The Enduring Sadness of Our Politics
The Enduring Sadness of Our Politics
Solidarity is in very short supply.
Hi folks. This week’s been another hectic one, but I wanted to get a Daly Grind newsletter out before the end of the week. I thought this well-received piece that I wrote yesterday for BernardGoldberg.com would be a good one to re-post here. It’s about politics, but it’s not political (if that make sense). I hope you find it agreeable.
On Monday night the New York Post published an interview of sorts with Helen Comperatore, wife of Corey Comperatore, the hero firefighter who was shot and killed during the assassination attempt on former president Donald Trump. Corey died as he was shielding members of his family from the shooter’s fire.
I was expecting the piece to be sad, and it certainly was. The Comperatore family is suffering through an unimaginable loss that no one should have to experience.
In regard to the political finger-pointing that’s since taken place, and is still running hot in our discourse, Helen made clear that she doesn’t blame President Biden for her husband’s murder.
“I don’t have any ill-will towards Joe Biden,” she told the Post. “I’m not one of those people that gets involved in politics. I support Trump, that’s who I’m voting for but I don’t have ill-will towards Biden … He didn’t do anything to my husband. A 20-year-old despicable kid did.”
Yet, she doesn’t want to talk to Biden. The president reached out to console her and her family after the shooting, but she turned down the call.
“My husband was a devout Republican and he would not have wanted me to talk to him,” she explained. She added that Donald Trump had yet to reach out to her family (he since has).
That revelation struck me as additionally sad. The Comperatore family should of course mourn their loss however they see fit, without judgment from others. They’re owed that. What the position nonetheless validates is just how incredibly contentious our political divisions are.
That a widow would feel as though she’s dishonoring her late husband’s memory by accepting words of comfort from a U.S. president of the opposition party is unfortunate to say the least, but it’s where we’re at as a nation. I’m guessing millions of other Americans, from both sides of the political aisle, would feel the same way under similar circumstances.
By the time you read this short piece, a lot of the talk we’ve heard in recent days about the need to lower our nation’s political temperature will have probably subsided. Most individuals who found themselves stepping out of their hardened political corners for a rare moment of solidarity and personal reflection, in the wake of Saturday’s violence, will have returned. There’s no one incident in an environment this contentious that’s going to achieve lasting goodwill — not in the arena of politics.
Still, it’s worth remembering that the main purpose of politics is to avoid violent societal-conflict. Politics, by design, are a mechanism for making decisions through peaceful means and compromise. They’re not supposed to be our identity. They’re not supposed to be a form of entertainment. They’re certainly not supposed to be our religion. And contrary to a lot of good-faith commentary over the past few days, they’re really not even supposed to be about unity (civility and unity are two different things).
Who can fix our politics, or at least tilt them in a better direction, are people of good character — principled individuals, including in positions of leadership, who respect the Constitution and have a deep, invested interest in the betterment of American society.
Those are the people we should get behind, and the people that civic-minded Americans should aspire to be.
The Hullabaloo
A new episode of The Daly Express dropped today. I talked to columnist A.B. Stoddard about some of this week’s big political stories. A.B.’s a brilliant analyist who I’m proud to call a friend.
Below is a preview of our discussion. You can watch the full episode here, or listen to it as a podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. And if you’d like to follow The Daly Express podcast on either of those platforms, I’d appreciate it.
Random Thought
Obligatory Dog Shot
Resting “shocked” face.
Catch Up on the Sean Coleman Thrillers
All of my Sean Coleman Thriller novels can be purchased through Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Books-A-Million, and wherever else books are sold.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading today’s Daly Grind.
Want to drop me a line? You can email me at johndalybooks@hotmail.com, and also follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and now Threads! If you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter yet, please click on the “Subscribe now” button below. Doing so will get these posts emailed directly to you.
Also, if you’re not caught up on my Sean Coleman Thrillers, you can pick the entire series up at a great price on Amazon. And if you’re interested in signed, personalized copies of my books, you can order them directly from my website.
Take care. And I’ll talk to you soon!
Excellent column, John. It reveals the mostly unhinged mental paralysis gripping both parties. Civility has vanished. And where has all the kindness gone?
John, great column as usual but in your line “ Who can fix our politics, or at least tilt them in a better direction, are people of good character — principled individuals, including in positions of leadership, who respect the Constitution and have a deep, invested interest in the betterment of American society.”I take some measure of issue.
While principled leadership and the other criteria is certainly required, I’m afraid there is far too much raging division to allow even the best of leaders to course correct this ship.
Our freedoms of expression have reached the point of tolerated absurdity.
Riots are coined “protest events”, destruction of businesses and property are looked upon as “angry rightful restitution” blatant criminal activity in our cities are resolved by virtual wrist slaps by our corrupted justice system and an attempted assasination of a political figure goes into a months long
Congressional inquiry only to end up virtually nowhere in time.
I believe the American experiment, if you will has ended. We are a society far too divided in principles, caring for one another, and general leadership to ever get back on reasonable track.
The daily “ugly” gets uglier. The political voices get edited to suit the narratives. The media media rages on in its campaign to revile on side while regaling the other.
There is no centering and seemingly none in sight.
Give up? Never. Return to beliefs and actions that made this country great? Maybe in time. But not time I can perceive.