Opinion | We Cannot Go On Like This

Gail Collins: Bret, I really want to talk with you about the presidential debate and, um, regular politics, but first — attempted assassination.Bret Stephens: This is definitely the wrong kind of “déjà vu all over again,” to borrow a phrase.Gail: So depressed that we live in a world in which “but first — attempted assassination” is not really a surprise opening.Story for me is mostly about our dreaded gun culture, but let me open it up for you.Bret: Obviously, we are both relieved that the former president is unharmed: Elections must never be settled with bullets.

As for the attack itself, we’ll be learning a lot more about the suspect pretty soon, but my initial reaction is that this may well be another case of what Philip Roth called the “indigenous American berserk” — the lost souls, like Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme or John Hinckley Jr., who hunger for fame and imagine infamy is close enough.Gail: Totally agree, although keeping those folks from buying and owning guns would be an excellent plan, a simple way of letting the berserk be a little less … berserk.Here’s hoping this is the end of it.But back to the presidential debate.Tell me you watched it and decided, finally, that you’re voting for Kamala Harris.Bret: Uh, no.Gail: What? What? I’m expressing shock, since the entire world agrees she did a good job while Donald Trump revealed himself as just a reality TV star who thinks Haitian immigrants are eating cats and dogs in Ohio.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

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