Violence Begets Violence: Our Twisted Politics

Alex Gervais ’28

Executive Opinion and Design Editor

On the afternoon of Wednesday, Sept. 10, conservative activist and debater Charlie Kirk was assassinated while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University. His murder was an instance of political violence. The suspect is in custody and motives are being established, but the question remains: what will it take for our nation to heal?

America has seen a startling increase in political violence this decade: the attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, the beating of Paul Pelosi, the attempted assassinations of Donald Trump, the attempted arson of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home, the assassination of Minnesota’s former Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and now, the assassination of Charlie Kirk. All of these acts are fundamentally reprehensible; they’re a bloody symbol of our decaying politics, of our inability to have discourse and simply talk to one another. We no longer approach politics from a place of discussion, we instead instigate political violence. 

Yet, these public assassinations and attempts are not the only instances of political violence we see today: they’re now woven into our American society. Political violence is the 47 school shootings that have happened thus far this year. Political violence is the 897 people killed by police this year. Political violence is ICE tearing families apart with indiscriminate immigration enforcement. Political violence was the attempted violent overthrow of the democratically elected United States government on Jan. 6, 2021. Each shooting is a statement, each kidnapping is a cue: violence begets violence. 

It is not just the fact that political violence is surging in our nation, it’s the reality that it is no longer given the seriousness it deserves. In June 2025, Speaker Emerita of the Minnesota House Melissa Hortman and her husband were brutally assassinated in their home; Republicans did not give a full throated response. Mike Lee, the Senior Republican Senator from Utah, attempted to link the shooter with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and blamed the shooting on Marxists in now deleted posts on X. President Trump decided to play golf with GOP leadership instead of attending Speaker Hortman’s funeral and later attempted to also link Governor Walz to Hortman’s murder. And yes, some individuals on the left also mocked Kirk’s murder. Their actions are morally abhorrent and should be given no space in our discourse. However, not a single elected official on the American left made a mockery of his assassination. The Democratic party has been steadfast in calling out this political violence and discouraging it whenever they can. 

I challenge the right to similarly defuse their rhetoric. Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called for “the defeat of this wicked ideology” when colloquially referring to leftism. President Trump blamed the “radical left… for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.” Libs of TikTok, a popular alt-right X account, posted “THIS IS WAR” just hours after Kirk’s death. The right must cut back its rhetoric if our nation wants to retain any semblance of unity during this treacherous time. Even archconservative Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY) has called for the political temperature to be turned down. 

Many will tell you there’s something to be said for Kirk’s style of politics, that he was one of the last true debaters in our nation. I fundamentally reject that premise: Charlie Kirk was not a savior of our democratic discourse. His job was to debate in bad faith and sow discontent among college aged white men. He is not a man who deserves our honor and praise, even posthumously. His death cannot be a justification for the division he sowed. Flying the flag at half staff for his death as President Trump has ordered—especially the day after a school shooting in Colorado and on the 24 year anniversary of the 9/11 Terror Attacks—is a political statement, not a moral one. Trinity was complicit in this political statement; we flew our flag at half staff explicitly for Kirk. 

I beg all of us in our campus community to have patience with one another. At Trinity we will not solve our increasingly embedded political division, nor will we solve the gun epidemic that continues to ravage our nation. Many people will have many opinions on the state of our country, I encourage you to listen and to be responsible. We can—and we should—disagree, but we must not walk down the blood-spattered road of fascism that political violence so often preempts and encourages. Have a dialogue, be principled in your beliefs and never forget the democracy that our forebears sacrificed for. We cannot allow ideologies of hate to dominate our lives and our discourse. We must instead extend an olive branch to hope.