When the news filtered through to British viewers late on Saturday evening that someone had shot Donald Trump, the initial reaction was shock. It is understood that American politics, even more than our own, has become bitterly polarized over the last 10 or 15 years, but overwhelmingly it has within the lines of some rudimentary norms.
On reflection, however, some thought it was not so surprising after all. There is an external perception that public discourse in the U.S. has a thread of violence...