On an impossibly beautiful September 11 morning 24 years ago, America lost something precious — its sense of security. We could no longer treat the world's problems as someone else's business, and the world would no longer let us be complacent observers.
This involved us in "forever wars" and forced us to reassess our position in the world. For many, it meant pulling back from world affairs and concentrating on domestic concerns.
Once again, we've been shocked out of our complacency with the brutal killing of Charlie Kirk. Initial signs point to a domestic killer and not a foreign terrorist, but in a way, it doesn't matter. It's the deed and what it represents that should occupy our thoughts in the coming days.
Political violence has increased in the last few decades. It waxes and wanes, but it has become increasingly common over the past 55 years.
Assassinations, once a tool of foreign radicals, is now commonplace in America. Just think of the political violence that's been unleashed the last two years.
A shooter wounded Donald Trump, and killed an attendee of his rally, in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024.
A shooter killed Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, in midtown Manhattan on December 4, 2024 (and was widely celebrated for this cowardly act).
A shooter killed two attendees of a gala at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on May 21, 2025.
A shooter killed Melissa Hortman, a Minnesota state representative, and her husband, and wounded John Hoffman, a state senator, and his wife, in the suburbs of Champlin, on June 14, 2025.
A shooter killed two children, and injured about twenty others, in an attack on a Catholic Church in Minneapolis on August 27, 2025.
And on September 10, 2025, an unknown assassin killed a major combatant in the cultural and political wars. Charlie Kirk was permanently silenced, and with that, the "assassin's veto" has surpassed the "heckler's veto" as a means to an end.
And if there's one thing the left loves, it's justifying the means by pointing to the end result.
"Sure, Luigi Mangione killed the soulless cretin who worked to deny people medical care, but he acted in the name of all of us and can therefore be 'understood' if not excused."
It's one thing to protest the UnitedHealthcare CEO by shouting him down or even heckling him at his office or at home. It's a slap in the face to the First Amendment and a violation of the individual's right to privacy.
But it's legal.
I share those concerns over the heckler’s veto. But the danger which now faces the American Republic is deeper still. As violence descends on the land, and the price of engaging in political speech grows and grows, we are increasingly faced with something even scarier, both for the individual and for our political culture: the assassin’s veto.
Violence as a means of politics must always remain unacceptable in a democracy, whether it targets outspoken conservative podcasters or progressive politicians or senior judges or corporate executives. For we all stand to lose when the price of sharing one’s ideas, right or wrong, left or right, radical or milquetoast, becomes incalculable.
I fear that violence, egged on by social media and the fame and notoriety that comes to those who kill high-profile political influencers, will no longer be a rare event. What's worse is that those with the biggest platforms, the most success, will live with a target on their backs, ever vigilant for the "assassin's veto" to descend without notice and change history again.
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