A vital lesson in political grace, soulless media drives extremism and other commentary

Historian: A Vital Lesson in Political Grace

A week after “Charlie Kirk was silenced with a sniper rifle,” The Free Press’ Eli Lake finds a lesson in Rep. Shirley Chisholm’s 1972 visit to segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace and after he “was shot five times by a would-be assassin” and left paralyzed. Why did Chisholm, the first black woman elected to Congress and his presidential rival, visit her political opposite in the hospital? She “believed that grace had a place in public life.” The “visit marked the beginning of a quiet transformation in Wallace”; when he ran again in 1982, “he campaigned as a changed man.” Leaders today “see their job not as persuading the other side, but as punishing it,” but “we can choose another path — one that remembers that even our political rivals are human beings.”

Conservative: Soulless Media Drives Extremism

“The murder of Charlie Kirk” teaches us that “modern media culture is well on the way to completely corroding the human soul,” argues The Wall Street Journal’s Gerard Baker. The “online world” makes us “participants in the grotesque freak show” of “blood, rage, lies and loathing.” “Tendentious political interpretations” and “stomach-churning celebrations” of Kirk’s murder speak to a “dangerous escalation of rhetoric” — with a “grifting quality,” as the “rapacious, unending hunt for clicks and likes and donations and descriptions kicks into a frenzy.” A “recycling effect” ensues, as “hate and gore and menace” infect the “minds of the young men who then go out motivated to commit acts of murder.”

From the right: The Truth on Migrant Crime

Add Yordanis Cobos-Martinez’s alleged murder of his manager, Chandra Nagamallaiah, with a machete “to the list of terrible crimes committed by illegal immigrants,” fumes the Washington Examiner’s Byron York. Cobos-Martinez’s criminal history included arrests for carjacking and assaulting a child, but he avoided deportation. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) joined 155 other Democrats in voting against the Laken Riley Act in January, as Dems said “it did not respect the due process rights of illegal immigrants accused of crimes.” But “Khanna is sounding a bit tougher in the wake of the horror at the hotel in Dallas,” saying illegal migrants who commit “a violent crime should not be here after they have due process.” Sorry, says York: “The obvious fact is that” both Riley and Nagamallaiah’s murderers should’ve been “deported before they ever had a chance to kill.”

Intel beat: Schiff, Comey = Lying-Leak Central

“Recently declassified” 2017 documents link people “close” to ex-FBI boss James Comey and now-Sen. Adam Schiff to “leaks of classified information to prominent reporters designed to portray Donald Trump and his allies as being in league with Russia,” reports RealClearInvestigations’ Paul Sperry. The docs “expose how selected Washington reporters” — notably, at The Washington Post and New York Times — scored scoops “by repeating false and inflammatory leaks.” Though public info doesn’t “specifically identify the suspected leakers, an RCI analysis” points to “people close to Comey and Schiff.” One FBI source “told agents” that Schiff, the top Dem on the House Intelligence Committee, “authorized leaking classified ‘dirt’ to reporters” in a bid to have Trump impeached. Many suspect the probes of these leaks were “botched, likely on purpose.”

Liberal: Dems Should Fight Crime, Not Trump

Democrats’ opposition to President Trump’s use of National Guard in DC and his threat to deploy troops into Chicago “carries a risk: leading the public to believe the party is indifferent to their concerns about public safety,” warns Michael Baharaeen at the Liberal Patriot. In one recent poll, 81% “of Americans believe crime in big cities is a major problem,” and 66% “said the same about the country” — and 53% “still supported [Trump’s] handling of crime.” With Americans “worried about their safety in public,” it’s foolish for Dems to say, “Your fears aren’t legitimate.” To regain trust, Democrats “must get back to the basics, not just on crime but also on other social and cultural issues.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board