Legislative, court actions have made politics harsh

The shooting of Steve Scalise, the Republican House whip and second baseman, has inspired a new round of soul-searching about why politics is so mean these days.
The answer is not in our souls. It’s in our laws.
The June 14 shooting of Scalise and three other people by a left-wing nut at a Republican team baseball practice in Alexandria, Va., might in fact not be a symptom of the vitriol everybody accuses everybody else of these days. Violence has been a feature of American political cultu