Don't Give in to Hate

Trump and his acolytes are already exploiting Charlie Kirk's killing. A backlash of hatred may rise. But the pro-democracy movement should avoid the trap.

Charlie Kirk had ripped into yours truly from time to time over the years. I never really took his broadsides seriously as I always regarded the boyish, fringe activist who founded Turning Point USA as just one of many grifters on the far-right. He had found his niche transforming young, curious conservatives into foot soldiers for the MAGA movement. Kirk did this by marketing viewpoints that can fairly be described as toxic and extreme. He was a pioneer in the cottage industry of monetizing outrage and polarization, so much so that his hot takes were very much in demand, from the studios at Fox News to the Oval Office of the Trump White House. He said demeaning things about just about every segment of American society that was not white, male and straight.

None of that justifies his killing. Not even close. I wish Kirk had survived the shooting attack in Utah primarily so his children would have their father, but also because it would be better for the nation if he were alive to debate the issues for years to come. And it should be noted, as of this writing, the shooter’s motive is not yet known.

I think so many of us are shaken now, across the political spectrum, because we are all dreading what may lie ahead - more political violence. It is not a stretch to imagine America spiraling into an “eye for an eye” era, a destabilizing period of reprisal attacks with no end in sight. Perhaps that era had begun before Kirk’s murder. Maybe we are already there.

That’s in part because America lacks a comforter-in-chief. A chief arsonist is more like it. Late Thursday, Trump began to signal how he intends to capitalize on the fallout of Kirk’s death by only further misleading and dividing the nation, predictably declaring “we just have to beat the hell” out of “radical left lunatics.” Trump "beat the hell" remark

Within minutes of the shooting in Utah, some of the more shameless voices on the American right were busily fanning the flames. Elon Musk had posted on X, “the left is the party of murder.”

“We’re going to avenge Charlie’s death,” Fox’s Jesse Watters warned on his network, citing a number of instances in which conservatives had been targeted in moments of political violence. Though he, like Musk, omitted the murders of a Democratic state lawmaker and her husband in Minnesota earlier this year.

“They are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not,” Watters continued, hammering an undefined “they” as if Fox viewers understand the vague reference.

“Everybody’s accountable. And we’re watching what they’re saying on television and who’s saying what,” Watters went on. “The politicians, the media, and all these rats out there. This can never happen again. It ends now.”

As for Trump, he ignored his own history of inciting political violence, such as the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol, and echoed his party’s post-shooting talking points.

"Radical left political violence has hurt too many innocent people and taken too many lives,” said Trump Wednesday evening.

It should be noted, of course, that Trump once refused to call Minnesota governor Tim Walz after the murder of state representative Melissa Hortman, complaining that it would be a “waste of time.”

"I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out," Trump said at the time. Trump refused to call Walz

That ridiculous projection and hypocrisy should make you angry. It makes me angry. And that’s the point. For too long, the far-right has perfected the art of pushing our buttons, drawing the pro-democracy forces toward the sirens’ song of hatred. Trump has profited from this craft for most of this century, even before the “birtherism” craze he helped spread during Barack Obama’s presidency. He rode that wave of hostility and menace into power, then went to battle with our democratic institutions. While in office, he normalized nastiness and cruelty against marginalized communities. Again, he attempted to overturn a free and fair election, through violence. This can never be forgotten. Then he returned to the White House, in part, because the Supreme Court outrageously ruled that Trump was above the law.

Understandably, we have pushed back, in the hopes of saving the country that was entrusted to us. But we must take care, and I include myself here, that we do not succumb to that which might destroy us. We must not fall into and be mangled by the machinery of MAGA’s hate factory.

Long before the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln warned about the dangers of internal divisions overcoming the nation.

“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide,” Lincoln said.

Lincoln made this staggering observation in 1838, more than two decades before the start of the War Between the States. Even then, the young American nation was roiled by domestic political strife. Lincoln "die by suicide" comment

But this is now. And Trump’s hand in shredding what may be the last remnants of decency in our politics cannot be ignored. I’ve written extensively about the volatile atmosphere I’ve observed at countless Trump rallies. On probably dozens of occasions, Trump supporters at those events shouted all sorts of insults, obscenities and open threats of violence at this reporter. Despite all of that, I made it a point to hop off of the press riser and speak with people in the crowd. As I’ve often joked, some of them asked for selfies, some gave me the middle finger, and some did both. But I thought it was important to engage with them. They are, after all, my fellow Americans.

Charleston, WV. August, 2018. Photo by Jim Acosta

We are never going to get through to one another, if we stand in our opposing corners, refusing to engage in some of kind of civil discourse. One side does not have to go first. To be clear, we do not have to forgive people for unforgivable behavior. But might it be possible to save some space for reconciliation?

My message is that it is tempting to justify our hatred and to explain away acts of political violence. But we cannot deny the reality that these actions pull us ever closer to Lincoln’s warning of a kind of national “suicide.”

Look to the examples set by our fellow Americans earlier this year during the peaceful “No Kings” protests. Witness the restraint exercised by citizens in both Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., in the face of Trump’s provocations in those cities. A path to peaceful, non-violent resistance has been set. This is the way.

The killing of Charlie Kirk has likely lit a spark. We must take care with what happens next. We must hold each other back from the pull of the flames of national strife. It could well become a great conflagration of hatred that could ultimately lead to more terrible suffering. We must not give in.

You’ve heard me say don’t give in to the lies. Don’t give in to the fear. Let me add to this: Don’t give in to hate. You can hate what Charlie Kirk said about any number of things. But we must hate the violence that took his life more than anything else. That violence is not who we are. It is not America.