This Uncertain Life | Libertarian Christian Institute

In the aftermath of the near-assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally, many Americans have wondered if he only survived “by the grace of God.” Many even believe that the Almighty Himself must have diverted the trajectory of the assassin’s bullet so that it grazed Trump’s ear instead of his head.

But if we accept this and are logically consistent, must we not also believe that God guided the assassin’s bullet that killed the devoted father who was protecting his wife and children at the event, and also the bullets that seriously wounded two other men? Or that He simply did not care about them?

I find the assassination attempt on July 13 all the more disturbing because it shows so clearly how big a role luck plays in our lives. It is sobering to realize that no matter how good or careful we think we are, we often have no control over whether we get terminal cancer, become paralyzed, die in a car accident, or even get shot.

I suspect that the great novelist Norman Mailer was right that this is why we prefer to use conspiracy theories to make sense of senseless tragedies. So rather than believe that a total loser like Lee Harvey Oswald could assassinate President John Kennedy and change history all by himself, we would much rather believe that only a huge cabal including the CIA, our military-industrial complex, the Mafia, the Russians or the Cubans could have pulled off such a major crime.

Now, despite clear evidence of recent incompetence by the U.S. Secret Service, we are strongly inclined to believe that the extremely dire situation involving the GOP presidential candidate last month must have been the result of a well-coordinated plot involving the CIA, other government officials, and/or even the Secret Service—anything but the awkward, lone assassin barely out of his teens who acted alone. Yet nearly every shooter of a U.S. president has been an utter failure who somehow managed to pull off the seemingly impossible single-handedly.

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson survived an assassination attempt by a deranged man who believed he was a 15th century English king. In 1881, President James Garfield was assassinated by a lone gunman and likely schizophrenic whose life had been a complete disaster. In 1901, President William McKinley was shot by an unemployed socialist anarchist. In 1963, President Kennedy was shot by a mentally ill high school dropout turned communist. And in 1981, President Ronald Reagan was shot by a deranged loner hoping to impress a famous actress he had never met.

The assassins of other American public figures were similarly pathetic losers who acted alone. In 1968, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a high school dropout and career petty criminal. Also that year, U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy was assassinated by a miserably angry Palestinian high school dropout and failed horse jockey. In 1972, Alabama Governor and Democratic presidential candidate George Wallace was shot and paralyzed by a mentally disturbed technical school dropout. And in 1980, the great Beatle John Lennon was murdered by an unemployed psychopath.

Should we really be shocked that former President Trump was nearly incapacitated by a 20-year-old nursing home dishwasher with body odor? Given the pathetic profiles of almost all of America’s major political assassins (only President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, the hugely successful actor John Wilkes Booth, was an exception – and Lincoln’s murder was a conspiracy), why would we expect anything less?

As disruptive as it is to our desire for law and order, there is much incompetence and failure in all societies, even in elite government agencies like the Secret Service. To be fair, bodyguards can successfully protect a president in 999 out of 1,000 public appearances, but we will only remember that one failure; nor will we ever know of all the other attempts on the lives of leaders that were fortunately thwarted by law enforcement.

When I think back on the many times I’ve been fortunate enough to meet famous people I admired, most of them had no security. How horrifyingly easy it would have been for an evil person to attack them. Perhaps we’re lucky that there haven’t been many more tragedies like this. It might also be instructive to remind ourselves that this is a deadly dangerous world that none of us will survive.

If even the most guarded people on the planet can’t always be protected from the most pathetic murderous insane losers, then maybe we should all decide to do everything we can to reach our full potential, and do it as quickly as we can, precisely because this life is so precarious, short, and therefore precious. As the Bible tells us, “See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, making the most of the time” (Ephesians 5:15-16).