The ugly aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s assassination: It didn’t used to be like this

People attend a vigil for Charlie Kirk, who was shot at Utah Valley University on September 10. Melissa Majchrzak/AFP/Getty Images

The ugly political fighting that follows moments like Charlie Kirk’s assassination can feel all too familiar – and even unavoidable.

But it wasn’t always like this, even relatively recently.

The 24th anniversary of 9/11 on Thursday is a reminder that America didn’t used to respond to tragedies in this manner. People didn’t leap so eagerly and quickly to speculate about and politicize them, despite having next to no information. There was much less of a focus on capitalizing and more of a focus on our better angels.

And those better angels often prevailed. People generally declined to reflexively blame the easy culprits.

But – and this is the crucial