In announcing that a suspect was in custody following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, “This is our moment: Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp?” He said this in the hope that people can begin talking instead of shunning and shooting one another.
It’s the right hope at the right time because over the past eight years, the rise in political violence has been frightening. It began with a baseball practice in Alexandria, Virginia in June, 2017. A mass shooting was perpetrated by a former Bernie Sanders campaign volunteer, leaving House Majority Leader Steve Scalise gravely wounded, along with a Capitol Hill police officer, and two others.
Five years later, in October, 2022, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was attacked in his home. Friends and neighbors of the assailant said he struggled with mental health issues and drug use, which accompanied his homelessness and evolving political views.
The nation was shocked in March, 2023, when six people were murdered in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville. The assailant changed her name to that of a man, prompting most in the media to refer to her with masculine pronouns. Perhaps this horror would lead us to the off-ramp.
It didn’t. The 2024 campaign saw two attempts on Donald Trump’s life. One suspect was killed and the other is currently standing trial in Florida. While the ideologies and motives of these men are muddled, they manifested themselves in wanting Trump dead.
In April, 2025, a Palestinian sympathizer set fire to the home of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro with a Molotov cocktail while he and his family were sleeping. The arsonist disagreed with the governor’s opinions about the ongoing war in Gaza. Still, no off-ramp in sight.
Within months, in June, 2025, a political appointee of Minnesota Governors Tim Walz and Mark Dayton was arrested and charged following the murder of state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the earlier shooting of state senator John Hoffman and his wife, both of whom survived.
The off-ramp still eluded us. Just last month, two children were killed while praying at the Annunciation Catholic Church School in Minneapolis, with a score of others wounded. The gunman previously changed his name to that of a girl and wrote how much he regretted beingbrainwashed by transgender ideology.
Now, Charlie Kirk is dead.
It is neither fair nor accurate to attribute this violence to one political party. But it is accurate to say most perpetrators of these acts embraced some ideology or worldview that is reflected in the agenda and policies of establishment Democrats. This is worrisome.
Politicians of any party tend to follow the lead of their respective political base. Today, the Democrat base is quickly shifting toward totalitarian political philosophies. It was this base that nominated Zohran Mamdani as their candidate for mayor of New York City. This never would have happened 10 years ago, but the base has since shifted so far leftward, it now wants a Socialist to govern America’s largest city.
It’s not just New York. In Minneapolis, the local Democrat apparatus endorsed Socialist Omar Fateh for mayor in July. The endorsement was revoked the following month on disputed procedural grounds but regardless of the outcome of this process, there’s an established groundswell of support for socialism.
In Seattle, Kshama Sawant is running for Congress after a decade as a Socialist city council member. Originally a member of the Socialist Alternative Party, she left it to found Revolutionary Workers and now plans to call herself an independent in next year’s midterm election.
These are not aberrations. There are millions of Americans who embrace socialist views and policies. Some are simply dupes but many others are steeped in an ideology that prohibits dissent. It doesn’t merely tolerate violence, it teaches it as a political tool.
Vladimir Lenin wrote, “The supersession of the bourgeois state by the proletarian state is impossible without a violent revolution.” He also wrote, chillingly, “Without in the least denying violence and terrorism in principle, we demanded work for the preparation of such forms of violence as were calculated to bring about the direct participation of the masses and which guaranteed that participation.” Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin further systematized violence, terror and murder as an implement of governance. Violence is an integral part of an ideology that is informing more American voters today.
It’s not simply the idea that killing is acceptable; it’s deeper than that. It’s embedded in the ideology of Bolshevism and its political cousins through the myth of infallibility, the belief that the goals of communism and the means of achieving them are infallible and inevitable. The result is the twisted notion that violence cannot possibly be wrong because Lenin, Stalin and others said it was right. The ideology demands violence and terror; it’s not something they can do or may do, but something they must do.
Lest one be tempted to dismiss this assessment as right-wing hyperbole, consider the latest data from the Network Contagion Research Institute. Their survey last spring found that 55% of respondents who identified as left-of-center said it would be at least “somewhat justified,” to assassinate President Trump.
Convincing more than half of liberals that assassinating a president is acceptable takes time; people don’t become this radicalized overnight. It also takes money. Some one is financing the mayhem we’re seeing, which foments more violence. From street riots to large-scale demonstrations that seemingly pop-up out of nowhere, funding is coming from somewhere. Trump wants to get to the bottom of it. It’s a good start.
Until then, right-thinking people must be vigilant in safeguarding their communities from the radicals among the millions supporting socialism who want to continue the violent work of idols like Lenin, Stalin and others. If we want an off-ramp, we’ll have to build it ourselves. I like to think that’s what Charlie Kirk would want.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy Townhall’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join Townhall VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!