Candidates’ Responses to San Bernardino Killings Lack Vision Befitting a President

There was a scene in a Season 4 episode of The West Wing when GOP presidential nominee Robert Ritchie (James Brolin), responding to the murder of a Secret Service agent who walked into an armed robbery, shakes his head and says to President Jed Bartlet (Martin Sheen), “Crime…boy, I don’t know.”

Ending the conversation, Bartlet – every liberal Democrat’s wet dream of a president – says, “In the future if you’re wondering, ‘Crime…boy, I don’t know’ is when I decided I was going to kick your ass.”

With the latest mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. – Number 352 for the year – every one of the current candidates for president in both parties offered their own thoughts.  And to a person, those thoughts amounted to “Crime…boy, I don’t know.”

Sadly, one senses that political candidates don’t fully perceive how their responses to such events frame their images in the minds of voters.  They are content to swim with the current, rather than embrace an opportunity to stand out, land a knockout sound bite, and otherwise give the public a glimpse of how they might eventually lead.

Their responses to the attack, largely tweeted, delivered the usual and expected prayers for the victims and sympathy for their families and the survivors.  A couple included “this must stop” or similar sentiment.  Noticeably absent was any real strategy for dealing with rampant gun violence.  Nor can such a plan be expressed in 140 characters or fewer.

The New York Daily News, that bastion of journalistic integrity, called out the monotonous Tweets as the platitudes they are, noting on its Dec. 3rd cover “God Isn’t Fixing This.” Maybe a bit harsh in the 48 hours following the incident, but the sentiment is valid.  Thoughts and prayers may be of comfort, but more is needed to prevent similar rampages, and those running for the land’s highest office need to articulate actionable ideas, even if those plans run headlong into a recalcitrant Congress and the NRA.  The American people yearn to hear a vision.  They deserve it.

Imagine for a moment how you felt when you saw that cop on the scene tell scared bystanders, “I’ll take a bullet before you do, that’s for damn sure.” If you’re like me, this nameless officer became instantly, touchingly heroic.  Now, what if Marco Rubio or Chris Christie tweeted, “I’ll take a bullet before another American is killed in a terrorist act, that’s for damn sure”?  That's The Duke. That's General Anthony "Nuts" McAuliffe. It’s not much in the way of an action plan, but it says worlds about the speaker, and would likely galvanize a wellspring of favorable sentiment.

Despite his arguable ineffectiveness as president, Barack Obama got to that office by providing citizens with a vision of “hope and change,” a promise that things can and will be better.  We are an optimistic society, ready and willing to give our hearts, minds and votes over to someone whom we believe has the conviction and passion to effect change for the better. Intellectually, we know there will be obstacles, nothing comes easy in politics, and some of the best-laid intentions will fail.  Nonetheless, we support those who share our desire to change the status quo, and just as importantly can communicate that desire in a way that will inspire everyone to rally around the cause.

Even in longer formats, we are likely to hear the same general chatter of reducing access to guns, or improving mental health services, or doing more to ensure guns stay out of the hands of the mentally ill.  What I don’t expect is for any candidate to rise above that talk and lay down the gauntlet with a plan or even a vision to reduce incidence of gun violence.  And not just mass shootings, but all crimes committed with firearms.

It’s not to say there’s an easy answer, nor am I equipped to speculate what it might entail other than a multi-pronged initiative, every aspect of which will be fought over like dogs competing for scraps from the holiday table.  But whatever it is, the candidate or president offering it must make it sound like an edict delivered from the base of Mount Sinai.

We don’t necessarily need Jed Bartlet. But we need a lot more than “Crime…boy, I don’t know.”

Gary Frisch is founder and president of Swordfish Communications, a full-service public relations agency in Laurel Springs, N.J.