ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Using funerals for political purposes has a long, but not distinguished, tradition. In 44 B.C. eulogist Mark Antony claimed to Roman mourners that he came to bury Caesar. But his speech created a frenzy and ended up ensuring a death warrant for the once “honorable” Brutus.
In contrast, aside from the commemoration of the dead, Americans mostly have seen funerals as solemn reminders of how frail and transitory life is for all of us, and how our shared fates should unite even the bitterest of enemies.
Sixteen years ago, on the eve of the 2002 midterm elections, and at a time when the United States was beginning to divide over the Afghanistan intervention and a looming Iraq war, Sen. Paul Wellstone, Minnesota Democrat, tragically died in a plane accident.
Mr. Wellstone’s Minnesota funeral was meant to be a commemoration of a life of public servant well lived. But the funeral service was soon hijacked by partisan speakers and ended up a loud and often grating political pep rally.
The message to mourners of all beliefs and persuasions was to translate their grief into votes for progressive candidates like Mr. Wellstone. Popular discontent over news of the politicalized funeral may well have explained why, two weeks later, the in-power Republicans actually picked up seats in George W. Bush’s first midterm election.
At the recent eight-hour, televised funeral of iconic singer Aretha Franklin, many of the speakers such as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson turned the event into a political wake — calling for everything from increased voter registration to tighter standards on drinking water.
Activist and professor Michael Eric Dyson embarrassed himself with adolescent hits against President Donald Trump: “You lugubrious leech, you dopey doppelgnger of deceit and deviance, you lethal liar, you dimwitted dictator, you foolish fascist.”
On the next day, the televised state funeral for Sen. John McCain likewise became just as political.
Mr. McCain and President Trump were hardly friends. During the 2016 election, Mr. Trump had in crude fashion impugned Mr….
