| Gabby Giffords has a before and an after. The former congresswoman used to love getting to know her Arizona constituents, hashing out their concerns, even civilly disagreeing. Then, shortly after her election to a third term in 2011, an assassination attempt left her with a traumatic brain injury — and left six others dead. In an op-ed reflecting on the stabbing death last week of British member of Parliament David Amess, Giffords mourns how violence against government officials has become the norm. "Amess was doing exactly what I was doing on that day near Tucson — listening, connecting," she writes. "But he paid for his public service with his life." Giffords says Amess's death makes clear that "the problem of politicized violence is endemic around the world." And here at home, the proliferation of guns has exacerbated this "rot eating away at the heart of our democracy." The world must take these threats seriously, she argues, and then take concrete steps to get violence and guns out of the democratic process. No politician should fear that having their life cleaved into before and after — or cut short entirely — is the price of serving.  (Mario Tama/Getty Images) It's time to end political violence. By Gabby Giffords ● Read more » | | | | Courts have been judiciously reluctant to referee tussles between the political — the legislative and executive — branches. Making an exception here is merited. By George F. Will ● Read more » | | | | To the Trump crowd, contempt for the law is a given. By Ruth Marcus ● Read more » | | | | Upholding the Mississippi law without overruling the court's previous abortion cases would lack support in any legal source, send even more abortion cases to the court and curb the justices' ability to overrule 'Roe' down the road. By Sherif Girgis ● Read more » | | | | They may have had little choice but to design the social infrastructure plan as they did. But Democrats are now the party of kludgeocracy. By Paul Waldman ● Read more » | | | Dogs can break the ice. Can humans follow? By Kathleen Parker ● Read more » | | | | Let's be clear: Using a Senate filibuster to obstruct the Freedom to Vote Act was just as subversive as state actions to roll back access to the franchise. By Colbert I. King ● Read more » | | | | In journalism, credibility comes in part from owning up to one's errors. By David Von Drehle ● Read more » | | | | The problems are too deep-seated to be dented by a "90-day sprint." They'll last deep into 2022. By Daniel Yergin and Peter Tirschwell ● Read more » | | | | Threats, intimidation and efforts to protect Donald Trump signal trouble ahead. By Greg Sargent ● Read more » | | | | Mastering the art of inside-baseball negotiating legislation has nothing to do with showing the kind of consistent, public leadership that a successful presidency requires. By Henry Olsen ● Read more » | | | |
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