Once again, an assassin’s hate ripped a hole in America’s heartland. Once again, we heard wise heads warning us this one may be the worst – the start of the civil war that finally shreds the democracy that has united our states.

So, shaken once again, after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, hero and leader of our right-wing youth, we looked to our nation’s leaders to finally lead us to a safer place. Not something new and complicated. Just please get us back to that safe place The Greatest Generation secured for our United States, not all that long ago.

And so we listened Wednesday as our president began to lead us by addressing our United States from his desk in the Oval Office: “To my great fellow Americans, I'm filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah….”

President Donald Trump warmly praised his young campus advocate who had just been killed by a single shot from a faraway roof. As Trump spoke his backdrop included America’s flag, dangling from a pole behind his desk in a most specific way, so that one of the blood red stripes angled down until it disappeared directly behind his right ear that we all remember seeing covered with his blood on that historically iconic moment in Butler, Pa., a mere 60 days earlier when another would-be assassin’s bullet merely grazed and bloodied that same ear – and we all thanked the Lord for sparing our president.

Now, strong as ever, our president got to the portion of this Wednesday leadership speech we know he personally relished. For he was well aware it would appeal powerfully to his party’s segment in each of our still-united states, but was sure to enrage his opponents’.

“It's long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree, day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump said Wednesday.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans, like Charlie, to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now…

“From the attack on my life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, which killed a husband and father, to the attacks on ICE agents, to the vicious murder of a healthcare executive in the streets of New York, to the shooting of House majority leader, Steve Scalise and three others, radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives.”

Then Trump stopped his list – before mentioning equally outrageous attacks on Democrats and their families: When an attacker broke into the San Francisco home of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and bashed her husband’s head when she wasn’t there; when an arsonist ignited the official residence of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; when a gunman assassinated Minnesota’s former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and also shot and wounded State Senator John A. Hoffman and his wife, Yvette; when criminals planned to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer; and when a would-be assassin shot and crippled Arizona’s then-U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords.

Then, on Friday morning, he went on “Fox and Friends” and again chose to single out for blame only his left-wing opposition. He said: “The radicals on the right often times are radical because they don’t want to see crime (committed)... The radicals on the left are the problem – and they’re vicious and they’re horrible.”

So patriots of all political persuasions were still looking for presidential leadership when a Republican governor few of us knew met with journalists who were covering Kirk’s assassination.

Indeed, we all can hope our president’s staff will do their boss the huge favor of replaying for their boss the words of Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox. Scroll to the part where Utah’s leader demonstrates the sort of leadership that is truly presidential, as he says:

“We can return violence with violence; we can return hate with hate. That’s the problem with political violence. It metastasizes. We can always point the finger at the other side. And at some point we have to find an off-ramp – or it’s going to get much, much worse... Every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.

“And I desperately call on every American – Republicans, Democrats, liberals, progressives, conservatives, MAGA – all of us, to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.” He offered a suggestion:

“Social media is a cancer on our society right now. And I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community.”

Perhaps we can even make the United States united again.

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