Charlie Kirk, co-founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, was shot today during an event at Utah Valley University. He is reported to have died. Our prayers and best wishes are with his family.
This feels like another in a long line of sick events driven by – or, at least, heavily influenced by – politics. Our offices were destroyed in an act of domestic terrorism in February, 2024. President Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July last year. Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark were assassinated, and state Senator John Hoffman and his wife shot, in June. Last month, two children were murdered at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis. I’m sure I’m missing some, so depressingly common do these events seem to have become.
How did we get here? We got here by too many people being driven to believe – and allowing themselves to be driven to believe – that every difference of opinion is an existential threat.
You will occasionally hear someone say “we can disagree on politics but not human rights.” All too often, that person will then define “human rights” so broadly that the range of issues on which disagreement is permitted is narrowed to practically nothing. A cynic might suggest that that is the whole point. A few years ago, there was the popular meme “It’s ok to punch a Nazi.” Speaking as someone whose grandfather got a wallet full of medals for shooting Nazis, it was always blindingly obvious what was going to happen next: The term “Nazi” was going to be defined so broadly that it was ok to punch – or worse – anyone to the right of Hillary Clinton. No doubt my friends on the left could offer examples going the other way. Both need to knock it off.
How do we get out? Take a leaf out of Charlie Kirk’s book. As he said, “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.” His schtick was going around, sitting down, and inviting anyone who fancied it to debate with him. That is what he was doing when he was murdered. Kirk’s openness to debate is what America needs more of if we are to reverse this slide.
