In a country with more guns than people and more churning digital hatred than it could ever have imagined, the chore of talking us down from the latest violent atrocity can fall to anyone.

A pastor in Baltimore, a sheriff in Texas, a mayor in Oregon, a first responder in Illinois, the point person responsible for the emotional wrangling of thoughts and prayers in the hours and days after another sickening display of our worst pathologies can emerge from almost anywhere.

Most recently it’s been a governor in Utah, Spencer Cox, manning the national grief pulpit after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Part counselor and part national scold, Cox drew plaudits from nearly all outposts of the political landscape, even if his message was complicated.

And complicated gene

See Full Page