As I write this, the initial accusations about the murder of Charlie Kirk have been confirmed–in an ironic way. The immediate–and not unreasonable– reaction was the assumption he’d been targeted for his beliefs. And evidently, he was–but not by “evil” Lefists. The alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a young white man from a Republican, gun enthusiast family, who appears to have embraced the even-farther “groyper” Right that believed Kirk was insufficiently radical.
Obviously, as repulsive as some of Kirk’s beliefs were, they are no excuse for violence. Freedom of speech, as Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes reminded us, is not meant to protect only those who agree with us, it also extends to those expressing the “thought we hate.”
Following the shooting, denunciations of political violence came from across the political spectrum. And predictably, MAGA folks expressed outrage that was entirely missing when Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro was targeted, when Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was nearly killed, and when two Minnesota Democrats were assassinated.
In the wake of Kirk’s murder, pundits and commentators have rushed to offer their perspectives. One that I found particularly insightful was an article by Jonathan V. Last in The Bulwark. As he began,
Charlie Kirk’s murder was not just a murder. It was an assassination. That’s the crucial point.
We often forget the philosophical underpinnings of criminal law. Rightly understood, we view crimes as being committed not against individuals, but against society itself. Thus, when someone is murdered, the offense is not against the victim and his family, but against everyone. All of us. It is an offense against nature, heaven, and man.
Assassination goes a step further. In addition to all of the above, assassination is, like terrorism, an attack on our body politic. An attack on how we choose to live together. On our system of government. Which in America’s case, means an attack not just against all of us, but against liberal democracy itself.
Last then reminded readers that this was not a “one off.” As he wrote, it had only been twelve weeks since Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated in their home, sixteen weeks since Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim were assassinated outside Washington’s Jewish Museum, ten months since UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was assassinated in Manhattan.
And one could list other examples of near-assassinations from recent years—like the brutal beating of the husband of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and the shots fired at an ex-president campaigning to return to office.
It is important to understand that these acts all emerged from a culture of political violence that has been waxing for nearly a decade.
Last acknowledged the presence of political violence in the past, specifically enumerating the attacks on Steve Scalise, Gabby Giffords, Ronald Reagan, JFK and RFK and MLK, and the vicious attacks on Black citizens during Jim Crow. But he pointed to a crucial difference in the way public officials responded.
The difference is that until recently, elected high officials condemned political violence as a matter of course. Their condemnations were not always sincere, but they were nearly universal. They understood that political violence is a wildfire. It spreads. And if it breaks containment, it cannot be controlled. Once unleashed, it burns everyone.
I found one paragraph in Last’s brief essay to be both undeniably true and chilling. As he wrote,
We don’t have to rehearse the litany of how we got here; we can leave that to another day. But we all know what we know. Things have changed and it’s not hard to pinpoint the moment when the normalization of political violence re-emerged among our political elites. To pretend otherwise would be to hide our heads in the sand—to deny the plain political reality of the moment.
That “plain political reality” is what keeps me up at night.
The Republican majority, after fanning the flames for a decade, are now concerned enough about their safety, that they’re considering allocating funding for additional security for themselves and other high ranking officials. I’m waiting for them to announce that the protection will only be for Republicans.
I think Charlie Kirk is going to be Trump‘s burning Reichstag moment.
I have not seen clear evidence that the Charlie Kirk’s assassin had a right or left ideology, but maybe that’s because the New York Times has been very carefully avoiding any conclusions.
from my point of view, which is rooted in mainstream media, when somebody on the left has been assassinated, the response generally has been “it was a lone actor”. When somebody on the right has been assassinated. It’s been a “mass conspiracy by the left”. But yes, not universally condemning violence is a dangerous game, and it only serves to normalize the behavior.
Before any new funds are provided for protection, they need to restore protection to those who were stripped of the protection they need and deserve. Many important government veterans had their protection removed this year. That must be reversed.
I wish the TV folks would air film of the Trump rallies where the Republicans make jokes about the near murder of Mr Pelosi in his home. The Republicans, thousands of them, all laughed and really enjoyed that. It was so funny to them. Sick.
I saw a podcast bit on Morning Joe this morning where Pam Bondi openly defied the First Amendment by stating that DOJ will “target and come after” those who practice hate speech. As you might expect, she did not define when speech became hateful. This was followed by a snippet from one of Kirk’s open forums where he told the audience that hate speech indeed was protected by the First Amendment.
This is yet another example of insane partisanship by an administration that gives not a single damn about the Constitution, the rule of law or anything resembling civil discourse.
And some might wonder why so many people despise this Republican party and its fetid agenda.
Kirk’s assassination surely replaced Congress’s shooting down the release of the Epstein Coverup files, and the UN declaring a genocide in Gaza. Not sure why it’s taken so long to acknowledge the genocide…yes, we all know why!
Let’s be clear, the reaction to Kirk’s death will come from Stephen Miller – not Trump. Miller is a 1930s Nazi, so expect all sorts of illegal violations against what he perceives as “leftist institutions.”
