Is America Ripe for Another Presidential Assassination?

America has had four presidents assassinated since it became a nation under God, that is four men killed by a sudden ands secret attack while they were in office. The four presidents were Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, William McKinley in 1901 and John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy in 1963. Assassination attempts were made on the lives of four other sitting presidents: Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt in 1933, Harry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman in 1950, Gerald F. Ford (two attempts) in 1975 and Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan in 1981. The question becomes, is the United States ripe for another assassination or an attempt of assassination of a sitting presidents?

Some Americans, albeit a small vocal minority, have embraced an ideology that largely runs counter to facts and often common sense. These people and their ideas have been identified by the MSM (main stream media) as “fringe” and yet their vociferous power, tinged with violence grows daily. And what kinds of ideas feeds this group of people intent on overpowering the will of the majority? In most cases, the idea that characterizes the soul of most of these people is simply hatred. Hatred for the unknown. Hatred for a black man who had the audacity to rise up to be elected to the highest office in the anointed land of the free.

Practiced hatred and anger have always been the same for human beings. Socialization, education and even the guise of prosperity, living better lives, hasn’t blighted the sharp knife of hatred in the hearts of far too many human beings. To find voice and meaning, hatred is typically turned outward and against the “other.” Hatred against other human beings has always begun with misperceptions about the other based on minor differences such as tradition, culture, the color and texture of hair and skin tone, or the inability to understand the spoken word because of language differences. Hatred has always allowed people to perceive others as alien, something different from me and mine. Once the concept that another human being is “different or, unacceptable” is embraced, then fear results in the kind of entrenched hatred that has been recorded throughout the history of mankind that has always resulted in the death of another human being. Killing the “other,” that is, someone who is different, has always been justified since the beginning of time.

More harm was done to the concept of democracy under George W. BushGeorge W. Bush’s administration than any other administration in the history of this country. And yet the gun-toting, assault rifle wielding, angry white men seen at modern-day town hall meetings today are the same group of men content to sit at home while their freedoms and sometimes their lives or the lives of their children were threatened by an unwarranted war. These same people, motivated by code words and hate speech, tacitly supported a government that was and is overwhelmed by lobbyists and corporate policy makers who ensure tax benefits for the rich at their expense and these people who still work for a living, that is if they are fortunate and still have a job, spout invectives against the new president as if they were the landed gentry and not the cannon fodder that they really are in a world gone crazy.

These angry citizens have decided that their dreams and their children’s dreams have been co-opted and stolen by an outsider; an alien in the guise of a half-black man named Barack ObamaBarack Obama. Questions regarding Obama’s right to the presidency as raised by the “birthers” is not really about where and when he became an American citizen but rather, just when did blacks become fully entitled citizens of the United States despite those amendments added to the constitution to ensure equality for all.

The sad truth is that Barack Obama and his new administration blinked when they should have been proactive against the so-called fringe group of conservatives. Rather than trying to proffer an olive branch of inclusion to this group of: “my way or the highway thinkers,” Obama should have pressed to fulfill his campaigns promises. Instead he sacrificed his political transit in an effort to effect fair play to a group of people intent on destroying him, his administration and the nation, if necessary, to further their own ends. What is emerging from this so-called fringe group are strong indications that these people have no sense of shame or humanity when it comes to speaking and perpetrating violence against those that they feel threaten their brand of politics. The general populace has chosen to ignore this growing force that is at once vile and all consuming to a cadre of people who sincerely believe that “might” translates into “right.”

So, to answer the question that is simmering beneath the surface of today’s America: “Is America ripe for another presidential assassination?” And the short answer is, sadly: “Yes, Dorothy, it is possible for a modern day American president to be assassinated by a small group of disgruntled and misguided people.” And in the face of violence, those that conjure false impressions and at times state outright lies, will once again retreat behind their first amendment rights rather than stand-up and take responsibility for the monster that they so heinously and carefully created.