When shots rang out at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, Corey Comperatore’s first impulse was to throw himself in front of his family.
He died a hero.
Even before he lost his life protecting his family, Comperatore was an everyday hero whose unsung acts of sacrifice and service helped preserve American society as we know it.
Those were the words of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (Democrat) when he described Comperatore during a press conference the day after the 50-year-old father of two was killed.
“Hero” was also the word Lowry found when a New York Times reporter visited him at his home in the small town of Hindman, Pennsylvania (population 854) and asked him about his friend and fellow volunteer firefighter, Geoff Lowry.
More than a hero
“Hero” is a strange word. Usually, the people to whom it applies most want nothing to do with it. They shrug in embarrassment. Anyone could have done it, they say.
Corey Comperatore isn’t dissenting here, but from what little we know about him — and what little we will continue to know as our attention shifts and those who loved him grieve in peace — he was not the kind of man you’d want to call a hero.
A good neighbor, a loyal friend, a loving husband and father.
Comperatore’s daily life portrays a man guided by a strong yet humble sense of duty. He supported his family by working in a local plastics factory until the following year, It will be 30 years.He cared for his community by serving as a volunteer fire chief and helping those in need, he took care of his own home, lawn, car and boat.
He was caring for two dogs, Dobermans, who the Times notes were “well-trained” — a poignant detail in part because with every new story about a horrific attack, another dog owner comes forward who simply didn’t care for them.
The Comperatore’s steady and quiet management of all that was his gift did not make him a hero, a man of noble honour, but a man of note nonetheless – a respectable citizen.
Forgotten virtues
How quaint and trite. It’s been so long since we thought of citizenship as a virtue to be practiced. To love America, to be proud of it, to prefer it to any other country, to understand America as a body of shared ideals and values to be respected and defended, is to reject nuance and embrace bigotry. Patriotism is the last bastion of fools.
It used to be easy to make fun of these rednecks. America. NASCAR. Mission accomplished. Baby Boomers dressed up as Tea Partiers. Then 2016 hit. Suddenly, the civic-minded elites who take pleasure in urging Americans to vote have lost their patronizing grins. Yes, vote. But… that.
The people had spoken out, but now they needed to be protected from themselves. The laptop crowd quickly came up with the “faithless elector” scheme, a quick Ctrl+Alt+Delete solution to this whole mess.
It didn’t work, but they tried, and we must never forget that when we talk about January 6th in particular. The protesters may have acted rashly, but their suspicions that the election was rigged have been stoked ever since Trump’s first preemptive attack on his legitimacy.
But which attempted “insurrection” was more damaging? As Woody Guthrie once sang, “Some people rob you with a six-shooter, some people rob you with a fountain pen.” (Incidentally, only one protester fired a gun that day, much less pointed it anywhere; he fired into the air.)
why so serious?
Either way, Donald Trump remained in office, and a liberal “resistance” quickly formed. Resistant to what? Yes, the wave of oppression that Trump is about to unleash on women, Muslims, gays, immigrants, blacks, and Jews. But mainly, it was that there was someone in the White House who was vulgar and vulgar enough to break the unspoken “norm” of speaking to the nation with the usual awkward, self-indulgent “fake pathos,” to borrow the phrase of an insightful and prolific X-poster. Fisher King.
“[Trump] He never stares straight into the camera and expects readers to be moved by his empty drivel. He jokes with his readers. Government is serious, but a little silly.”
“Make America Great Again,” like almost all campaign slogans, captures this serious-but-silly quality. It is, in fact, less substantive than “Hope and Change.” But unlike the latter, “Make America Great Again” at least dares to use the “A word.” It dares to speak to the American people.
Not just any particular race of people, as the media has cynically tried to have us believe; but all people who care not only about their own prosperity, but also the prosperity of those around them, their families, their communities, their states, and their nations. Trump was the first president in a long time to acknowledge many of the people America had long ago stopped reaching out to. That in itself is a breath of fresh air.
Liberals who call MAGA a “cult” fancy themselves the only ones who can separate empty political rhetoric from the essence of their candidate. It’s not that the people who flock to Trump rallies don’t realize that Trump is putting on a show. His showmanship, and the way it inflames the elites, is part of the fun.
