On Political Violence
In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination yesterday, I have been contemplating the proliferation of political violence in our increasingly polarized and fragmented country. Over the summer, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were assassinated in their home. A month later, President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated at a rally in Pennsylvania. Why are these assassinations alike? They are all acts of stochastic political violence that are increasingly more common in our divided nation.
Kirk embodied the ideals of democratic debate that we ostensibly hold dear. Yes, he was abrasive, confrontational, and, at times, demagogic; but he was also unabashedly pro-speech and willing to debate and discuss the issues with anyone of any political persuasion. He was shot dead during one of his college “Prove Me Wrong” tours where he debates students of different political inclinations.
After his passing, I was reminded of his Jubilee video where he debated 25 liberal college students. His claims were as follows: (1) abortion is murder and should be illegal; (2) college is a scam; (3) trans women are not women; (4) Kamala Harris is a DEI candidate. Now, I happen to vehemently disagree with him on three out of the four claims (sorry readers, I won’t say which, it’s not important right now). But, what I do know is, while perhaps controversial, none of these claims incites violence. He said “trans women are not women,” NOT “trans women are not women and should be shot in the state of Utah.” As George Packer pithily writes in The Atlantic, “Words are not violence—violence is violence.”
Now, where do we go from here? For one, turn down the volume. Trump is not Hitler; Biden is not Stalin. Republicans are not Nazis; Democrats are not Communists. This dichotomized cognition of the illiberal right and left has no place in a liberal society where multifaceted perspectives are our strength, not our weakness. To the shooter: “A person who resorts to violence has concluded that he cannot change the terms of debate with words or arguments.” Simply put, you lost. And, to Charlie Kirk, my old nemesis: Rest in peace.
