Last Wednesday, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was horribly shot and killed while engaging in a debate at a college in Utah. Kirk was a young married father who's family has suffered a terrible loss.In the wake of the shooting, some people on the left have quoted things that Kirk said in the past about gun control and his reaction to other political attacks on people he disagreed with. None of this can in any way justify what happened to him.
The real problem with Kirk was how successful he was, as he, like so many people in the right wing media world, channeled the frustrations of white men by saying that were the one truly oppressed group in our society. At one conservative gathering he said that, "Actually MLK was awful. OK? He's not a good person." later adding that "We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s." His connection to white men, especially young ones, was instrumental in getting Donald Trump reelected. As much as I may find all that abhorrent, again, none of that justifies what happened to him.
But one point that should be made is that Kirk's is not the only recent political killing in this country: just a few months ago, former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband were assassinated by a Trump supporter who had reportedly made a long hit list of mostly Democratic leaders. (At the time President Trump released a perfunctory statement condemning the killings, but then he pointedly played gold instead of going to their funeral). There was also Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s house suffering an arson attack, Democratic House member Nancy Pelosi's husband being assaulted and a kidnapping plot against Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. But instead of mentioning any of those, in the wake of Kirk's shooting, Trump has only talked about attacks on right wing political figures. In one interview on Fox News, when asked about what to do about right wing violence, Trump said, "I'll tell you something that's gonna get me in trouble but I couldn't care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don't want to see crime. The radicals on the left are the problem They’ve vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy." Later, when he was asked about how he was holding up after the shooting of a man that he considered a friend, Trump said that he was doing great and turned the conversation to the construction of a new ballroom in the White House! Once again, he proved that there is no cure for being a narcissistic psychopath.
Sadly, Trump is the absolute worst kind of person to have as our nation's leader at a moment like this, but then what do expect from a man who pardoned January 6th protestors who beat police officers? So, instead I would like to end with some quotes from a man is who is saying the right thing after this shooting, Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox: “We just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be. To ask ourselves, is this it? Is this what 250 years has brought on us? I pray that that’s not the case.” “If anyone, in the sound of my voice, celebrated even a little bit at the news of the shooting, I would beg you to look in the mirror, and see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere.”
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