When Ronald Reagan was shot on 30 March 1981, his wound was not immediately noticed. It wasn’t until he started bleeding from the mouth that the car was diverted from the White House to the hospital. The story goes that upon arrival, the president said to the surgeons, ‘I just hope you’re Republicans.’ A doctor is said to have replied: ‘Today, Mr. President, we’re all Republicans.’

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American politics has sunk so low into the cesspit of political despair, there will be a rare few who can’t bring themselves to say this. Rather than muster up the humour of Reagan, or the humanity of the doctors, they won’t hesitate to keep pouring petrol onto a nation already ablaze. Those takes won’t be received very well. If there is anything left tying America’s national fabric together, it’s that such instances of violence can’t be tolerated.