Politicizing funerals will not end well.

Victor Davis Hanson writes in American Greatness,

...Once a funeral is turned into politics, then politics takes on a life of its own. Meghan McCain, Obama, and Bush were apparently all unaware of the paradox of calling for greater tolerance and civility while using a funeral occasion to score political uncivil points against a sitting president.

Once solemnity is sacrificed, it becomes legitimate to remember that Bush himself once infamously looked into the eyes of Putin and said he saw a soul “straightforward” and “trustworthy”—a characterization mocked by John McCain.

Obama had waged an often brutal 2008 campaign against McCain that saw low insinuations leveled at McCain as too old and at times near senile. Bush was accused by McCain in 2000 of running a dirty primary battle.

Why are funerals of celebrities and politicians turning into extended and televised political rallies?

Partly, the volatile Donald Trump and his frantic political and media critics are locked in a crude, no-holds-barred war against each other—waged everywhere nonstop.

Partly, everything in America has become politicized. There is no escape from partisanship—not in movies, sitcoms, comic books, late-night TV, professional sports, social media, the Internet and 24/7 cable news. Not even the dead escape it.

Now the funerals of notables apparently will be televised, scripted, and offer good ratings for political score-settling. Nothing is left sacrosanct.

Politicizing funerals will not end well.

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