When a 20-year-old shooter managed to lie-in-wait for Trump at his July 13th rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, injuring the now GOP nominee for president, killing one rally goer and seriously injuring two others, many suggested that it was ‘inevitable.’ 

Why? 

As I describe in my new book, ‘Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda,’ the left’s reliance on fear, threats, and intimidation is not a sloppy result of out-of-control politicians and legacy media—it is an ancient technique meant to control society at-large. 

In our most immediate and urgent context, the constant stream of demonizing and apocalyptic rhetoric from legacy media and many national Democratic leaders, including President Biden himself, insisting Trump threatened our very way of life, was a danger to democracy, and an evil combo of Hitler and Mussolini led to the inevitable—an attempt on the former, and possible future, president’s life.

On June 28, one day after his disastrous debate performance against Trump, generating universal shock about Biden’s mental health, the X (formerly Twitter) account belonging to Joe Biden posted, ‘Donald Trump is a genuine threat to this nation. He’s a threat to our freedom. He’s a threat to our democracy. He’s literally a threat to everything America stands for.’ 

That’s a frightening allegation. It racked up 13.3 million views. How long can that sort of apocalyptic rhetoric go on before some disturbed individual decides to take a shot? 

Just 15 days later is when the carnage unfolded in Butler when a bullet miraculously missing the center of Trump’s head by centimeters, striking him on the side at his ear instead.

Despite the confusion and chaos revealed at the heart of the Joe Biden White House since he took office and talk of ‘toning down’ the rhetoric in the aftermath of the assassination attempt, we know from past experience there will be no abandoning the use of fear and envy by the Democratic Party and Biden himself to distract and control. There was a brief pause, but already they’re back at casting Trump as a man bent on destroying the country. 

Just a few days after the assassination attempt, in a speech at the NAACP convention in Las Vegas, Biden even appeared to mock Trump being knocked out of his shoes when the Secret Service rushed to protect him. 

‘The 81-year-old president made the odd and seemingly ad-libbed musing during an economy-focused speech. ‘Trump says he doesn’t believe climate change is real. Maybe he should step out here in Vegas where it’s 120 degrees in his bare feet,’ Biden said before chuckling at his own remark. ‘I don’t want to get going here,’ he added,’ reported the NY Post. 

The Post’s article added, ‘The gaffe-prone incumbent spoke when it was nearly 110 degrees in Las Vegas. He appeared to stick closely to a speech loaded into teleprompters on either side of his lectern — but looked straight ahead as he dared the Republican presidential nominee to lose his shoes in Sin City, indicating the line may not have been prepared by his speechwriters.’

The use of liquid fear as a campaign (and governance) strategy is relied upon because it has worked. 

The left and their handmaidens in the Democratic Party, have so far been successful and implementing a strategy of fear and mass anxiety to frighten people into giving up their power and even acting in their own worst interest. 

This is nothing new, it is an ancient technique, and is being applied every day by the left in this country in an effort to have us retreat from political and social participation.

It started with Trump in 2016 by painting him as a stooge for Russia. That’s a frightening thing to allege. Even after being exposed as a vile hoax, and prior to Saturday’s assassination attempt, they were back at it for 2024. On July 9th it was widely reported that ‘Russia Seeks to Boost Trump in 2024 Election, US Intelligence Officials Say.’ 

Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

And who can forget this gem from December 2023, ‘Humans may be fueling global warming by breathing: new study.’ Because convincing us our very existence is the problem impacts our self-esteem and confidence, making us more vulnerable to messages of fear and dread. Trump is the threat to the USA, and we are a threat to the planet itself!

The headlines comparing Trump to Hitler were also being recycled at warp speed. After all, Hitler is one of human history’s most murderous and terrifying individuals, and if your goal is to frighten people into silent compliance throwing Hitler into the mix is to be expected.

Democrat bullies want to frighten us (and even more so their own base) into cowering in the corner, allowing them to restructure our society and dictate a new

set of core beliefs they order us to embrace… or else. 

They even demand we change how we speak and write language so they can change the way we think. Whether it be war, a crime epidemic, a plague, civil strife, economic chaos, mental health crises, drug abuse, food and energy scarcity, or the always reliable ‘climate change emergency,’ the system of government, media, big business, and education will be constantly at work to keep you feeling afraid, unsure, exhausted, and living paycheck to paycheck.

If they can keep you in an unthinking fear loop, they can stop you from questioning or confronting them about the damage they heap onto society. 

There is one necessary component for the left’s agenda to be successful—the annihilation of the ordinary person’s personal courage—the trait required to withstand danger and fear. 

When courage is lost, with it goes the willingness to confront the powerful and malevolent.

