Politicians in the USA last night and this morning were lining up to offer “thoughts and prayers” over the killing of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk.
“Thoughts and prayers” imply empathy and that would seem to be wasted on Charlie as he once infamously said “I can’t stand the word empathy. I think empathy is a made up New Age term that does a lot of damage.” Just one of a great many things he said that I wouldn’t in any way agree with. But nobody should die for their beliefs.
Some of us are old enough to remember where we were when JFK was shot. Ditto RFK, MLK Jr. and Malcolm X. This is what happens in a society in which weapons are freely available and politicians deliberately ramp up the political temperature. It’s happening again, no small thanks to the inflammatory rhetoric of Mr Kirk. Just a few of those positions:
- He said it was a “huge mistake” to pass the Civil Rights Act 1964;
- He blamed “Jewish money” for “ruining American culture“;
- He said gay people are destructive and endorsed having them put to death;
- He said the 2nd amendment is worth the cost of “some gun deaths“; and
- After Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was viciously attacked with a hammer in his own home by a MAGA follower he said “some amazing patriot should bail him out of jail“.
Whatever his beliefs, Charlie Kirk is clearly no martyr for peace, having made a profitable career out of spreading hate toward others. The killing was awful, but what is worse, in my opinion, is how partisan, violent and ugly some of the immediate reaction was, mostly from the right.
Nancy Mace, by all accounts a bit of a rent-a-gob, and a Republican congress member from South Carolina, told a gathering of reporters that “Democrats own what happened today.” She offered no evidence, only partisan vitriol, claiming that it was “some raging, leftist lunatic put a bullet through his neck“.
(This is, by now, fairly standard Republican deflection – accuse the opponent of the very behaviour of which they themselves are guilty. She wasn’t at all pleased to be confronted by journalist Ryan Nobles who, correctly, pointed out that by that logic Republicans must own the murder of Melissa Hortman and her husband.)
On Fox News, one of the most prominent rightwing media figures, Jesse Watters, sought reprisal. “We’re gonna avenge Charlie’s death,” Watters told the on-air audience. “Everybody’s accountable. And we’re watching … the politicians, the media and all these rats out there.” Trump himself then posts a video message on his Truth Social platform, saying he is “filled with grief and anger” after the “heinous assassination” of Kirk. He promises to crackdown on political violence. Much of the blame for that violence lies squarely at the president’s door.
Bravo, everyone! Well done for lowering the tension. We can now all skip joyfully into a broad, sunlit upland full of harmony, honey and flowers. Never mind that an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
Contrast this with the “still small voice of calm” of a Republican who gets it. Utah Governor Spencer Cox (a Republican) called for Americans to stop “hating” each other, and referred to Kirk’s death as “a political assassination“. “Our nation is broken.” he said.
He raised other political assassinations and attempts in recent months, from the June shooting to death of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, as well as the wounding of another lawmaker and his wife, the attempted attack on Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, and the two attempted assassinations of Donald Trump during the presidential campaign last year. He condemned anyone who “celebrated, even a little bit” Kirk’s death.
Of Kirk, he says: “I don’t care what his politics are. I care that he was an American.” Cox noted that America is celebrating the 250th anniversary of its founding next year, and that citizens need to ask themselves: “Is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought upon us? I pray that is not the case.“.
Nobody with any compassion or empathy would or could celebrate the death of Charlie Kirk, but we can understand why it happened.
That said, conspiracy theories are already flying around, chiefly that this was a professional hit as a distraction from the Epstein files and that Kirk was collateral damage. A fatal throat wound with a single bullet from 140 yards at a moving target – that’s either incredibly lucky or the killer was a skilled marksman or a trained hunter rather than a casual shooter.
The USA is a fractured country where political debate has been reduced to the level of outright lies and playground insults. The lion’s share of the blame for this lies with Trump – a tawdry and petty man who is both braggadocious and facile. His greatest success lies in convincing a sizeable slab of the population that he knows what he’s doing. He doesn’t – unless of course this mess is deliberate, in which case he is truly evil.
Politics in the UK has an unfortunate habit of mirroring the USA. Our schism started with the EU referendum and developed through BREXIT. It is stoked by people like Farage – a British Professor Harold Hill, but without the happy ending! (Just Google it, FFS!) I’m only glad that we don’t have as many guns as they do, but sooner or later someone is going to get hurt or killed.
We are heading down a very dark path, and it depresses and scares me in equal measure.