RALEIGH — Recent assassinations and attempts on the lives of politicians, commentators and other high-profile leaders are horrifying, wreaking havoc on our political discourse. Those who commit, welcome or excuse such outrageous crimes differ in ideology, but most share a common objective: to provoke a wider war that, they assume, will result in victory for their “side.”
They are, in other words, delusional.
No, I don’t deny the violence could spread. We should all pray it does not, and do whatever we can to forestall it. But Americans aren’t going to wage another civil war. The vast majority will never respond with violence to the country’s social and economic problems. Indeed, the vast majority say they’re satisfied with how their lives are going. As for our very real problems, none are comparable to the persistent institution of slavery, with its corrosive effects on the politics, character, and constitutional order of its day…