Thomas Matthew Crooks, who almost assassinated Donald Trump, had no big muscles or military training that a female Secret Service agent couldn’t handle for being 5’5”. He was not an “animal immigrant,” a term often used by those on the right to describe undocumented immigrants. He was not a Muslim fundamentalist terrorist who hated America for its freedom. It doesn’t seem he was inspired by Russia, China, Iran, Syria, or North Korea. He was not released from a mental institution in Africa to invade America.

He was not an unqualified, unhappy Black DEI hire who didn’t deserve the position they got. He did not come through the open southern border to change the “original” American population and vote for the Democrats, whatever year that would be, whatever that means. He was a white male registered Republican who donated to the Democrats. He was just 20 years old and did not seem to be motivated by racism. He had a dysfunctional mindset and was armed with an AR-15 and explosives in his car.

He did not seem to be a very sophisticated hired assassin. He could be seen by the rally-goers. He fired a few shots, hit four people, killed one, and left three others injured, two of them badly injured. He was the enemy within, not the fictional enemies we like to create to feel good about our superiority or to sell weapons. He did not fit the profile of the “bad people” we love to spread on social media.

Hate, xenophobia, racism, and prejudice frequently influence American political conventions. However, these sentiments often stem from our darker impulses rather than objective facts.