The US is now in a period of political violence and faces an important choice

CNN —

The motivations of the gunman who opened fire at former President Donald Trump in Pennsylvania on Saturday are not known, but the incident comes at a time of political anger and anxiety in a country split down the middle and bursting at the seams.

Violence has targeted Republicans, Democrats, conservatives and liberals, and seems to be happening with agonizing frequency.

► A plot to assassinate conservative Supreme Court justices was foiled in 2022 by the FBI.

► The husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was attacked by a hammer-wielding intruder at their San Francisco home in 2022.

► A violent mob stormed the US Capitol in January of 2021 to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s election win.

► Would-be kidnappers hatched a plot to snatch Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020 and were sentenced on terrorism charges.

► A GOP congressional baseball team practice was attacked by a gunman in Alexandria, Virginia, in 2017. The then-House GOP Whip, Steve Scalise, was nearly killed.

Those incidents range from organized plots to the irrational actions of lone attackers, but they all feed off a desperate and intractable polarization in which apocalyptic language is used to demonize both sides of the political aisle.

A major question will be how Trump reacts

The Republican National Convention is set to get underway Monday in Milwaukee. Will Trump use the shooting to further feed the idea among his supporters that the country needs to be taken back, or will the former president, who doesn’t believe he lost the last election, call for calm?

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump is assisted by guards during a campaign rally at the Butler Farm Show in