Once again, our nation has been shaken by an attempted assassination of President Donald J. Trump – the third attempt in as many years. This is not normal. This is not politics as usual. This is a blinking red warning light that our culture has crossed a dangerous line.
In September, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, I wrote, “Instead of recriminations, we encourage people to learn more about Republicans and conservatism, about what we stand for, about what motivates us … We are your neighbors, your family members, your friends, your coworkers. We are not your enemy, and neither was Charlie Kirk.”
We still need that reset. We must end the calls to violence that has seeped into our politics like poison. Cole Allen’s manifesto was largely based on rhetoric we see every single day from community and political leaders. When you treat political opponents as enemies to be “eliminated” instead of neighbors to be persuaded, you help create the climate in which unbalanced individuals decide to pick up a weapon. Words may not pull a trigger, but they help aim the gun.
This is not about whether you like or dislike Donald Trump. It is not about whether you are Republican, Democrat, or independent. This is about whether we will defend the foundational principle that political disputes must be settled with ballots, not bullets.
Leaders – stop using language that implies harm against political opponents, including coded references like “8647.” This dehumanizing rhetoric is appalling and corrosive to our society.
I write this not as a pundit but as a wife, a mother, a neighbor, and as president of the Wood County Republican Women’s Club. We sit in the stands at ballgames, we volunteer at schools and churches, we shop in the same stores and stand in the same checkout lines. We are not enemies. We are Americans, and we must start talking to each other that way again.
The reset must begin now.
Sally Culling
President, Wood County Republican Women’s Club (Ohio)
Perrysburg
