In recent days, Republican Utah Governor Spencer Cox has apprised the nation on law enforcement’s investigation of the political assassination of Charlie Kirk. He has taken a further step in diagnosing the nation’s perceived ills, attempting to rid us of political violence. Despite his good faith effort, Governor Cox has unfortunately misconstrued the underlying disease, and a miss by an inch here is the same as a mile.
For starters, one can look at Cox’s varying statements in the span of just a few days. Cox last Friday said “Social media is a cancer on our society right now,” attempting to even echo Kirk’s prior comments. However, Cox’s blanket statement (which feeds mainstream media headlines) covers too far an area. Surely Governor Cox should instead refer to the specific elements of social media which tend to blind, brainwash, or lead to obsession. But he should not include social media which informs, fluently advocates, and mirrors our historical speech traditions. For there are many issues which social media brings attention to that do not receive interest initially in legacy media (like in the murder of Iryna Zarutska). Social media is not so much a cancer as it is an opportunity. Whether or not we seek to use it for good does not mean all of it is for naught. Just like yellow journalism of the past and today’s tabloids do not render judgment against a thoughtful magazine, social media should exist for us to decide how to bring forth our better angels. And when Governor Cox uses such sweeping language, it not only makes the First Amendment queasy but it is surely to be flaunted by the Left when it attempts someday again to pressure online platforms in an amorphous quest for harmony. When it comes to speech, we simply cannot throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Governor Cox tried to hone his argument, admitting in a September 13th article in the Wall Street Journal that “[i]t’s very clear to us” that alleged Kirk shooter Tyler Robinson was “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.” The old fashioned word for this would be motive, and just like evidence cracking a case, Cox’s admission must be introduced loudly in the court of public opinion. But Cox then seemingly pivoted back again in his examination on Sunday by saying (in response to Steve Bannon) that “Look, there are conflict entrepreneurs out there who benefit from radicalizing us. And I’m not one of those.” Who else exactly are these conflict entrepreneurs? Would it even include, by Cox’s words, the late Charlie Kirk? Elon Musk? Cox then shifted again by apparently agreeing with Bannon, saying “But he is right at this: we need to find out how this happened, and we need to stop it from happening [again].” Governor Cox already discovered this by revealing the Left’s ideological venom in this case, but he obscures matters for the public by alternating back to generalities. If Spencer Cox is trying to thread the needle here, he would have an easier time getting a camel through.
The problem is one person’s divisive “conflict” is sometimes seen as another’s principled stand. Too often the idea of toning down rhetoric means watering down its righteous substance. And by the Right’s best lights, it seems that they are the only ones asked to dilute their drink. Conservatives from Buckley to Limbaugh to Kirk have sought to persuade and change minds for the sake of human flourishing, always with the cogent force of their argument instead of just a zero-sum thinking.
Governor Cox seems to be trying to place himself as both doctor diagnosing our ills and pharmacist measuring just the right mix of political pills. But while his bedside manner has soothed, he is not entirely attentive as the patient recites all the symptoms. It is the conservative political (and even religious) movement that has been grievously wounded, and they know why the Kirk assassination in Utah happened. It is because conservatives are reviled. Just look to the grade school teacher near Toronto that saw fit to show Kirk’s assassination footage to a class and seemingly excuse it. Attempts to promote a quaint equanimity of viewpoints are much too blind to the malignant rot growing on one ideological side. The diagnosis here is hate and the treatment is courage.
Alan Loncar is an attorney in Macomb County, Michigan.
Image: U.S. Embassy Jerusalem, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, unaltered.
