My late mentor, Grove City College professor Dr. Hans Sennholz, explained another economically destructive aspect of estate taxes in his book, Death and Taxes. Many estates are not in the form of cash, but are working businesses. When the government demands a huge sum of cash from a deceased person’s estate, often the only way the heirs can raise the cash is to dismember, shrink, or liquidate the business. Who does this hurt most? Answer: the middle-class workers that were employed by those businesses. Where is the social justice in that, Mrs. Clinton?

A final word to progressives: you are a huge part of the problem in another sense. Every one of your policies, programs or proposals requires a cop with a gun to enforce it. The police are out there enforcing the policies you favor. The explosion of new laws and regulations has led to a sharp increase in hostile contacts between citizens and the police. (I learned after this column was written that the war on guns also contributed to the tragedy in Charlotte.) The abuse of this power is the natural consequence of the policies you favor. Who is to blame for this crisis? Take a look in the mirror.

We should all be really understanding of that and should try to do the best we can not to be, you know, a wet blanket on idealism. We want people to be idealistic. We want them to set big goals... But those of us who understand this, who've worked in it know that it's a false promise. But I don't think you tell idealistic people, particularly young people that they've bought into a false promise.

When naive individuals suggest that maintaining a large government conspiracy in America is simply impossible because “somebody would have talked” perhaps they should consider the implications of this incident, which occurred so close to the media capital of the world.