GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — There was shock and a rare political pause across the world after shots were fired at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday.
The scene left the suspected gunman and at least one rallygoer dead and multiple injured, including the former president.
The Secret Service is now investigating it as an attempted assassination. Such is a development that's sparked calls for a shift in the national political rhetoric.
"The terrible tragedy from this past weekend is just a reminder that, you know, our democracy is based on votes and not violence and and we need people to respect the rule of law and respect each other, and certainly we need our politicians to engage in productive, civil discourse," said former U.S. Representative David Trott (R-Mich.).
Trott, who was serving in Congress at the time of the 2017 Congressional baseball practice shooting that left several injured including fellow GOP Rep. Steve Scalise, stressed the importance of avoiding demonization.
"I think that the kind of the guiding principle should be, just because we disagree over policy and politics doesn't mean you're a bad person or you hate America," said Trott, who now serves as a member of the Michigan Advisory Board for the non-partisan civic education organization Keep Our Republic.
A key pinnacle of dissuading such demonization or violence, some believe, lies in civil discourse.
For Dr. Lisa Perhamus at Grand Valley State's Center for Civil Discourse, she says things have changed in recent years.
"It used to be that people disagreed with each other's ideas," Perhamus said. "And more and more we are seeing people disagreeing with each other as human beings, instead of just their ideas."
However, civil discourse, Perhamus said, remains a key alternative.
"I think this is an extremely important political moment, historical moment," Perhamus said. "How we talk with one another impacts how we live together."
While things may seem uncertain in the wake of the Butler shooting, Perhamus laid out things the community can do in their own conversations.
The first step, Perhamus explained, is self-examination of one's own thinking.
"I need to do this myself all the time, because, I'll be honest, I am really upset by all of the division and the toxic polarization, and I'm upset and scared about the election for a number of reasons, right?" Perhamus explained. "And so, I need to be mindful about how constructive and productive my own language is and my own thinking about people."
The second she outlined is regulating your emotions to ensure that your needs you've identified for yourself are met in the conversation.
"When we disagree with one another, our most vulnerable human needs come to the surface," Perhamus said. "And if you are aware of your own needs, that gives you an opportunity to say to your conversation partner, 'Hey, I'm really feeling this right now, and I need us to pause and take a deep breath, or I need us to not use this language to talk about this group of people,' or whatever it is."
"If your conversation partner is not willing to be receptive to what it is you have to say, the control and the power you have in the conversation is only over your own ways of being, and you can then attend to your own needs," Perhamus said.
The third, Perhamus said, is using what she referred to as "group agreements" designed to keep a conversation within boundaries that everyone has agreed to.
"These are principles you all abide by in the conversation, and you all agree what's the course of action if somebody doesn't abide by a group agreement," Perhamus said. "Usually, if you have created a set of agreements with your conversation partner, if somebody starts veering off, you can say, 'Remember, we agreed to X-Y-Z,' and you can stick with it."
Ensuring not to let oneself succumb to misinformation or theories without basis, Trott added, should also be considered alongside effective, meaningful dialogue.
"I'm going to continue to watch for the facts to come out, and everyone should do that and try and remain objective," Trott said. "Because, if you follow some of these conspiracy theories, not only is it not productive, but it'll make it more difficult for people to have confidence in this election."
But having civil discourse, the two agreed, is key to meaningful conversation trumping violence.
"Neither one of us are probably going to change our ideas, right, but we will have a better understanding of where the other person is coming from, why they believe what they believe, and that authenticity goes a long way to restoring trust in relationships. And one thing we saw epitomized this weekend in the violence, is there's a broken trust."