I didn\u2019t laugh when Charlie Kirk died.\u00a0\u00a0And I didn\u2019t crow either.\u00a0\u00a0No one should die at the end of a rifle barrel, or on the tip of a blade.\u00a0\u00a0Even those that I oppose politically and morally, I don\u2019t want physically dead.\u00a0\u00a0Isn\u2019t that the essence of civic contests?\u00a0\u00a0We want our view to prevail, but we don\u2019t want our opponent in a coffin.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, as the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania showed, the \u201cshadow of death\u201d changes everything, even Presidential elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What we should expect in American political\u00a0\u00a0discourse is that we will fight\u00a0\u00a0for our beliefs, and our opposition will fight for theirs.\u00a0\u00a0But when we face the common opponent of extreme violence, we should stand together to oppose it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s where America has been.\u00a0\u00a0John McCain made it clear in 2008, when he spoke out against the old woman who called Obama an \u201cArab\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0He said, \u201cNo ma\u2019am, he\u2019s a decent family man and a citizen.\u00a0\u00a0I just disagree with him on important issues.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Abraham Lincoln made this clear.\u00a0\u00a0He did not call for the execution of Davis and Lee and the other leaders of the Confederacy.\u00a0\u00a0He set the American standard in his second inaugural address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWith malice toward none, with charity for all.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Donald Trump is a citizen, and now President.\u00a0\u00a0I don\u2019t wish him dead, though I do wish him out of office.\u00a0\u00a0I will do all I can to achieve the latter, not the former.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last weekend, Rob Reiner and his wife were stabbed to death in their home.\u00a0\u00a0Today, it seems likely that their own son committed the deed.\u00a0\u00a0Reiner was one of the most talented movie makers of our generation.\u00a0\u00a0He made dozens, some that defined their decade.\u00a0\u00a0Reiner directed \u201cStand By Me\u201d, \u201cA Few Good Men\u201d, \u201cThis is Spinal Tap\u201d, and \u201cWhen Harry Met Sally\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And for an earlier generation, he was the actor who starred as \u201cMeathead\u201d on the seminal comedy series, \u201cAll in the Family\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reiner was also a Progressive political warrior.\u00a0\u00a0He fought for all sorts of progressive causes, and saw Donald Trump as a massive threat to American Democracy.\u00a0\u00a0He and the President were not on the same side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the moment of death, it is a mark of leadership to show \u201cgrace\u201d to your opponents. Here\u2019s what Donald Trump said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and uncurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the President of the United States, after the brutal murder of an American citizen, perhaps, at the hand of his own son.\u00a0\u00a0Trump makes it clear: dare oppose me, and create anger enough to be killed.\u00a0\u00a0There:\u00a0\u00a0it is the \u201cunspoken threat\u201d, spoken aloud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And, for my truly MAGA friends \u2013 this isn\u2019t an \u201cAI\u201d hoax.\u00a0\u00a0These are the words of the 47th<\/sup>\u00a0President (or, at least the words of those who Trump empowered to write for the 47th<\/sup>\u00a0President).\u00a0\u00a0They remain, two days later, still on Trump\u2019s own social media site, \u201cTruth Social\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Obama often was able to put into words the grief of the Nation.\u00a0\u00a0Joe Biden took his own personal grief, and shared the burden of loss with those loved ones in mourning.\u00a0\u00a0President Bush was able to rally a Nation after 9-11 without calling for a war against religion.\u00a0\u00a0But President Trump, well, he claims that Reiner was killed for his \u201cTrump Derangement Syndrome\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is the obvious egocentricity in that:\u00a0\u00a0it\u2019s all about Trump.\u00a0\u00a0It looks likely now, the gruesome crime was not.\u00a0\u00a0But more significantly for the Nation, there is an obvious lack of grace.\u00a0\u00a0And, this is not some post from a local teacher, or the ranting of some social media addicted shut-in, rejoicing about the death of Charlie Kirk. (There were a few).\u00a0\u00a0This is the President of the United States, leading our Nation, setting the example of how Americans should deal with political conflict and real tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no \u201cgrace\u201d in Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0His own near miss with death did nothing to make him a better human.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0What it left is a President who takes pleasure in the death of those who oppose him.\u00a0\u00a0What could be more un-American?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reiner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Failed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Grace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n