EDITORIAL: We must stay calm and unite around the American experiment

When Benjamin Franklin was asked whether we had a republic or a monarchy, he said we have a republic, “if you can keep it.”

Despite numerous wars, internal civil unrest and deep political divisions, we’ve managed to hold that republic together for nearly 250 years, becoming one of the longest forms of government in world history and one of the most benevolent countries the earth has ever seen.

We are the leader of the free world and, like it our not, we have an obligation to preserve freedom like no other nation.

Last weekend’s assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump in which one man was killed and two more were critically wounded marks the latest test of the American experiment. What had been unspoken for months and even years occurred in broad daylight Saturday afternoon in Butler, Pennsylvania, before thousands of horrified rallygoers and those watching the event live on TV.

Thankfully, the former president suffered only a bullet wound to an ear, although he came about an inch from the end of his life. The red Make America Great Again hat he was wearing at the time could well end up in the Smithsonian Institution. Images of Trump saying “fight” with a fist raised as he was whisked off by the stage by Secret Service agents are now forever seared in the American conscience.

“I was shot with a bullet that pierced the upper part of my right ear,” Trump said Saturday night. “I knew immediately that something was wrong in that I heard a whizzing sound, shots, and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin.”

Tragically, 50-year-old former fire chief and “girl dad” Corey Comperatore was killed in the grandstand while shielding his family from gunfire. Two other Pennsylvania residents also shot at the rally, David Dutch, 57, and James Copenhaver, 74, are thankfully both in stable condition.

Politico described it as “pandemonium and bloodshed unlike any other presidential campaign event in decades.”

The 20-year-old killer from Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, who was perched on a rooftop about 150 yards away from the stage, was shot and killed by Secret Service agents.

It was a colossal security failure. Until recent years when shooting became more dynamic, the minimum annual rifle qualification distance in the U.S. Marine Corps was 200 yards, and that’s with the naked eye. Questions about how someone with a rifle could get so close to the former president in an obvious sniper perch and within a direct line of fire of the most widely known man in the world could dog the Secret Service for years.

Trump would have had no Secret Service protection whatsoever if legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Mississippi, had been signed into law.

In April, Thompson, the chairman of the January 6th Select Committee, and eight House co-sponsors — which thank goodness did not include any representatives from New Mexico — introduced the Denying Infinite Security and Government Resources Allocated toward Convicted and Extremely Dishonorable Former Protectees Act.

Thompson and those eight Democrat co-sponsors should be asked if they still support the DISGRACE Act after Saturday’s attempted assassination of Trump. We should all be able to unite against that disgusting and repulsive legislation.

President Joe Biden was correct to beef up Trump’s Secret Service protection in the aftermath of Saturday’s assassination attempt, although independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. still lacks any Secret Service protection. That has to change. RFK Jr. knows the risks of running for president probably better than anyone having witnessed his dad’s assassination at a Los Angeles hotel on June 5, 1968, when RFK Jr. was just 14 years old. RFK Jr. is a sufficiently high-profile candidate to merit immediate Secret Service protection.

Given the extraordinarily dangerous threat environment, suspending outdoor rallies with their wide angles of potential attack would seem prudent for all the presidential candidates, and would be reassuring to the nation. We still have three and a half months to go before Election Day and tensions are boiling over. We need to get to the election with no more acts of political violence.

Passion during a presidential election is democracy in action. Political violence is the antithesis.

Biden was correct Sunday when he said we need to lower the temperature of our political discourse. We’ll do our part in the coming weeks on our Opinion pages, dispensing with the “threat to democracy” hyperbolic rhetoric. We hope Biden follows his own advice.

It’s going to be a busy news cycle this week with the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, the announcement of Trumps’ running mate, more details emerging about the assassination attempt and the killer and his victims, increasing palace intrigue regarding forcing Biden out of the race, and a special legislative session on public safety right here in New Mexico.

Many of us are still in shock, although we feared it could come to a crisis point like this. Trump has both ardent supporters and ardent opponents in every part of the state. They are our neighbors, our co-workers and if we let them be, our friends.

It’s incumbent upon all of us to tone down the political rhetoric and reaffirm our commitment to the American experiment. None of us want more political violence. It’s not the American way. It’s not the way we solve our differences. Elections serve that purpose.

We call on all New Mexicans — MAGA, anti-MAGA or otherwise — to denounce violence and embrace the American experiment of nearly 250 years.

New Mexicans are a deeply patriotic bunch, regardless of political persuasion, regardless of political divisions. We tend to forget that sometimes until Memorial Day, the Fourth of July or Veterans Day rolls around.

Let us show the nation that patriotic spirit this week, through our words and our deeds, while shining a spotlight on our American flags on our porches and in our yards, with pride and in peace.