Of the conservative estimate of 80 political assassinations that have been committed in the US since 1815—things were relatively quiet in the four decades after independence—some stand out as infernally consequential. ‘Infernally’ because nothing good has ever come of assassinations, a simple historical lesson that seems to continuously elude Americans who dip into their stashes of weaponry—with arms outnumbering citizens 1.2:1—whenever the rage of reflex and irreflection descends upon them.
Of the six assassination attempts and two successful assassinations of American political figures in the 21st century, the recent killing of alt-right maven Charlie Kirk stands out as the second-most consequential; the first being the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which arguably propelled him into the Oval Office.
Kirk’s murder is important not only for the brutalité des citoyens it has reintroduced into the public arena, but also for the range of truly outré reactions it has elicited from public figures and the social-media populace.
There are cautionary words from leftist and centrist luminaries, awkward carousing from liberals, remissness of prudence from rightist commentators seeking to blame Kirk’s killing on what Trump routinely calls “the radical left Democrats”, and outright incendiarism from rightwing trolls who seem to have been energised into an uncharacteristic anti-Israelism by Kirk’s putative ante-mortem disenchantment with Israel’s genocide in Gaza and, more importantly, by the fear that Netanyahuists had punctured not only Trump’s trademark confidence in himself but also taken over Capitol Hill itself.
Following Kirk’s assassination, the US is a mess of belief vs belief, opinion vs opinion, conviction vs conviction—all precariously perched over the precipice of internecine conflict unheard of in a century. A 2009 study, ‘Hit or Miss? The Effects of Assassinations on Institutions and War’ (American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics), examined the assassinations of national leaders between 1875 and 2004. It found that the US, the Dominican Republic and Spain vied for the highest number. There was an assassination of a world leader in nearly two out of three years 1950 onwards. But the US has had the maximum number of significant political assassinations—four presidents, 12 members of Congress, four governors, 34 state legislators, nine mayors, three city council members, and three politicians who held no office.
The day after Kirk was shot, the common refrain among commentators was variations of “This is not who we are.” This refusal to see assassinations as endemic cut across the political spectrum. Liberal politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Joe Biden and Barack Obama were as guilty of self-acquittal as Republican firebreathers. The influential and respected performer Whoopi Goldberg, not known for hedging her bets, has taken a less sympathetic view: “It seems to be something we’ve been seeing more and more of. And it’s not even left or right. It’s just people being taken out because of their beliefs and their thoughts.”
This truth has been flagged for a very long time. In The Age of Assassination: Monarchy and Nation in 19th-Century Europe, Cambridge historian Rachel Hoffman presciently wrote: “In contrast to the relative quiet of the 18th century, the 19th saw the renewed surge of political murder that had characterised the early modern period... It was not only the attacks that inspired fear among European royalty. The period was rife with rumours of assassination. The mere hint of conspiracy to commit political murder caused distress and anxiety at every European court. As monarchs, state ministers and police authorities grew concerned, so too did society at large. Assassination attempts provoked mass public demonstrations of loyalty to the state, with crowds gathering in their thousands to sing patriotic hymns, to illuminate and flag their streets, and to convene religious services and vigils.”
All this reads so post-Kirkish. Charlie Kirk was a chilling public figure—a smooth-talking racist, white supremacist, gun advocate, homophobe, transphobe, misogynist, anti-abortionist, Israelist, genocide-denier. Every ill of illiberality could be traced to his doorstep. But he was a Trumpista par excellence. Trump ordered flags at half-mast following his killing; he will give him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the US’s highest civilian honour; a statue of his will be erected in Washington DC.
Meanwhile, a right-wing website has revealed the names, addresses, and other private details of 40,000 critics of Kirk. Doxxing is illegal across the world. The website was shut down once, but has cropped up again and promises to keep alive by skipping across the pond of legality.
The superfactory of ‘othering’ in the US is ratcheting up. Even as the Indian American director of the FBI, Kash Patel, borrowed neo-Nazi symbology to declare he would meet Kirk “in Valhalla”— the white supremacist heaven of eternal booyah, booze and battle—Utah Governor Spencer Cox went full racist: “For 33 hours, I was praying that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn’t be one of us—that somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country. Sadly, that prayer was not answered the way I hoped for.”
Anti-immigrant, Islamophobic dog-whistling parading as a requiem is Kirk’s America.
Kajal Basu | Veteran journalist
(Views are personal)
(kajalrbasu@gmail.com)