A BIPARTISAN SAMPLING of the worldās greatest perpetrators and enablers of political violence has rushed to condemn political violence following the shooting attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday.
āThe idea that thereās political violence ā¦ in America like this, is just unheard of, itās just not appropriate,ā said President Joe Biden, the backer of Israelās genocidal war against Palestine, with a death toll that researchers believe could reach 186,000 Palestinians. Bidenās narrower point was correct, though: Deadly attacks on the American ruling class are vanishingly rare these days. Political violence that is not ālike thisā ā the political violence of organized abandonment, poverty, militarized borders, police brutality, incarceration, and deportation ā is commonplace.
And condemn it, most everyone in the Democratic political establishment has: āPolitical violence is absolutely unacceptable,ā wrote Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., on X. āThere is absolutely no place for political violence in our democracy,ā tweeted former President Barack Obama, who oversaw war efforts and military strikes against Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and Pakistan with massive civilian death tolls; Obama added that we should āuse this moment to recommit ourselves to civility and respect in our politics.ā āThere is no place for political violence, including the horrific incident we just witnessed in Pennsylvania,ā wrote Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
The chorus of condemnation was predictable and not in itself a problem: Thereās nothing wrong with desiring a world without stochastic assassination attempts, even against political opponents. But when you have Israelās minister of foreign affairs, Israel Katz of the fascistic ruling Likud Party, tweeting, āViolence can never ever be part of politics,ā the very concept of āpolitical violenceā is evacuated of meaning.
Their main example is Gaza and that violence is political. Hamas is a political party with support from Palestinians that Israel is trying to wipe out using violence. In fact most violence is political in that you are trying to get certain changes to the governing apparatus through action.
Thereās a mao quote that goes something along the lines of politics is war without violence and war is politics with violence. Theyāre two sides of the same coin.