7/22/2024

Last week’s curation at RealClear’s American Civics portal starts off by covering the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. At City Journal, historian Tevi Troy delves into the sometimes surprising history behind presidential assassinations in American history. As most Americans know, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were assassinated; but most probably don’t know that James Garfield and William McKinley were as well. And Troy recounts the failed attempts against “Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford (twice), Ronald Reagan, and now Trump.” In light of this, Troy gives his readers two lessons: “First, for all the skill and bravery of the Secret Service agents who protect presidents, sometimes they need help from ordinary citizens.” And the second lesson is that, given the contentiousness of American politics, “we all need to watch our public rhetoric.” “Framing our policy differences, however serious, in hysterical terms, as too many Americans have been doing for too long,” Troy writes, “raises the prospect of extremists or mentally damaged people taking matters into their own hands.”

At The Blaze, Guy Shepherd gives Americans a lesson on equality, properly understood. He outlines what the American founders meant by “all men are created equal” and how equality has been misunderstood today. As Shepherd writes, the understanding of natural human equality taught in the Declaration of Independence “doesn’t say everyone is equal under every circumstance and across the board.” Instead, it means that “each of us is born not to be a master or a slave but rather a self-governing citizen.” “Understand this: It is only because all are created equal that all are free.” Shepherd closes by noting, “Every human being is born for self-government, politically and personally. Equality extends the franchise of political liberty and its free pursuits to the human family.” This is what the novus ordo seclorum was about at its core.