Charlie Kirk & Assassins in America

This is not normal.

Problem is, now it is normal. And too many people increasingly accept it as normal.

I’m certain you know about the assassination last week of right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk.

I didn’t agree with anything Kirk had to say. But death at the hands of an assassin’s bullet does not become him.

It does not become America.

But it is precisely what America has become…

• Oct. 8, 2020—13 men arrested for plotting to kidnap Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

• Jan. 6, 2021—January 6 attack on the US Capitol; pipe bombs at the headquarters of both the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee.

• Feb. 14, 2022—Louisville, Kentucky mayoral candidate, and current mayor Craig Greenberg (a Democrat) is targeted in an attempted assassination.

• Oct. 28, 2022—Paul Pelosi, husband to California Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi is attacked in his home by a hammer-wielding nutjob.

• Dec. 4, 2023 to Jan. 3, 2024—A New Mexico state legislature candidate orchestrates a murder-for-hire plot to kill four Democratic lawmakers.

• June 13, 2024—First attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

• Sept. 15, 2024—Second attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

• Oct., 2024—Kamala Harris’ campaign office in Arizona is shot at three times in a month.

• Dec. 4, 2024—Murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

• Apr. 13, 2025—A Pennsylvania mechanic who hates Democrats firebombs Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home.

• June 14, 2025—A masked gunman disguised as a police officer shot and killed Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman (a Democrat) and her husband Mark in their home. Before Hortman was shot, the gunman shot State Sen. John Hoffman (also a Democrat) and his wife Yvette multiple times at their home. The shooter had a list of possible targets who were public officials.

This is America today.

But I worry about more than just the increasing political violence…

The US is pulling itself apart in so many ways. Individually, each headline I’m about to share can be casually written off as an outlier. Taken as a whole, however, the cumulative impact speaks to a fraying country.

• ‘This Is War’: Trump and Others on Right Call for Crackdown on Left After Charlie Kirk’s Murder – Time

In the wake of Kirk’s assassination, Trump and a broad range of conservative voices, influencers, and average Red Team Americans have started calling for war against the Left. Elon Musk, never too shy to post idiocy on his Twitter/X feed, wrote that “The Left is the party of murder.” (Note: Go back and read through that list of acts of political violence above.)

Fox News commentators like Jesse Watters claim the Left, “rats” he called them, is waging war on the Right and that it’s time for conservatives to stand up. Right-wing hate groups are increasingly calling for vengeance.

At the same time, a large number of progressives and liberals are clearly happy that Kirk died. You can see that in social media post after social media post.

Americans these days are looking for any reason to hate the other side. It’s an unbridgeable divide.

In the America of my coming-of-age (’70s through the ’90s) you had your differences and you moved on. Republican and Democratic families intermarried and no one really cared. Today, polls show that a majority of Americans say marrying within your political belief system is critical.

That breeds a divisive, Us-vs-Them society.

• California breaks with CDC, cosigns COVID vaccine guidelines from medical groups – LAist

The Centers for Disease Control under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is doing little to make America healthier and a great deal to make America sicker and more vulnerable to illness and disease.

Various states including New York, Massachusetts, and New Mexico are pulling away to run their own setup. California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii have formed the West Coast Health Alliance to coordinate vaccine recommendations.

At some point, that kind of coalition will lead blocks of states to realize that they can better serve their own needs rather than kowtow to a federal government that makes some of history’s most befuddled decisions.

• Trump’s Military Rule – The Atlantic

Trump has sent troops into Los Angeles and Washington, DC, and has threatened to do the same in Chicago, Baltimore, Memphis, and New Orleans—cities all run by Democrats.

Moreover, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is now the largest and most well-funded law enforcement agency in US history. It’s using its access to cash to run roughshod over civil rights and human rights, in some cases against American citizens with no criminal record.

That’s destroying faith in the government and it’s slamming the US economy. Deportations have savaged the agricultural industry, causing food prices to rise. And just recently, a nosy Karen in Georgia called ICE on Korean workers—in the US on approved work visas—helping build a high-tech battery factory that would have brought 8,500 jobs to a town where poverty approaches 25%.

The outrage across South Korea right now speaks to the ham-handedness with which the current administration approaches most of its policies, and has far-reaching implications for Americans.

This isn’t over, but I’m already running long. So, more to come tomorrow.

Stay tuned…