Statement on the Rejection of Political Violence
This weekend’s attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump is a shameful event in American history that ASP resolutely condemns.
The survival of American democracy is dependent upon the ability of our citizenry and our leaders to participate in the marketplace of ideas and to vote on the acceptance or rejection of those ideas. It cannot endure if those ideas are silenced by the act or threat of violence. Political violence deserves no place in American democracy, but the unfortunate reality is that violence has long occupied a place in the fabric of our nation. We must reject that violence and reject those who encourage or employ it.
Rather than espousing, justifying, or glorifying violence when it supports our political views, we, the American people, must loudly and resoundingly call it out and oppose it when we see it. We must demand better of our leadership, we must demand better of each other, and we must demand better of ourselves.
Undoubtedly, the divisions within our society, amplified by those actors both foreign and domestic who would seek to exploit them, threaten to unravel the threads that bind us together as Americans. We must not allow that to happen. It may be easy to villainize and shut out those with whom we disagree on important political issues, and we may be passionate about the policies that directly affect our lives and the people we love and care about, but we must also seek to listen to and understand each other. While that is becoming increasingly difficult in a society motivated by likes, shares, and followers, we must all individually do the hard work to exemplify the society in which we want to live.
As an organization founded on the principle of bipartisan consensus, ASP encourages all Americans to participate in the democracy we are fortunate enough to have because people, like ourselves, chose to build it and defend it against forces that would tear it down. Like those who came before us, we must choose to stand for the values that bind us together as a country.
It is our highest hope that this election is carried out safely, fairly, and openly, and that all Americans eligible to vote exercise their right to do so. As we as individuals advocate for our preferred candidates, let us also advocate for peace, civility, and understanding, so that we the American people may continue to endure as the very reason our shared country is great.