Critics who say Trump doesn’t care about these people or will do nothing to help them are also missing the point. The more rooted you are in your community, the more you realize who is elected president has little or no impact on your daily life. There’s a reason it’s considered bad manners to bring up politics or religion at your local barbershop: People who interact primarily face-to-face can’t afford to hate each other.
Even if we may disagree on overall issues, even serious ones, ultimately it’s more practical to focus on what unites us and our neighbors. Just as there are no atheists in the trenches, there are no ideologues in a burning house.
Politics above all else
For the past eight years, Democratic Party leaders have done everything they can to undermine this uniquely American way of interacting. With the help of a sympathetic mainstream media, they have relentlessly demonized Trump and his supporters as traitors, racists, fascists, Russian conspirators, and other baseless accusations. They want to make sure that everyone is okay with it. Must They put political loyalty above all other concerns.
The widespread riots of summer 2020 have seen such loyalties enforced through violence. As writer Matt Meehan puts it: Recently in the spotlightDemocratic leaders “have created a new norm where violent protest is acceptable if it serves certain partisan goals, and peace, law and order can be withheld as political gain unless the American people vote in the right direction.”
While this campaign to intimidate Trump supporters has worked in certain “high profile” industries exposed to the pressures of the internet and public opinion, it has failed to garner much support in many places where Americans still speak freely. Butler, Pennsylvania, is one example. Anyone who has been to such places knows that the partisan distrust in our country flows mostly in one direction. If you have a Biden bumper sticker on your Prius, people may think you’re stupid, but they’re not going to think you’re evil. As long as you mind your manners and your job, you’ll be fine.
If only the left would show the same courtesy to its opponents. As the reality of Trump’s victory has grown, there has been an increasingly heated debate about the existential threat it poses to the nation and the unprecedented urgency of ensuring that never happens. The heat culminated in a New Republic magazine cover depicting Trump as Hitler.
A gruesome fantasy of revenge
The recent calls for moderation ring hollow, to say the least, coming from the same people who for nearly a decade have incited the nation to the most extreme fantasies of revenge, including a range of humiliations against Trump, from arrest and rape to assassination.
Most of these fantasies serve a specific sadistic need: to see Trump revealed as the man he really is behind his alpha-male, insult-comedian swagger, finally stripped of his wealth, power, and charisma. It’s not enough to just kick Trump off the stage; first people have to see their hero reduced to a pathetic, whimpering wimp and begging for mercy, like Nick Offerman’s Trump analogue in this spring’s box office smash, “Civil War.”
If anything could shatter Trump’s mask of confidence it would be a near bullet to the head, but somehow Trump remained true to character, maintaining the composure to turn this horrific near-death experience into a victory for both himself and his supporters.
The image of Trump seconds after the bullet grazed his ear, his face streaked with blood, his fists raised in defiance, is already iconic. It will undoubtedly be remembered as long as there are people who tell the story of American history. Whatever you say about Trump, his reverence as a kind-hearted American folk hero is no longer so laughable. He may not have intended it, but he was about to make the ultimate sacrifice for his country.
Heroes… and Martyrs
The public record of Corey Comperatore’s sacrifice is much more modest. Reply to X Thousands of comments have now become an impromptu memorial to an article about him in which he expressed plans to attend a Trump rally and say he would be killed there. Accompanying the article about him are a few mundane, low-res photos from Facebook: a photo of Comperatore’s uniform and helmet hanging outside the fire station where he once worked.
The word hero comes from ancient Greek heromeans “protector” or “defender.” Even before they lost their lives protecting their families, comperatores were heroes of sorts — ordinary heroes whose everyday, unsung acts of sacrifice and service uphold American society as we know it.
If the fabric of our society has frayed in recent years, it won’t be politicians who will fix it. It will be people like Mr. Comperatore, who, by the simple act of showing up to support a candidate, demonstrated an unwavering optimistic belief in America’s future. And people like each of us, if we’re up to the task.
“Comperatore’s family, friends and neighbors who loved and depended on him will mourn him quietly and in a thousand small ways in the days, weeks and years to come. Each of us should aspire to live our own lives in such a way that we feel our own deaths just as deeply. May the senseless death of this brave man give us the courage to rise to that challenge.
