History could be said to be repetitive, if only to a certain degree. From this perspective, Scott Miller’s bestseller “The President and the Assassin” (2011) dedicated, in the author’s own words, to “McKinley, Terror, and Empire at the Dawn of the American Century”, while being similar in certain respects to the events currently unfolding in the US, is in fact, not as rich with relevance to the present-day era as some critics claim it to be.
Just like William McKinley, the Republican commander-in-chief under whom the country progressed to become a powerful industrial state, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, with his focus on the domestic agenda and the task of pursuing national interests in terms of the US foreign policy, is striving to “Make America Great Again”. Also, similar to his aforementioned predecessor, the latter has been “put in the bull’s eye”. But that’s where similarities happen to end. For one thing, the former president has survived the second assassination attempt and, for another, the sniper was not a figure like Leon Czolgosz, an anarchist on the losing end of the economic changes taking place under McKinley; he was an extremist desperately trying to prevent Trump from executing his intent, essentially similar to that pursued by another notable US leader, Ronald Reagan.
Despite the gulf of years separating the two politicians, their key goals appear largely the same: to pull the country out of recession, to upgrade its military capabilities and establish friendly ties with Russia. Importantly, the White House with Reagan at its helm, proved successful in most of these endeavors. Particularly fruitful were the president’s efforts to relieve tensions with the Kremlin on acceptable terms and conditions.
Trump, for his part, is willing to avoid further economic downturn, reduce the inflation rate and, more than anything else, to prevent the outbreak of another world war which will inevitably result in a direct armed conflict between the US and Russia. Among other things, the GOP presidential candidate promises to put an end to the on-going confrontations between the RF and Ukraine, much to the American taxpayers’ relief, who would rather see that money going to social projects and initiatives aimed at supporting members of ethnic minority groups such as Latino immigrants.
After all, W. McKinley’s assassin L. Czolgosz was a first-generation immigrant and factory worker, sickened by a government that seemed entirely focused on making the rich richer, which, sadly enough, is reminiscent of the current Biden-Harris administration.
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