It’s known as ‘the button scene’. At the climax of the misogynistic comedy How to Murder Your Wife, Jack Lemon’s character draws a button in chalk on a bar in front of the jury at his trial.
It’s a life-or-death situation. He has pleaded guilty to a murder he did not commit, and the likely sentence is the electric chair.
Lemon’s character persuades his defence attorney – played with perfection by Eddie Mayehoff – that pushing the button would rid the solicitor of his wife.
“Just push the button and she’s gone, no-one will ever know.” A philosopher would call it a ‘thought experiment’.
As Lemon paints a picture of what Mayehoff’s life would be like without his wife, the lawyer’s thumb moves ever closer to the button.
Lemon shows the jury that wishing is not the same as doing. He is acquitted.
You can see the scene played out on YouTube, or better still watch the movie (though, given it’s my fortieth wedding anniversary on Sunday, I’ll maybe give it a diplomatic miss).
Of course, we know murder is wrong regardless of who the individual is. That’s the reason why decent people oppose capital punishment, why they abhor violence, and it’s the reason why most of us do not go round bumping off those we do not like.
But, I confess my sense of what is right and wrong was challenged when news came through that someone had tried to kill Donald Trump. It was a ‘push the button’ moment.
What if the shooter had succeeded? What if Trump had not moved his head at that fateful moment as a bullet was whizzing towards him?
What if, instead of punching the air and screaming “fight, fight”, Trump’s body lay lifeless where he fell – his spirit carried off by the angel his adherents ‘saw’ floating over the stadium?
Did I feel disappointment that Trump survived? Did you? Would I have ‘pushed the button’?
Did I feel disappointment that Trump survived? Did you? Would I have ‘pushed the button’?
There’s nothing to be proud of in having a ‘button’ moment. The martyrdom of Donald Trump – for that is how it would have been seen by his evangelical supporters – would have fed the cult.
There is no shortage of candidates ready to step into his shoes. Trump has demonstrated that power can be achieved by chutzpah and now there’s a succession of Trumps waiting in the wings.
He has shown the Republican Party that power comes by trampling over vulnerable people; by lying unashamedly about your achievements and the ‘criminality’ of your opponents; and by hollowing out institutions designed to protect the American people from would-be despots like him.
He has changed the way people in the States do politics, and he has caused irreparable damage to the political system there (and wider afield) in the process. The toxin he has released would have outlasted a ‘successful’ shooter.
His cult detected the hand of the almighty in his deliverance. At the weekend he told a rally that he stood before them “by the grace of God”.
“I shouldn’t be here but, let’s face it, something very special happened.” You can see his logic.
Even those of us who believe God does not dabble in politics must marvel at the way Trump defies the laws of political gravity.
In contrast, Joe Biden, a ‘good president’ by any definition, has been dragged to earth, honourably stepping aside from a contest he should not have entered.
The difference between the two men is clear to see. Compare Biden’s compassionate response to Trump’s shooting with Trump’s torrent of insults after the president announced he would not seek a second term.
Whatever Thomas Crooks intended when he pulled the trigger on a rooftop in Butler, Pennsylvania, he energised Trump’s campaign and brought him closer to a second term.
If karma is coming Trump’s way, let’s hope it arrives before November. We must pray he is soundly defeated by whoever the Democratic nominee is.
There can be no doubt what a Trump presidency will mean. The world will be a manifestly more dangerous place as Trump cosies up to Putin, Xi and Kim Jong Un. In the US the mega-rich will get richer (which is why he is being enabled by the media and Silicon Valley), the poor will be even more marginalised, the electoral system will be further corrupted, and the economy will tank.
Perhaps that is what America needs right now. As with Britain, being brought to its knees by the right might make people think again about what they truly value. But the greater risk is that the US will slide into a quasi-dictatorship and be lost for a generation or more.
On Saturday, Trump said he “took a bullet for democracy”. Nothing could be further from the truth; and while his supporters worship, the world is left looking for the button.