So it did not exist prior to our discovering it?
I agree with you as someone whose advanced degree did not exist on its own legs until the late eighties.
Used to be called Industrial Psychology
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Yup. When the details of the guy starting coming out, I thought “school shooter, but at a political rally.”
If they discover more details behind his potential motivation, it won’t shock me if they include an unhealthy obsession with guns and a desire to become famous.
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Yes, this should be verified before people draw conclusions from it. If Crooks was 20, and the donation was made in January 2021, 3-1/2 years ago, one has to question why a 17-year old who was seemingly apolitical and not even eligible to vote would have made a donation to any political organization.
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homage to atldrew on the mains…
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Not in the slightest. And normally I’m pretty concerned when data seems to confirm my prior assumptions. Here however, I think there may be some priming of the pump here that most wouldn’t view as “bullying.”
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I mean, whatshisname shot Reagan in order to get Jodie Foster’s attention. So these people aren’t always political.
also, “former president”
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Nothing in recent American political life resembles Trump’s call for “Second-Amendment people” to kill Hillary Clinton, his mockery of Paul Pelosi after an attempted murder, his belittling of Gretchen Whitmer after a kidnapping attempt, the stochastic violence he directs against critics to intimidate them and against his fellow Republicans to keep them in line, the brutal language of his rallies since 2016, his vocal admiration for leaders known to be mass killers, and his violent attempt to overthrow constitutional rule in January 2021.
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Thanks. I wonder if understanding this could have helped Thomas Crooks.
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A few thoughts, in no order:
The party registration suggestion is off base. Suggesting that he was right wing because he registered Republican, at a time when the Republican primary was competitive and the Democratic was not, and this would have been his first presidential election, right?
His identity as young, male, white, and disaffected makes sense, and is no indication of political beliefs.
The investigation is ongoing, but I find it remarkable that a kid was able to find a security hole like this. It will be interesting to find out how he managed to outwit secret service, for long enough to get shot. Did somebody screw up, or did this kid come up with a remarkable plan, or was he not acting alone? All of these are questions that need to be answered, and will be.
This is a disaster. It is a disaster for America. It is a disaster for the Democratic party, and all who oppose Donald Trump. It is a disaster for democracy, because political violence is exactly what we are trying to avoid. Our democracy depends on Donald Trump losing in a free and fair election. Political violence cast all of that in doubt.
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TikTok filter!
That’s the problem with our conception of discovery. It existed independent of our discovery we just may not have had a clear understanding of how it works. Now it’s a little bit less like magic.
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Did the father buy his son the AR-15, or did he win it in one of those raffles held by one of the Trumpers in Congress?
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I think it’s just that it’s a relief. If he were registered as a Democrat, all hell would be breaking loose. (I mean, even more than usual.) So as shitty as this whole episode is, for all the reasons you’ve suggested, at least we’ve been spared that one detail.
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Did I, at any point, say that?
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And this 20 year old kid’s particular mad genius was realizing just how easy it would be to penetrate the “amateur hour” security of Stinky™’s campaign.
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Today. We have been spared that detail, today.
Many of us believe that Trump is an existential threat to America. I think it’s very likely that this young man did. What this kid didn’t get, tragically, was that we cannot defeat Trump in any way other than at the ballot box. Defeating him any other way has the exact same result as if he won. Suspending democracy is what we are trying to avoid.
How do we go forward rhetorically? Obviously my previous paragraph suggest a path, but is it a sensible one? Will we be able to present Trump as the existential threat he is without implicitly condoning violence? Will this be a winning strategy?
Right now, the odds don’t look good for America.
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Let’s keep in mind that this is the same USSS protecting Biden at campaign stops.
This needs to be fixed, now.
Given the reporting on the kid, my money is on ‘the kid just wanted to kill someone famous, so he could make sure people knew his name and remembered him, because nobody in his actual life ever bothered to.’
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This “kid” came very close to success in his quest for fame (and fortune. See: Kyle Rittenhouse.) The bullet was probably deflected by the 60 layers of Mr. Trump’s hair spray.
ETA: Corrected name per @notsnot. Thanks;
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My guess is that this thing is going to turn out to be a mentally ill, mixed up kid desperately seeking his parents approval.
It just strikes me that he may have miss-read conversations heard within the privacy of their home and stole his dad’s gun and acted out what he thought was their fantasy. As a desperate mixed up kid he may have seen the inevitable outcome (suicide by cop) as a way to go out without disappointing his parents even further.
Of course, this is not the way that Trump et al will spin it.
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Somehow I’m thinking Carter, Bill, GW, Barry … and Stinky don’t get the top shelf compared to P.O.T.U.S.
(But I agree that some major reform is needed)
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