The US as a nation has faced many challenges over the years. Ask any average American and he or she would in all likelihood point to the 9/11 attacks in 2001 on its soil as the biggest one yet. There would be others who would cite the major US military occupations over the years each of them causing far many more lives of its citizens than 9/11. The list is long-winding and includes among others, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Kuwait and Afghanistan. Some may even list the onslaught of the Chinese manufacturers on the US economy as a major attack on its financial stability.

It has had its share of Presidents assassinated too. Not one, but four Presidents. Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley who eventually died of the gunshot wound and of course John F Kennedy. Unsuccessful attempts were made on Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George W Bush. The 40th president barely made it alive as the bullet pierced his lung, having narrowly missed his heart. The presidential candidates who faced assassination bids were Theodore Roosevelt, Robert F Kennedy and George C Wallace. Some of them faced more than one attempt.

All these were all deadly attacks, shots fired or grenades lobbed to kill or maim. While four Presidents succumbed, in those instances where they survived, others lost lives, the mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak being the casualty in the attempt of Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, Florida. Theodore Roosevelt survived the assassination bid but the bullet remained lodged in his chest for the rest of his life.

Now, Donald Trump has joined the list, with two such attempts in just over a month – the first was during an election rally in Pennsylvania on July 13 when he got his ear nicked even as his assassin was shot dead. The latest attempt on his life came on September 15, while he was playing golf at West Palm Beach, Florida, quite close to his Mar-a-Lago residence. The US media has so far called it an apparent assassination attempt, as details of the alleged assassination and the reconstruction of the events the preceded the attempted shooting will take a few days to be completed.

In a country where the guns have done much of the talking over the years to resolve disputes, even to settle scores, real and imagined, the Americans have no apparent reason to be horrified. Perhaps not any more horrified than when innocent children are slaughtered in schools by gun-wielding crazies. Trump was lucky to survive two assassination attempts, on both occasions his secret service detail coming to his rescue. In the latest case, it was the barrel of the assault rifle that was spotted by Trump’s security detail. He was merely 500 yards away, well within the range of the AK 47 rifle, which was mounted with a telescope.

On Sunday, the attempt allegedly made by Ryan Wesley Routh, a person in his late 50s with a small business in Hawai who has lived for many years in North Carolina. He is the parent of two grown-up children and drove down to Florida in his daughter’s SUV, waiting for Trump near the golf course, in striking distance of his AK 47 assault rifle armed with a scope. How did he know when Trump would be out playing golf? Did he have inside information of Trump’s itinerary, something which even the journalists tracking him did not have.

That Routh had a GoPro camera, positioned apparently to record the shooting, does lend it the color of a premeditated act, conceived with the purpose of making a political statement. Ironically, Routh was not an immigrant, though he was an active supporter of the Ukranian cause. Was Routh, who has been active on the social media with anti-Trump statements, a disillusioned supporter who felt let down by the former President or was he always on the other side of the political fence.

There is considerable social media footprint suggesting Routh was quite political and did not want Trump to be GOP candidate in 2024. Following the July 13 assassination bid, he had posted his views on MAGA, with the content suggesting his disenchantment with Trump. To be fair to the intelligence community, it would be virtual nightmare to keep track of a list of people who hate Trump. Or Kamala Harris, for that matter.

From the larger perspective, there are the fundamental issues like the continued access to assault weapons for anyone who can pay for it. There is the undeniable history of assassination bids on over a dozen US Presidents and Presidential candidates that cannot be wished away and talk with wonder about how Donald Trump faced two attempts on his life. That does not mean that there would not be any debate whether Trump will gain politically from this attempt on his life. Or if Trump will go down a notch or two on his multiple mass conspiracy theories and start concentrating on individual attempts to snuff out his life.

Surely, the second attempt at the Trump International Golf Club will turn the page on trolls. Like those about his pierced ear and stand-ups making spoofs of Trump’s agility versus the lack of it on the part of Lincoln and Kennedy. Both Republicans and Democrats, at least the offices of the two presidential candidates would do well not to ignore the gravity of the malaise that has taken a firm grip over the US.

There is one school of thought that is airing worries on the US politics spiraling to the levels witnessed in the third world, the ostensible reference being to those banana republic countries where governments are pulled down and hoisted by gun power. Quite a few of them, where the US has either intervened directly or indirectly.

But when will the architects, the movers and shakers of this most powerful democracy in the world be ready for some serious introspection? It may well be time to start worrying about the deep divide that has begun setting in like a rot. Because, it is way more than merely a political divide. It is almost as if there are two different set of people reside in the country. The country, per se, really needs to go through a process of healing.

It will come as close to a boil as has been witnessed in recent times during the November 5 election that will decide who will be the 47th President of the United States. It could also set the tone for the next couple of presidencies, By the time the US elects its landmark 50th President, the people of this land will have to decide one way or the other if it is in their interest to treat each other with suspicion. Whether they want to be the United States of America.

Ultimately, it is all very well to be stay perched on top as the global super power. But it cannot be while it is a divided country that resents the presence of others, by virtue of the fact their immigrant status is a lot more recent than that of many others.

- Vinod Mathew is a senior journalist and author; views expressed are his own.