Hypocrisy is MAGA’s essence. There will be no “turning of the cheek!” They claim Kirk was a “champion of free speech.” As a result, they intend to punish anyone who mocked Charlie’s assassination. Free speech for us, but not for you!
For those who’ve figured this out, any attacks on leftist organizations will only fan the flames of rebellion and resistance, leading to a soft or hard Civil War.
“Why are they dragging their feet in Utah law enforcement?”
For those unfamiliar with Max Blumenthal at The Grayzone, a Kirk insider is sharing a story with Max about Bibi Netanyahu, Bill Ackman (the billionaire donor behind Kirk), and Kirk. In August, a group of donors and right-wing influencers had a luncheon with Kirk in the Hamptons to straighten out Charlie since he was making negative comments against Bibi and Israel. A month later, Kirk was murdered.
As of last night, the only news agencies mentioning Groypers and Fuentes were on the other side of our oceans. Why has the US legacy media ignored the possibility of right-wing violence against Kirk? Instead, they focus on the tran roommate.
If they had solid evidence that it was a leftwing conspiracy, they would have shared it immediately to fit Trump’s agenda. Something smells about this case as well.
BBC news had a piece, seems since the 70s, the right wing violence perpetrated by the left and right.. 500+ for the right,32 for,the left.
lets recap, KKK,neo nazi,pround ,prayer,oath,branch dividians etc, are far more radical than even the black panters were. antifa, well i gotta hand it to em, they at least fight for democracy. vance now has become the mouth for retaliation,let the trump minion howl..(or be outdone)all is set as violence is the key word for this admin. against anyone who dares question this admin. now kirks corpes will be in state in the capital rotunda says it all. now all bow to the right..or get iced..
piece, heres the trucking playbook. were in a recession. truck prices new and used are rock bottom,thats a buisness being sold firesale. theres no freight other than living needs stuff, food,gas,mail,amazon..theres no jobs in trucking unless your desprate to work for poverty wages. there are no job listings in NoDak for oilfield work.thats a first in 15 years..fuel sales are way down due tourism hit a trump wall. save your cash, the scam will be a drop of jobs and retaliation to say the left did it. then comes the crime rate back due no good paying jobs, that should be bout 6/26 … im sure the trump backroom willl use it to clean house befor the elections next year..
nbest wishes..
Todd, I really want to thank you for that background, but what’s your source for that information?
We do know where the impetus for the violence has come from, beginning with Trump’s urging people to hit that fellow who spoke up at one of his rallies before the ’16 election: “I’ll pay your legal fees,” or some such.
Anything that goes the wrong way, for the right, is deemed to be a result of a conspiracy. Maybe that is the result of the existential anxiety of the conservative tribe; somehow the world at large, is against them, they seem to believe. And Master Manipulator, Trump, is all too happy to light a fire under that.
The murder of Charlie Kirk is one awful thing; the political theater going on in DC is a separate thing that’s also awful. The compromise of the Federal Reserve Bank’s famed independence is also awful, as is what went on when Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump were best buds. Pam Bondi, clearly acting contrary to both her oath as an attorney and her oath of office, is awful, too. How about pure genocide in Gaza or Putin’s naked aggression in Ukraine, which seems to be spreading to other European countries as well?
Every day we read in the news of new atrocities committed by the Trump gang that now speaks beyond incompetence into malice against the US. It has become his hated brand, and even more so, the brand of the Red Party.
The Civil War has returned to our shores, and both sides are girding up to prosecute it yet again. Cultural hate never really goes away, but ebbs and flows at some level of visibility.
It’s surfacing yet again.
Wow! You can’t make this stuff up! Making room for all the unanswered questions since the current Administration seized office would require a long term lease on a warehouse!
Another white, young, man killer–I was talking with a great aunt a few years ago and we were talking on the increase in murders in America and profiling and raising daughters–it was a rapid, random fire of observations and I made a statement about how we all need to be more afraid of the white man than the black man and my sister’s husband who is a police officer (also the whole family lives within the St. Louis area for additional context) was horrified that I would even indicate this—and I responded–who is doing the mass murdering in this country? Who is doing the assassination attempts? This country is profiling the wrong people at this point.
I think we need to look at what is going on with our boys in this country–there is a researcher named Richard Reeves and he has done some excellent research on the topic and has sever Ted Talks. There is something wrong with our society but we need to look to see what is driving so many to become radicalized and what is going on at a deeper level. Its just going to continue to get worse.
Keeps me up at night as well!!!!!
POTUS is seeing the NYT for “defamation of…” the character he does not have!
Is his goal to try to bribe them into a quick default, to run them out of funds, to get into their headline some more, etc.
He may find that the evidence of his fraud is overwhelming, now that he’s arranged to have it spelled out, in public.
Trump is demonstrating how little character he has, and as a (VERY) public figure, may have much less legal ground on which to stand.
For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. Hosea 8:7
The assassination of CK has done two things for t*ump: (1) it is a distraction from the Epstein cover-up, and (2) it has given him the pretense he (or Steven Miller) for declaring a national emergency and furthering his/their dictatorial ambitions.