Yesterday, there was a sense of national unity and mourning at the yearly 9/11 anniversary ceremonies at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the field in Shanksville, Pa. and elsewhere around the country, marking a brief moment when all Americans can come together and solemnly reminisce despite divisions that have only grown deeper since that attack on our city.
That togetherness is now very short-lived, as today Americans will be back at each other’s throats, with accusations and charges flying from Republicans and Democrats, from liberals and conservatives, from the left and the right.
These building tensions have only been further incensed by the assassination this week of MAGA operative and commentator Charlie Kirk, who was murdered when he was speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday in front of a large crowd gathered to listen to him.
Kirk’s murder may bring more harsh rhetoric and division and tragically, even more violence. But it doesn’t have to be that way. As we saw yesterday, on 9/11, Americans can come together. Kirk’s allies and his foes must both see where the path of political violence inevitably ends. Digging in relentlessly against the other side will only produce more bloodshed.
Kirk advocated debate and to highlight political differences. But arguments have too often turned into hateful rhetoric, which fuels violence and even murder. President Trump, shocked by Kirk’s assassination, says that the left is the cause of the increase in threats and acts of violence, but he himself, the leader of the right, has been guilty many times, as have his allies.
There has been terrible political violence propagated by both ends of the ideological spectrum and Trump himself was targeted by gunmen twice last year during his successful campaign. Notably, however, the biggest act of political violence was on Trump’s behalf, when he unleashed a violent mob on the Capitol to overturn the results of the 2020 election when he lost fair and square to Joe Biden.
Political opponents are not enemies, but if we treat them as such, some among us, like Kirk’s assassin, will go beyond words and grab a gun.
The reality is that political violence can seldom be fully controlled or directed. Unleashing it, fomenting it, legitimizing it as an appropriate exercise of ideological expression, will always terminate in things spinning out of control. Dead now is Kirk, who leaves behind a family including two young children and dead now are former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, who were killed by a right-wing gunman with a hit list in June.
In earlier years, Republican Congressman Steve Scalise and Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords both survived assassination attempts.
Who started it, who was worse, who is to blame, are all points and counterpoints for scoring debating points and shoring up the base. But who will stop it, who will move away to take another route is what we need. It should not have to take a foreign terrorist attack killing thousands to rally the country together.
Politics should be about the clash of ideas, not of weapons. We have the ability to save ourselves from the abyss of chaos. If we are brave enough.
