One of the lessons we here in Northern Ireland hoped the rest of the world would have heeded is that political change driven by violence is rarely worth the cost. But I don’t think anyone is especially surprised that that lesson is never learned and less so in a world consumed by wars raging on three continents. Still, it doesn’t mitigate the horror and grief that follow in the wake of someone making the unilateral decision to bypass the democratic process and enforcing their chosen outcome through cold-blooded murder.
Yesterday the American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, a father of two, was brutally assassinated at an event in Utah. Kirk was a divisive figure adored by American Republicans for his strident advocacy of conservative ideology and loathed by Democrats and liberals for the same reason. Yet his murder has sent shockwaves through American politics as many ponder if this is now the new normal for America. As Kyle Cheney writes for ‘Politico‘…
“It’s become a macabre American ritual: a violent attack against a political figure, followed by condemnations, calls for introspection and a vow to prevent it from happening again. And then it does. On Wednesday, the routine repeated itself. Charlie Kirk is dead, and the nation is again reckoning with the combustion of gun violence and toxic politics. The shooter’s motive was unconfirmed Wednesday evening, but the act bore the hallmarks of a politically motivated killing — and people on both the left and right immediately treated it that way.”
Violence against politicians and judges in the US is increasingly routine. Earlier this year Democratic state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband were murdered and last year then candidate Donald Trump survived not one, but two separate assassination bids and these are just the most prominent examples of increasing political violence in the US.
In a speech to the nation last night, Trump termed the assassination a ‘dark day for America’ but many fear he and those around will use Kirk’s assassination as a rationale for the further erosion of liberal democratic norms, and his focus on the ‘radical left’ whilst making no mention of examples of right-wing violence means many feel he is not fulfilling the role of ‘healer in chief’ that many US Presidents attempt to take on.
From our outsider perspective, the very fabric of American society appears to be coming undone as a consequence of increasing polarisation and political dysfunction. We should all hope they can find their way through the dark present towards a better tomorrow because we here learned the lesson the hard way.
Violence is never the answer.
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