What do we do now?

Plus a round-up of recent appearances and an upcoming series.

It’s hard to put into words how awful the Charlie Kirk shooting was, a horrific crime for which we have to demand justice. This could be anyone tomorrow if we accept violence as normal. We can’t do that, on September 11th of all days, if the memory of those victims and all the heroes involved still means something, which I know it does.

Unfortunately, President Trump rushed to blame the “radical left” for “terrorism” even as his own FBI was forced to admit the wrong people were detained and they didn’t know who the killer was. Scott Presler, who I wrote about earlier this week, linked the murder to the filibuster that same night, saying “They are trying to kill us. What have we got to lose?” The Federalist put up a piece, which I won’t link to, entitled “The Democrat Party is a Domestic Terrorist Organization.” These and similar posts were designed to radicalize people and likely achieved that effect as they racked up millions and millions of views.

So what do we do now, if there aren’t two to tango? That’s the problem: the idea that other Americans are your enemy only leads in one direction. Away from productive politics. Toward long and bitter conflicts. But — and this is the key — that is not what people in the real world say they want. For years, people on their own doorsteps have described to me how much they hate the gridlock in DC, and the way that politicians talk about each other. These are people who may not know where they stand between Democrats and Republicans. I had a conversation like that just last weekend, with a woman who liked both me and JD Vance. That’s Western Pennsylvania, and a lot of the swing states.

If there’s one thing I’m confident about, it’s that the fate of this democracy will be decided in the near term by people who don’t want to be at war with each other. Conflict is exhausting and we need to present a way out. If people begin to accept war as the dominant metaphor, they may very well choose someone like Trump. But he’s an awful choice if politics is still about persuasion in any meaningful way.

For that, we need people with a vision of one country, not two. And we need to focus on problems like crime, that are going to be part of this debate whether we like it or not. The general public is ready to hear from us about what we would do, no matter how ridiculous and ineffective we think Trump’s ideas might be. And we can’t miss that. My father-in-law told me once about Ernie Holmes, a great Pittsburgh Steelers defensive lineman who could become so maniacally fixated on destroying his blocker that the ball-carrier would run right past him. We can’t let our eyes off the ball.

In furtherance of that, here are some things I’ve been up to, and what I’ll be doing in the near future:

• Tomorrow (Friday), at this link I’ll be hosting my first Substack Live conversation, this one with Danny Ceisler, an Army veteran running for Sheriff in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, one of the swingiest of swing counties anywhere in the country. According to polling in Danny’s race, Trump’s popularity is sinking there, which may tell us something important as Danny steps up to challenge the incumbent Republican sheriff for focusing too much on ICE and not enough on the needs of the community. Tune in on Substack at 1pm EST, Friday 9/12, here.

• Going forward I’d like to do more of these with people who are trying to make a difference on the ground, especially here in Pennsylvania. Stay tuned.

• I sat this week for a couple of podcasts: One was a joint venture of the “Citycast” teams in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. The other was with the Center for American Progress’s show, “The Tent.” Both of these were before the Kirk shooting and we talked about Fetterman, Trump, town halls, the economy, and more.

• I went on the BBC after the Kirk shooting and my Republican counterpart (a friend from my House days) seemed to compare Kirk to President Lincoln and MLK. These were some of my thoughts:

Hope to see you tomorrow afternoon. Thanks for reading.