Joseph Sabino Mistick: Assassins can't steal our elections

We are all sickened by the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump. Public policy is to be decided by the voters in this Republic, not by assassins.

Those of us who were around during the 1960s remember too clearly the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. His brother, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was shot and killed in 1968 while campaigning for president. And civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were murdered during that same decade.

I was a young man, part of a crowd of 100,000 revelers in Times Square on a cold and rainy New Years Eve when 1969 turned into 1970. When the ball dropped from the Allied Chemical Tower marking the end of the decade, there was a real feeling of relief. It was good riddance to a bloody decade. We were confident that the season of assassinations was over.

But would-be assassins were not finished. In 1972, Alabama Gov. George Wallace was shot and paralyzed as he was campaigning for president. President Gerald Ford escaped two separate assassination attempts in 1975 — once because the gun jammed and later because of a bad aim.

President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981. He scored big points with the public for his grace and humor in the emergency room and in the days after surgery. It built a lasting bond between the Reagan and the public.

And Donald Trump’s supporters have been galvanized by that iconic photo of him being rushed off stage by the Secret Service, blood lining his face, his fist in the air. That will — and should — become the image of his campaign.

Some of these attacks on leaders are obviously politically motivated.

But good luck to anyone who tries to discover even a deranged pattern of political purpose to all of this violence.

Segregationist Wallace was shot by a white guy who wanted to be famous. Reagan’s assailant shot him to impress actress Jodie Foster. One of Ford’s failed assassins was a murderous Manson Family member.

It is impossible to know for certain how these despicable deeds have affected our politics and public policy. The deaths of the Kennedy brothers have left us with a bunch of “what ifs.”

But we do know what Robert Kennedy said the day after the King assassination about the “mindless menace of violence in America.” He told the Cleveland City Club, “We seemingly tolerate a rising level of violence that ignores our common humanity and our claims to civilization alike.”

“We make it easy for men of all shades of sanity to acquire weapons and ammunition they desire … but this much is clear: violence breeds violence … and only a cleaning of our whole society can remove this sickness from our soul.”

And there is something else that we know without reservation. In spite of the violence and chaos, there will be a true and fair election come November. Even when we cannot count on much, we can count on that. No madman or misguided soul can steal that.

And the issues that voters must decide in this election are still the same: women’s health care, sensible gun safety, fair taxes for all, sensible immigration and the health of our economy and our environment.

We must decide how to keep our communities and country safe and whether or not we will remain loyal to our allies and continue our commitment to freedom. It will still be a clear choice between two very different Americas.