The United States Of Violence

Andrew Jackson was the seventh president
of the USA and the first to endure an attempt
at assassinating him, in 1835. Both the pistols
cocked, loaded and aimed against him jammed,
his would-be assassin long outlived Jackson
mostly by his being certified guilty-but-insane.

Later in 1856 on the floor of the House of Representatives
Preston Smith-Brooks beat Charles Sumner to a bloody pulp
for what Sumner said and for Sumner being anti-slavery.
The beating by Smith-Brooks got Brooks the most cursory
of punishments. When he resigned his voters re-elected him.

This was the precursor to the American Civil War,
followed by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

So in this age of rhetoric that is so inflamed that it feeds on itself,
where that rhetoric has to be exported as far round the world as the USA
can label as 'free (to be violent)' expect American history to repeat itself.
And when there are violent assassinations, expect rhetoric, not honesty.