Hillary's Assassination Talk

Hillary's assassination comment is regrettable, and it is rather sad that she is getting pilloried for it. Frankly, she deserves it. Many americans probably believe that we do not have a history of political violence of any note. I think that is mistaken on two fronts. First, we do have a long history of assassinations and assassination attempts against presidents in the United States. Secondly, we have a long long history of other political violence.

In the first instance, every president since Nixon have had at least one assassination attempt, according to the ever reliable wikipedia. Now, some of those are less credible than others, but that doesn't make them less important. For example, the plot to blow up George H.W. Bush in Kuwait or the guy shooting at the White House hoping to kill Clinton are not the same as Squeaky Fromme trying to shoot Ford, or Hinckley trying to impress Jody Foster. The fact still remains that while Eisenhower and Johnson were both not shot at, every president since Roosevelt has had some form of attempt on their life. That seems like a pretty decent history of political violence regarding assassination of presidents.

The second history of political violence is much less talked about. Within this group would be America's history with lynchings at the end of the 19th century through the early 20th century. This history is not was much discussed within the polity of the United States and has much greater bearing on why Hillary's comments are so offensive. In light of this history of white people attacking black people simply wanting to be americans, the statement should not be made.

I know that Clinton's point was not to suggest what came across, but she should have been more mindful of the context of this election, and the history of the United States, before she made the statement.