ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

Breakfasts at diners.

Town halls.

Protests.

Congress on your corner.

The American political tradition is rich with opportunities for elected officials and candidates to see their constituents face-to-face. To press the flesh, kiss babies, make a personal connection.

But that tradition of “retail politics� had already dwindled before last week, and it seems on the verge of withering away altogether now, with the assassination of Charlie Kirk in Utah last week.

Kirk, who lived in the Phoenix area, wasn’t a politician, of course, but he engaged publicly as if he were an old-fashioned one, touring campuses to give speeches and engage in debates.

My kids have both seen him on different Arizona campuses. None of us agree with him on much, politically, but the free-speech spectacles he created were intriguing, in part because they are rare in these times.

The effects of his assassination on public political speech were already being felt last week. U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego, who has been testing the waters for a possible presidential run in places like Iowa, canceled two planned appearances in another early-primary state, Nevada, this weekend.

“Out of an abundance of caution for town hall participants, attendees, and members of the media, we have decided to postpone Senator Gallego’s upcoming Las Vegas town hall,� an announcement of the cancellation read.

In-person meetings a choice

Tucson, of course, plays an unfortunate and unwanted role in this pullback from in-person engagement.

The Jan. 8, 2011, mass shooting and assassination attempt took place at a Congress on Your Corner event at Ina and Oracle, as you probably remember.

Then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shaking hands and talking to a long line of constituents, with Ron Barber, her district director, at her side. Barber — who like Giffords was among the 19 people shot that day, including six who died — recalled this to me when we talked Friday.

Barber replaced Giffords in Congress almost 18 months later, and he tried to keep public engagement going. One of his first acts was to do another Congress on Your Corner event in Tucson.

There was a larger police and security presence, and he was a few hours late coming in from D.C., but 350 people were waiting for him, Barber recalled.

“I was determined that we would not allow what happened on Jan. 8, 2011 to affect how we would engage with constituents,� he said. “The Congress on your Corner concept was about personal engagement with your constituents.�

“I don’t know how you can do this job without meeting with your constituents.�

Unfortunately, that sort of event is not happening anymore in the new district that most overlaps the one Barber represented, Congressional District 6.

In part, what changed things was the pandemic. People got used to meeting online, as these technologies became more widespread and easy to use. Meeting the general public in person seems like less of a requirement and more of a choice.

Rep. Juan Ciscomani, who represents most of the area Barber and Giffords represented, rarely does public events that are announced in advance. Instead, most of the time, we find out that he has met with people at a school or a business after the fact, when photos are posted. If the media is invited, we have to RSVP to find out the location.

He also has done telephone town halls — another unsatisfying simulation of public engagement.

There’s both a political and a security calculation, of course. Republican leaders have recommended not to hold these events in order to avoid public confrontations that create viral videos. And now, although indoor events can be pretty well secured, there’s the sense that a shot could ring out anytime.

‘We’re not going to let it stop us’

Running for election requires personal contact and is normally one of the best things about running, candidates often say. But it can also be unnerving.

City Council candidate Janet “JL� Wittenbraker was one of two local candidates who learned in the last two weeks that their political signs had been defaced with stickers saying “Make assassinations great again.�

The other was fellow Republican Daniel Butierez, who is running against Democrat Adelita Grijalva in the Congressinal District 7 special election.

Especially at a time like this, putting a sticker like that on those signs is just an awful thing to do. People have a right to run for office without overt efforts at intimidation through threats.

“I’m a little upset, but I’m not intimidated,� Wittenbraker told me Friday. “I’m going out doorknocking tomorrow.�

Butierez said he’s proceeding as usual. He went to a Mexican Independence Day celebration at the Raúl Grijalva Community Center on Friday night, he said Saturday. He shook hands with a crowd largely supportive of Democrats without any problem, and with plenty of positivity, he said.

His wife Paula added, “We’re going to be cautious, but we’re not going to let it stop us.�

Free speech could be in peril

Another form of public political gathering, demonstrations, is also under threat.

The worry of violence is part of it — anti-Trump protesters in Tucson and around the country have already been doing safety trainings, recognizing the heightened tensions around the country.

But perhaps an even greater fear now is that of a government crackdown. President Trump blamed Kirk’s assassination immediately on rhetoric from the “radical left,� a term he applies freely to people who oppose him.

He has also asked prosecutors to charge the people he thinks are funding protests against him. The belief that these are not organic protests motivated by people’s personal beliefs is baffling if you’ve met with any protesters or leaders. They’re not being led by George Soros.

But the fact that they’re not part of a racketeering enterprise doesn’t mean someone won’t try to accuse or accost them.

It would be ironic and unjustified if a violent attack on free speech, like Charlie Kirk’s assassination, leads to a crackdown on free speech.

But it would be a continuation of a trend we’ve already been experiencing: The diminishing opportunities for public political engagement.