July 14, 2024 – The United States Transhumanist Party (USTP) strongly and unequivocally condemns the assassination attempt against Republican Presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump, which took place in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024. The USTP wishes Donald Trump a speedy recovery to a state of complete health and expresses the hope that an objective and impartial investigation will be conducted to fully determine the identity of the attacker and the motives behind the attack.

While Donald Trump’s injuries fortunately appear to be mild enough to allow a full recovery, the heinous shooting at the rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, caused the death of an innocent audience member, emphasizing the tragic truth that ordinary people often bear the greatest harms of political violence.

The USTP has always rejected political violence absolutely and in all circumstances. Indeed, Immutable Operating Principle 4 in Article I, Section III, of the Constitution of the United States Transhumanist Party reads as follows:

“The United States Transhumanist Party renounces all violence, except in self-defense against a clear, immediate act of physical aggression. In particular, the United States Transhumanist Party holds that violent political activism is never permissible or just. The United States Transhumanist Party commits to always pursuing its goals in a civil, law-abiding manner, respecting the legitimate rights of all persons. The United States Transhumanist Party shall not condone and shall necessarily and automatically disavow all violent criminal acts. Any person who commits a violent criminal act is automatically disassociated from the United States Transhumanist Party in all respects until and unless that person has made appropriate restitution or has fully undergone the appropriate penalties pursuant to applicable law. However, this commitment to exclusively peaceful action does not preclude the United States Transhumanist Party from criticizing any ideas or behavior which are contrary to reason, morality, common sense, or the principles and objectives of the United States Transhumanist Party Core Ideals and Platform.”

“It is clear that unhinged polarization has taken the United States to a societal and political breaking point,” USTP Chairman Gennady Stolyarov II lamented in response to news of the assassination attempt. “This polarization is wrong, and the violence it precipitates is evil. Both need to be stopped. While most people are decent enough to avoid initiating violence no matter what the climate of public opinion, the toxic discourse that has pervaded both mainstream and social media during the past nine years – often originated and amplified by well-organized and well-funded propaganda machines – has surely contributed to pushing some of the least emotionally stable members of our society over the edge into acts of criminal violence. We have seen the effects of these mass-propagandizing tendencies before during the destructive urban riots of 2020 and the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. But attempted assassinations take this trend to an entirely new, troubling level, and they can do nothing but escalate tensions toward a massive societal conflagration – unless everyone, on all sides, takes a serious and somber look at this situation and makes the conscious effort to cease demonizing those with whom they disagree and instead engage with others’ views honestly, civilly, and with recognition of our common humanity.”

The dire predicament of our times requires a transpartisan organization such as the U.S. Transhumanist Party to step in and provide constructive alternatives to the deadly polarization by pointing the way toward the common future of humanity – our common obstacles posed by the forces of death and decay, as well as our common opportunities to use science, technology, and rational discourse to live longer, healthier, more peaceful lives in positive-sum collaborations with others.

“It is no secret that many of our members have disagreed, often strongly, with many of the views espoused by Donald Trump, and some of his policy proposals are directly contrary to the U.S. Transhumanist Party Platform,” Chairman Stolyarov explained. “However, the USTP also champions a culture of decency in politics where we can disagree with a person and still advocate for their rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as well as all of the rights recognized in the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights and our own Transhumanist Bill of Rights. Donald Trump’s rights to his life, to the pursuit of good health, and to the free and peaceful expression of his views, whatever they may be, are among the rights that the USTP stands for. Furthermore, our advocacy of indefinite life extension extends to Donald Trump as well (and also to all other Presidential candidates and candidates for every office from every political party).”

The U.S. Transhumanist Party also emphasizes that, while many in this election season have expressed the desire to save the American democracy, not all have understood the core essence of democracy – which is that ballots, not bullets, need to be the mechanism by which political disagreements are resolved. The primary strength of a democratic system is precisely in the ability of the voting mechanism to provide legitimacy to outcomes on which large segments of the population will disagree with one another, without such disagreements needing to lead to contests of physical force. As such, the American democracy is indeed a precious foundation for a society with enough everyday stability and safety that innovations in technology, science, art, and ideas generally can occur without the specter of violence hanging over everyday life. “Those who think that political violence can ever meaningfully ‘save democracy’ are deluded and misguided, to say the least,” Chairman Stolyarov explained. “Once political violence reigns, democracy is over. Now all decent people of all political parties, organizations, and persuasions have the moral responsibility to call for peace and decency to prevail. We can preserve what has historically been best about the American system of government, but we can only do it by renouncing polarization and hateful vitriol together.