Every citizen fatality in the custody of a government official—like George Floyd’s excruciating death in Minneapolis—deserves a solemn response and ultimate accounting, including both criminal investigation and broader assessment.

Almost from the moment it began, the year 2020 seemed to be building toward some terrible climax.

For Rohn Bishop, chair of the Republican Party in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, a low point in the party’s postelection civil war came one snowy December morning in the small town of Waupun.