Opinion: Politics has become too nasty to recognize a hero

Before I realized it was the FBI, not the Secret Service, that killed an alleged wannabe assassin, I got to thinking about an old movie, “In the Line of Fire,” and fished it out of my DVD collection to watch again.

It’s about a Secret Service agent played by Clint Eastwood and a would-be assassin played by John Malkovich — and it’s still well worth watching.

Let me say on the front end that I consider Eastwood one of the greatest moviemakers of our time, although he didn’t “make” this one. He starred in it, yes, but Wolfgang Petersen was the director, so in my mind it’s disqualified from the list of Eastwood masterpieces (“Gran Torino,” “Million Dollar Baby,” “Richard Jewel” and others he directed). But it does have some of the markings of an Eastwood-directed movie, which makes me wonder if ol’ Clint learned some of his directing skills from Petersen.

In Petersen’s 1993 movie, Eastwood’s Secret Service character is haunted by his failure to save John F. Kennedy from assassination in 1963, while Malkovich’s character is a CIA-trained killer who goes rogue and decides to seek vengeance against the nation that turned him into a professional killer by assassinating the president.

Over this past weekend, after re-watching “In the Line of Fire,” I watched a special feature about the real-life trials and tribulations that Secret Service agents go through — including and especially their duty to “take a bullet” for those they protect.

According to the feature, would-be agents go through intensive training to take that bullet — and, as real-life video from the 1981 assassination attempt of Ronald Reagan shows, they actually do. The vintage film shows an agent positioning himself in harm’s way (and, as a result, was shot in the chest) to save President Reagan.

That agent’s name is Tim McCarthy and he survived. He’s 74 years old now, and in my book, still a hero for doing his job.

But that was then and this is now. If he were to have done that today, would this nation come together to praise his courage and commitment, or would some express their displeasure with saving our president?

On Aug. 9 — the day after Biden visited New Mexico — FBI agents gunned down Craig Robertson at his home in Provo, Utah, after showing up with warrants for his arrest and to search his residence.

Robertson had allegedly made threats against Biden and Alvin Bragg, the New York prosecutor who first indicted Donald Trump last April, and the Secret Service had referred Robertson to the FBI as a potential threat as Biden was scheduled to visit Utah.

Reportedly, Robertson was a self-described “MAGA Trumper” who was shot by agents after a short morning standoff at his home.

As of this writing, not many details have been disclosed about the verbal exchange that took place just before agents shot and killed the 74-year-old man as his home in Provo.

It’s too early to know if the FBI acted appropriately in attempting to serve their warrants but I’m certain it’s not too early to politicize the incident. Far-right extremists have long since concluded the FBI has been “weaponized” against them, so it won’t be long before we hear them shouting about the “murder” of Robertson.

Seems we can’t recognize heroes anymore. Politics has become way too nasty for that.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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