The shock of the attempt on President Trump’s life is ebbing and, with his decision to attend the Republican National Convention as scheduled, politics is back on the menu. His wounding and defiant reaction — combined with President Biden suspending his attack ads — are the ingredients for a significant bounce in the polls.

Strategists often speak of “humanizing” candidates, and nothing reminds us of our mortality like hearing shots fired. As with the attempt on President Reagan’s life, video of Trump being struck by a bullet is playing on a loop. Viewers can’t help but imagine themselves under fire and root for those targeted.

On March 30, 1981, as President Reagan exited the Washington Hilton, he was just 70 days into his term. The policies that would almost double the economy were unpopular, although their results would earn him a 49-state reelection in 1984 and open the door to the diplomacy that ended the Cold War.

Fate arrived in the form of John Hinckley who squeezed six shots at Reagan. The first bullet struck the White House Press Secretary, James Brady, in the head. Others tore into a District of Columbia police officer, Thomas Delahanty, and a Secret Service agent, Timothy McCarthy, who sacrificed their bodies for the leader of the republic.

Another agent, Jerry Parr, was next to Reagan. He wrote in his autobiography, “In the Secret Service,” that he “grabbed President Reagan by the back of his belt and pants,” and “hurled him” into the presidential limousine, which took off for the White House just three seconds after the first shot.

When Parr checked Reagan for wounds, the president coughed up frothing blood and thought he had cut his lip. Parr’s instincts told him otherwise. He diverted the motorcade to George Washington University Hospital, quick action that doctors credited with saving Reagan’s life.

Parr, who later became a pastor, believed that God had directed his life so he could save Reagan. His career had been inspired by a B-movie he’d seen as a boy in 1939. “Code of the Secret Service” featured a no-nonsense agent, Brass Bancroft — portrayed by none other than Reagan himself.

Never short for witty remarks, Reagan quipped to First Lady Nancy Reagan, “Honey, I forgot to duck.” Wheeled into the operating room, he told the medical staff he hoped they were all Republicans. “Today,” replied the surgeon, Joseph Giordano, a liberal Democrat, “we’re all Republicans.”  

These moments humanized Reagan and boosted his standing with the American people. After a 1980 campaign where he was dismissed as a warmongering cowboy and intellectual lightweight, the public had a chance to see him at his best when things were at their worst.

“Reagan’s ratings,” the AP wrote three days after the assassination attempt, “have been declining recently as opposition mobilized against his economic program.” On the day after the shooting, the Washington Post-ABC News poll found his approval rating had jumped 11 points.

Reagan escaped with his life, but Brady suffered brain damage and his death in 2014 was ruled a homicide. Parr wrote that the agency had visited the Hilton a hundred times in the decade preceding the attempt on Reagan’s life. “With routine,” he said, “comes boredom. With boredom comes distraction and letting down your guard. When that happens, people die.”

In the event, the agents surrounded both presidents in a phalanx, throwing their bodies in the line of fire. Trump, Mr. Biden, and others have already heaped praise on the detail at the Butler, Pennsylvania, rally.  Their reckoning will wait. First, the public wants stories like Parr’s to help them heal.

It’s not enough to see a president cheat death. We want to laugh with him as he stares into its inky black abyss. Reagan transformed his darkest hour into a legend and used the boost it gave him to deliver peace and prosperity. Now Trump has the same challenge and chance.