From Abraham Lincoln to JFK. From Malcolm X to Martin Luther King. And, more recently, from the president (Democrat) of the Legislative Chamber of Minnesota to the referent of ultra Trumpist conservatism, Charlie Kirk, or the failed attack against Donald Trump a year ago. Political violence in the US, a country of young democracy no matter how much its constitutionalism started in the 18th century, while until the mid -twentieth century segregated the African -American population to which it was deprived of basic civil rights, it is a constant, with hotter moments and colder moments. Until now, the 1960s had been the most violent in the United States, but the country is experiencing in recent times a resurgence of unpublished violence since then.
On September 10, at 12.23, Charlie Kirk was deadly shot in the neck while participating in a public act at the University of Utah Valley. And, from that moment, the Trump administration entered a new phase of accusations against the left when it was not even known who could be the murderer.
Charlie Kirk, 31, had created Turning Point USA, a fundamental youth movement for the Maga Family, hegemonic in the current Republican Party. His access to the White House was total. He was one of his in the broadest and most deep sense of the word, and, in addition, he gave them a connection with a layer of voters very coveted by the parties: young people. Kirk carried the Trumpist speech – Homophobe, xenophobic, macho, denialist, ultra religious, anti abortion, transphobo – to new generations, and actively participated in the election of republican candidates in primary.
His death involves the loss of one of the most popular social and media leaders. And the US president is not taking advantage of it to reduce political tension, but to direct it against his left while his followers encourage a “war.” This same Friday, when he communicated in the Fox that he had stopped a suspect, Tyler Robinson, the US president said: “The radicals of the left are the problem, they are cruel, horrible.” And he added: “We are going to investigate [George] Soros, because I think there is a rich case [Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, ley federal de 1970 para combatir el crimen organizado, la mafia y la corrupción]. Because this is more than simple protests. It is a real agitation. ”
However, Kirk’s murder is not an isolated case, nor are all attacks against conservative referents. Paul Pelosi, the husband of the Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, one of the most hated people by Trump, was attacked in his own home in October 2022. Last December, the executive director of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was shot dead on a sidewalk in Manhattan, allegedly by a man outraged by health policy. Earlier this year, a man was accused of provoking fires at a Tesla dealership and at the headquarters of the Republican Party in New Mexico. .
At the same time, Trump survived an attempt to murder in a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last summer; In the spring, a piómano set fire to the residence of the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro; In Minnesota, during the summer, a man was accused after harassing Democrats and killing the president of the State Representatives Chamber, Melissa Hortman, and her husband. And, last month, an armed man shot more than 180 bullets against the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), responsible for the advice in health policy and target converted by theories of conspiracy on vaccination in pandemic, killing a policeman.
Previously, the representative Steve Scalise (Republican by Louisiana) was shot and was seriously injured in 2017. Three years later, a group of men tried to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic governor, Gretchen Whitmer.
Each case is unique, but shows a context about the political climate in the US, a country where there are more weapons than inhabitants. And in which the tension has not stopped growing since the defeat of Donald Trump in November 2020, who still does not accept five years later, and the subsequent assault on the Capitol – whose participants were pardoned by the president as soon as he returned to the White House – has been climbing from coup, verbal violence and, also, physics.
And the verbal violence of the president of the country, Donald Trump, is permanent, constant, blaming the left of Kirk’s murder. “For years, the radical left has compared wonderful Americans like Charlie with Nazis and the worst mass murderers and criminals of the world. This type of rhetoric is direct Too many lives have been charged. ”
Trump did not even mention the murder in Minnesota of the representative of that state and her husbandboth Democrats at the beginning of summer. And when a journalist then asked Trump if he had called the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, a party partner, in addition, the victims of the attack, his answer was: “The truth is that I have not called him. I think the governor of Minnesot call it, but why waste time? ”
At the same time, The coupista of January 6 who assaulted the Capitol were pardoned by Trump as soon as he returned to the White House. That is: in the oval office there is a violence that is condemned, another that is forgotten and another one that is protected.
Barbara Walter, of International Affairs at the School of Global Policy and Strategy of the University of California in San Diego, wrote in political: “Political violence is not random. Research shows that it becomes much more likely in four circumstances: when democracy is in rapid decline, when societies are divided by race, religion or ethnicity, when political leaders tolerate or encourage violence, when Citizens have easy access to weapons. will to act before violence worse.
A survey conducted in February by Bright Line Watch, a group of political scientists that analyzes democratic norms and institutions, revealed that, although only 2% of the Democrats and 3% of the Republicans support violence against the leaders of the opposition parties in general, this figure rises to approximately 10% in the case of leaders of opposition parties that implement riental policies.
“We are going through what I call a violent populism era,” said Robert Pape, director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats from the University of Chicago, in The Washington Post. “It is a historically high era of murders, murder attempts and violent protests. This goes far beyond the usual flow and reflux of violence of the militias that we have seen in 20 years. This is a different level, a different historical period of political violence, and that is what is seen. It is demonstrable. The more support there is political violence, the more real political violence is made common. It gives a mantle of legitimacy to individuals. volatile or have your own psychosocial reasons to get out of control. ”
“Sometimes, of really bad things, things that can be good can happen,” Trump said this Friday in Fox after announcing judicial persecution against referents of the progressive world without demonstrating his connection with anything that is happening. And after his team is threatening to throw foreigners from the country to reduce the importance of Kirk’s murder and that people of their work are being dismissed for doing the same.
The murder of Charlie Kirk has climbed the political violence in the US to a new stadium. At a time when misinformation, bulls, insults and manipulation not only fly, but are broadcast from the highest institutions in the country, in large media and by commentators with millions of followers.
Source: www.eldiario.es
