If there are any lingering doubts that one person really can change the world, we saw the proof for ourselves on April 25, when a lone man, armed to the teeth, with the obvious intent of doing great harm, upended the White House Correspondents’ Association annual awards dinner in Washington, DC.
One person, just one, unraveled months of planning and logistics required for such an event, not to mention traumatizing thousands of people and placing them at real risk of being hurt or even killed.
What made Cole Tomas Allen think he could successfully run a gauntlet of law enforcement that night is a mystery that defies common sense.
But Allen’s act didn’t just target politicians; it was an attack on democracy itself, one which must be answered by millions of Americans who still believe in the power of one person’s ability to change things through the ballot box.
If a single person can change the trajectory of history, imagine what can be done by millions of us who still believe in a democratic republic.
Because the suspect reportedly wrote a manifesto targeting members of the current administration, some people, including many who know better, are pointing at the media, accusing it of fomenting political violence against Republicans and conservatives.
But if you snickered at Paul Pelosi’s near-fatal beating, or shrugged at the murders of a Minnesota state legislator and her husband, or argued that Jan. 6 was a nothingburger, you may want to put that finger back in your pocket and sit this one out.
We can — and should — speak truth to power while deploring political violence regardless of who commits it.
It isn’t a binary choice.
It’s also not sustainable. Anyone, for instance, who made light of Charlie Kirk’s murder — an act of political violence — is just as culpable for our current divide as a QAnon conspiracy theorist.
At the end of the day, the only people responsible for political violence are its perpetrators — not the people who report on it. Allen embarked on a 3,000-mile trip to Washington, during which he could have changed his mind at any time.
But the incident also exposed how the White House press corps is too often more focused on preserving its access to presidents rather than challenging them; even those whose animus toward the press is obvious.
The current president says he supports a free press, even as he sues news outlets and demands that talk show hosts be fired over jokes. He insults and berates reporters for daring to ask questions he doesn’t like. Not once have members of the White House press corps ever had the stones to walk out en masse or stand up on behalf of a journalist (almost always a woman) being excoriated.
Unfortunately, our brief history is pockmarked with incidents of people believing or being convinced that violence is the solution to a political problem, but it never has achieved its intent.
A man who earned a degree in engineering from the California Institute of Technology, and a master’s in computer science, apparently ignored this history and somehow convinced himself that his actions would result in the change he sought.
A misguided and disturbed young man made the foolish and short-sighted choice to use his freedom to attack the very system which preserved it.
But Americans collectively decided a long time ago we will not succumb or trade away our right to self-determination as a means of avoiding such risk.
That said, threats to our civil liberty aren’t just coming from broken people and extremists, but also from those who increasingly view democracy and the rule of law as impediments to their accumulation of more wealth and power.
The rest of us must choose to use our freedoms to demonstrate to them and to the rest of the world that we remain resolute, undaunted and unafraid to uphold and protect that on which it stands.
The extremists, the cynics, and the endlessly avaricious cannot be allowed to have the last and loudest word about who we are.
In Stark County, the primary election is May 5. To learn more, visit https://starkcountyohio.gov/government/offices/board_of_elections/.
Charita M. Goshay is a Canton Repository staff writer and member of the editorial board. Reach her at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Attack at Correspondents’ Dinner was also an assault on democracy | Goshay
Reporting by Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository / The Repository
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