisonous towards somebody else, we're contributing to this atmosphere of violence.”
“We’re all Americans,” Kennedy says. “We’re better than this.”
That’s an optimistic thought. Another thought is, “This is exactly who we are. This is what we have been becoming since 1963.”
Fear of fascism feeds the fear of liberalism, which discredits both.
Both? Jeff tried so hard here, bless his heart.
Look we have all lived through a Trump Presidency…whither the record of fascism? And yet he is routinely called “an EXISTENTIAL threat to democracy” True, he does not believe that the last election results were legitimate—but Hillary said the same thing without becoming demonized. At the same time, his supporters are in prison without due process. For years now.
And let’s consider other aspects of Biden’s presidency:
— He has “Insiders” stage managing his senility with the help of a compliant partisan press ( till recently) & who defiantly refuses a cognitive test
— He doesn’t hold press conferences and his last Cabinet meeting was 9 months ago
— He —in an unprecedented decision — refuses to provide a presidential opponent, RFK Jr, SS protection
— He’s the nominee of a party who appointed him rather than letting their party voters have an open primary
— His administration conducted tortured lawfare against a political opponent, who may have committed a misdemeanor accounting error, but is now a felon after sham trials (regarded as such even by liberal lawyers) bringing our judicial system into disrepute
— worst of all: his administration actively engaged in the suppression of dissenting free speech on social media platforms, not the least with a section 230 threat [see Twitter Files] and imposed a medical mandate
You had a SpyTalk link, which I choose not to subscribe to.. The article endorsed a book about the US Secret Service:
"In her magnificent, 500-page deep dive 2021 book, Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service, three-time Pulitzer winning Washington Post investigative reporter Carol Leonnig..."
Based on that endorsement I purchased the Kindle version and find that the book:
Unquestioningly reports Secret Service Agent Kellerman's false claim that JFK shouted "My god, I am hit."
Writes that RFK spoke to Parkland, a conversation I have not read about anywhere else. Please educate me. "In the hospital passageway, Kellerman handed the receiver back to Hill and returned to the trauma room. Then a White House operator cut into the open line.
'The attorney general would like to speak with you,' she told Hill.
Hill heard Robert F. Kennedy’s unsteady voice asking the only thing to ask: 'How bad is it?'
'It’s about as bad as it can get,' Hill replied. He didn’t say that he felt sure Robert’s brother was dead."
She describes the confrontation over Secret Service taking JFK's body from Parkland as "a small victory in a day of horrific loss."
Instead, I see the illegal taking of JFK's body from civilian controlled Parkland Hospital to military controlled Bethesda as the first step in the coverup. I am wrong?
I haven't finished the book. I've just started.