The American flag blows in the wind at Butler Fairgrounds after the attempted assassination of former president Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

I was shocked when I heard on the way back from Zoom Flume, of all places, that a gunman had fired at Donald Trump. I was amazed and shocked again when I saw the replay of the mayhem, the blood, the chaos, the pumping fist.

But then, I was also surprised at my surprise.

We have, after all, been on a slow-motion descent toward the assassination of a major political figure, with a deepening and ugly divide in which both sides see the other as not merely wrong but evil. We’ve all known it. We’ve all seen it among our friends and families.

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It’s like we’ve simultaneously lost our way, and though we recognize the national madness, we don’t know how to escape it. It’s terrifying. It’s mutual self-destruction.

And now, a firefighter named Corey Comperatore has died because of his political beliefs, shot as he sat behind the candidate he supported. Two more people from that villainized group of Americans called “Trump supporters” are in serious condition, as of this writing, again because of........

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