Attempted assassination of Trump: The American election campaign is turning into madness

Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger Attempted assassination of Trump: The American election campaign is turning into madness Article by Karl Doemens • 1 hour • 2 minutes reading time In theory, an election campaign is a celebration of democracy, in which candidates use different concepts to campaign for votes. In the American reality, however, an election campaign is now just one thing - madness. For weeks, the political debate has lost all civilized proportions with slander and threats. Now the verbal attacks are turning into violence. The completely overheated exchange of blows is literally becoming life-threatening. The fact that Donald Trump has now been the target of an assassination attempt for the second time must alarm every democratically minded person. The man is a dangerous right-wing populist. But he is the presidential candidate of one of the two major parties. His announcement of a dictatorship "for one day" sounds threatening. But it must be prevented with the ballot paper, not a bullet. Second assassination attempt on Trump must raise alarm Violence must never be a means of politics. This applies regardless of the fact that, paradoxically, every attack strengthens the Republican's role as a martyr. But the truth is also that Trump himself has largely created the poisoned atmosphere of hatred that fuels such acts. He has repeatedly mocked the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who almost fell victim to an assassination attempt. "I hate Taylor Swift!" he attacks the pop icon. As with the attempted coup in 2021, Trump is repeatedly inciting his supporters in a perfidious way - most recently against legal immigrants from Haiti. For days, he used wild lies to incite a real pogrom atmosphere. In Springfield, schools and a university have to remain closed as a result. People no longer dare to go out on the streets. This must not be forgotten when the ex-president now croons about "unity": Trump is not a respectable man, he is an arsonist.