ESSAY: A turning point

On Charlie Kirk, civic contempt, and the endangered idea at democracy's heart

1. Couples therapists will tell you it’s not fighting that worries them. It’s contempt that often proves fatal to a relationship.

2. What America is living through is not just disagreement, division, polarization; it is, above all, swelling civic contempt.

3. Disagreement, division, polarization are in the territory of “I think this way; you think that.” …