<\/p>\n Attendees pray during a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk at the Historic Lake County Courthouse in Tavares, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel via AP)<\/p>\n Attendees pray during a prayer vigil for Charlie Kirk at the Historic Lake County Courthouse in Tavares, Fla., Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (Stephen M. Dowell\/Orlando Sentinel via AP)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n His words stood out not just for the stark language about America\u2019s troubles, but for his sober acknowledgement that the violence reaches across the political divide. <\/p>\n It can be hard to remember all the scenes of political violence in just the past few years: Butler, Pennsylvania<\/a>, the Minneapolis suburbs<\/a>, San Francisco<\/a>, New York City<\/a>, West Palm Beach<\/a>. And more. Taken together, they are enough to make Americans wonder: Is there a way forward? What might it look like? <\/p>\n \u201cNothing I say can unite us as a country,\u201d said Cox, a Republican. \u201cNothing I can say right now will fix what is broken.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A sign reading \u201cFly High Charlie Kirk! We love you. R.I.P.\u201d is seen hanging on a fence with flowers across the street from the Utah Valley University campus, in Orem, Utah, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo\/Hannah Schoenbaum)<\/p>\n A sign reading \u201cFly High Charlie Kirk! We love you. R.I.P.\u201d is seen hanging on a fence with flowers across the street from the Utah Valley University campus, in Orem, Utah, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025. (AP Photo\/Hannah Schoenbaum)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n A troubled nation<\/p>\n Many people, of course, feel America is broken. You can hear about the country\u2019s many troubles \u2014 its ideological divides, its anger, its lack of civility \u2014 from conservatives<\/a> and liberals<\/a>, from socialist firebrands and evangelical preachers, from Democrats and Republicans. It is, perhaps, one of the few beliefs that unites Americans right now. <\/p>\n So many seem to genuinely want those divides to be mended, for the country to be knitted back together. But the question of why America is broken, and who is to blame, and how to repair it? That\u2019s where things get complicated.<\/p>\n Because no matter what you believe, today \u2014 in both the myriad reactions to Kirk\u2019s violent public death and in general \u2014 you can pick the America you want. You can pick the America that you believe exists.<\/p>\n You can see a president who is systematically removing the rights of Americans, or a president who is standing up for a forgotten middle class. You can see signs of fascism in the masked immigration agents<\/a> hauling people off the streets, or an administration that is finally enforcing immigration laws for the good of all citizens. <\/p>\n In Charlie Kirk<\/a>, you can see a polite, boy-next-door type with a captivating debating style who loved America, the church, his family, and the resurgence of conservatism across the country, especially among young people. Or you can see a political hybrid of the social media age, a powerful political operative who was willing to exploit America\u2019s racial divide<\/a> in search of support and who insisted, falsely, that voter fraud cost Trump the 2020 elections.<\/p>\n When Cox spoke mournfully about America\u2019s predicament, he clearly hoped Kirk\u2019s death could help bring America together. More likely, though, the killing could drive the wedges deeper.<\/p>\n Just listen to how people reacted to his death. Choose the take you want to believe. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The casket containing the body of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot and killed is removed from Air Force Two at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)<\/p>\n The casket containing the body of Charlie Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot and killed is removed from Air Force Two at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n A divided society, a divided reaction<\/p>\n In the hours immediately after the shooting, officials in both parties appeared anxious to show restraint and decorum, expressing their grief, support for Kirk\u2019s family and repulsion at political violence.<\/p>\n \u201cWords cannot describe the shock and horror I felt today,\u201d Arizona Republican chair Gina Swoboda said in a statement, saying America \u201cmust never condone or excuse acts of political violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Maine\u2019s Democratic governor, Janet Mills<\/a>, who has sparred with Trump<\/a>, said she was \u201chorrified by what has happened to Charlie Kirk.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDiffering views \u2014 regardless of who holds them and how much you may detest them \u2014 should never be met with violence,\u201d she wrote. <\/p>\n Soon, though, even with only the barest facts about the shooting known, the anger began to spill out. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a> said she was praying that \u201cthis country rises up and ends this.\u201d Then others began speaking up, with politicians warning about \u201cleftwing Brown Shirts\u201d and Christians under attack.<\/p>\n Trump quickly conferred martyr status onto Kirk, ordering flags lowered at federal buildings and blaming leftist rhetoric for Kirk\u2019s assassination in a lengthy video statement released on social media late Wednesday. \u201cFor years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world\u2019s worst mass murders and criminals,\u201d Trump said, speaking from the Oval Office and citing only attacks on Republicans.<\/p>\n Democratic politicians, for the most part, appeared eager to avoid any sign that they were demonizing Kirk. But it wasn\u2019t that way in some left-wing neighborhoods on social media. \u201cCharlie Kirk isn\u2019t a martyr,\u201d wrote a commentator on X with 130,000 followers, echoing many others. \u201cHe\u2019s a casualty of the violence he incited.\u201d<\/p>\n That carried echoes of the praise for Luigi Mangione<\/a>, the man charged with murdering the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Manhattan<\/a> last year, and the explosion of social media memes celebrating the July shooting death of a prominent real-estate executive in the same borough.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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