The answer to our dilemma starts with understanding that while fear itself is natural as a transitory warning, weaponizing fear is an unnatural construct creating chronic fear as a constantly used tool to specifically keep us from inquiring or questioning, and even pushing others over the edge into violence.

As the rules dictated by progressives become more absurd, and the dangers associated with challenging the status quo become existential, the left anticipates the average person will naturally retreat. 

We are being encouraged to surrender not just from public life, but from caring about the country and what our survival means for the world. Killing our minds is the only way their backward and deadly progressivism can survive.

I can tell you the victory of the radical left and the triumph of fear over reason, group entitlements over individual rights, and lies over truth are not inevitable. 

We can fight and win the battle for America’s future if we understand the challenges we face and how to overcome them, not with unbridled emotion but with logic and reason. Recognizing that what we’re facing is not natural and can be defeated is vital, allowing us to rely on our personal courage to sweep aside the carefully constructed but false curtain of lies and fear relied on by the establishment and Marxist left. 

This is a unique time in history, and it’s our time to send an undeniable message that our values will prevail over fear and loathing.

Portions of this article are adapted from the author’s forthcoming book ‘Fear Itself.’

‘He’s kind.’

Wait. What? Senator JD Vance is ‘kind?’

That is what my guest—podcaster and one of the most influential Republican women in America, Mary Katharine Ham—told me about Vance Wednesday morning. (Her podcast, co-hosted with Vic Matus, ‘Getting Hammered’ is a joy to listen to.)

I first interviewed Senator Vance in 2016 when his book ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ debuted. It is a fabulous book and still a riveting read. Vance was not then in politics. He was a Yale Law grad making his way in Silicon Valley. The story hit close to the hearts of anyone from the abandoned steel and car towns of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

What Mary Katharine revealed to me is not something a radio host could learn over the score of interviews I conducted with Vance over the years since 2016 or during the debate I moderated with him and five other GOP Senate candidates in 2022. I have never spent time with Vance off a real or virtual stage, so I had no idea what he’s like in non-public settings. 

I asked Mary Katharine to stay an extra segment to explain the ‘He’s kind’ observation. I am a big believer in people from across the political spectrum who act with respect towards everyone regardless of their politics, who display gratitude when no one is looking, who are, indeed, ‘kind.’ Cruelty repels me, even when the objects of cruelty more or less deserve it. This is a product of Catholic education, I am sure, and of the attempt to internalize the wisdom of C.S. Lewis:

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously – no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.

If you have read Vance’s book, you know he knows Lewis’ statement  to be true. Strangers helped Vance often on his journey: The police of Middleton, Ohio; USMC gunny sergeants; Yale Law professors and Silicon Valley giants.  And the marks they have left on him—this kindness that Mary Katharine references, the level-headed manner of his very normal, civil responses to arguments and even deep disagreements I have observed on air and on stage—this is a powerful super-power for politicians who do not assume the role of ‘nice guy’ but who actually live it out. 

Harry Truman famously observed that if you want a friend in Washington, D.C., buy a dog. Even more rare than friends inside the Beltway’s ruling class are genuinely grateful people. Gratitude is an expression of virtue deeply embedded. It often manifests in civility and certainly does so in expressions of kindness. That J.D. Vance has this quality of kindness within his character is a very good thing for the GOP to advertise.

Our country is much blessed, but many within it are suffering greatly. Politics and social media have turned many formerly kind and generous people into permanently argumentative partisans. That Vance suffered in his early years cannot be argued. Suffering changes people, usually for the good. This makes Vance a wonderful emissary from the GOP to those communities and especially those families who are suffering. Pray that the campaign’s managers deploy that secret weapon. Genuine compassion is a powerfully attractive thing.

Hugh Hewitt is host of ‘The Hugh Hewitt Show,’ heard weekday mornings 6am to 9am ET on the Salem Radio Network, and simulcast on Salem News Channel. Hugh wakes up America on over 400 affiliates nationwide, and on all the streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the Fox News Channel’s news roundtable hosted by Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET. A son of Ohio and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt has been a Professor of Law at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law since 1996 where he teaches Constitutional Law. Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show from Los Angeles in 1990.  Hewitt has frequently appeared on every major national news television network, hosted television shows for PBS and MSNBC, written for every major American paper, has authored a dozen books and moderated a score of Republican candidate debates, most recently the November 2023 Republican presidential debate in Miami and four Republican presidential debates in the 2015-16 cycle. Hewitt focuses his radio show and his column on the Constitution, national security, American politics and the Cleveland Browns and Guardians. Hewitt has interviewed tens of thousands of guests from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump over his 40 years in broadcast, and this column previews the lead story that will drive his radio/ TV show today.