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Be Ready For a Backlash From Willfully Ignorant MAGA Faithful [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-09-13
I can’t really share anything that hasn’t been articulately stated already. Charlie Kirk was a smart, energetic young man who used inflammatory rhetoric to spread an arch-conservative vision, and get very rich in the process. Though I disagree with just about everything he said and stood for, and will not be sending thoughts and prayers to anyone, I don’t believe he deserved to die. I disagree with those who have been justifying his death. I don’t think that there has been a “celebratory” mood amongst liberals, as MAGA and other right-wingers claim, but I do think many have implied that he deserved it, or that the “chickens came home to roost.” That’s wrong.
Did he deserve to die because he stated that MLK, Jr. was a bad man and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was a mistake? No.
Did he deserve to die because he said that Oprah Winfrey and Ketanji Brown Jackson had limited intellect ability and probably “stole a white person’s spot”? No.
Did he deserve to die because he consistently claimed that homosexuality was wrong. No. (He didn’t actually say that gays should be stoned to death. He told someone he was debating with that she couldn’t use Leviticus if she was going to use “Love they neighbor as thyself,” but ignore his claim that a man who lays with another man shall be stoned. That may be a nitpick, but with all the charges and counter charges flying around, it’s important to be accurate. The reality is that Kirk used the Bible to justify his homophobia.)
Did he deserve to die because he said “I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” No. (This is one that the “chickens are coming home to roost” folks are using a lot. But claiming that gun deaths are the price we pay to for the 2nd Amendment doesn’t justify assassination.)
Does he deserve to die because he encouraged someone to bail out the man who attacked Nancy Pelosi’s husband? No. (Again, context is significant. He stated that the attack was “awful” and “not right,” but maintained that given differing bail requirements from state to state, in some places he would be released, while in SF he wasn’t. This was a profoundly stupid argument, but he never did glorify the attack on Pelosi.)
Did he deserve to die because he claimed “Jews have been some of the largest funders of cultural Marxist ideas and supporters of those ideas over the last 30 or 40 years.” No.
Did he deserve to die because of the gross hypocrisy of claiming to be a Christian, while enthusiastically supporting a president who is demonstrably a liar, a conman, a felon, a traitor, and a rapist? No.
The reality is that he didn’t deserve to be killed for any reason. This is a supposed democracy, in which people get to speak their minds, no matter how ugly and divisive that speech is. Some of you may be old enough to remember when a group of American Nazis wanted to march through Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago with a large Jewish population. The ACLU stated that the 1st Amendment protected their right to do so, as it protected all speech – even hateful speech that the majority found repugnant. The group decided not to march through Skokie, but the ACLU lost many thousands of members for its decision to defend the rights of vile people spouting hateful and offensive language.
Most of what Kirk said was flat out wrong. But he did it legally, and with the backing of very rich donors, was able to spread his vitriol around the country and amass a huge following. Tapping into anger and hate, and using it to one’s political advantage, is the time-tested MO of conservatives in this country, and the only thing that keeps the GOP afloat (well, that, gerrymandering, and keeping people of color from voting).
So, the bottom line is that he had every right to do and say whatever he wanted without fear of assassination.
But, in the aftermath of his killing, we see one of the major differences between liberals and MAGA conservatives. Never in our history have liberals in general or Democrats specifically called for vengeance and civil war. I repeat – never. But the internet, and airwaves, and even, despicably, the halls of Congress are reverberating with the war cries of right-wing zealots who want to fight the civil war all over again. These are just a few of the comments I read on a response page recently. They aren’t cherry-picked. The country is drowning in cries of “THIS MEANS WAR!”
The left's hate is about to awaken a sleeping giant
This is the second assassination attempt on a public figure that is aligned with the conservative party shits going to hit the fan.
The Left is declaring war on MAGA, we should give it to them! They have crossed the the line!
THE LEFT IS GOING DOWN!!!! RIP!! PATRIOT CHARLIE KIRK!!
It's time for a reaction or what? Having commies in your country means a permanent civil war, sooner or later things have to be settled down.
And, of course, what fuels the desire for vengeance is the absurd notion that it’s the “Radical Left” and/or the Democratic Party, that is responsible for all of the violence. More typical comments:
Liberals are out of control these are attacks encouraged by politicians like Maxine Watters.
The heartless monsters from the radical Left, they wanted to silence the truth.
The left can't debate, they fear it, so they attack, RIP Charlie Kirk.
You ever notice that the left speak of gun control all of the time but it's the left that commits this political gun violence..... ???
Left wing political violence is getting baaaaaaaaaaaaad.
The left pretends to be the party of peace when in reality if you disagree with the left, then they act violently towards you. We need to reject the violent left and embrace, traditional conservative values. I used to be a Democrat, but no longer. I reject the left and the Democratic party and their lies and their violence.
I guess this is what you end up believing while wrapped in the alt-universe cocoon of Faux News. Here is a brief timeline of political violence in the US, and data from SPLC about extremism and violence. It doesn’t even include killings such as driving cars into groups of protesters or killing in “self-defense” by people like Kyle Rittenhouse, who became a right-wing hero.
1995–2010
April 19, 1995: Oklahoma City bombing – Timothy McVeigh bombed a federal building, killing 168. Motivated by anti-government views.
July 27, 2008: Knoxville church shooting – Gunman targeted a liberal church due to political and social views, killing 2.
2011–2020
January 8, 2011: Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shot in Tucson, AZ. Six killed, 13 injured
June 14, 2017: Rep. Steve Scalise and others shot during GOP baseball practice in Virginia
October 2018: Pipe bombs mailed to prominent Democrats and CNN by a Trump supporter.
October 8, 2020: Plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer by militia members
2021–2023
January 6, 2021: U.S. Capitol insurrection – Mob stormed Capitol to stop election certification. 5 deaths, 140 officers injured
October 28, 2022: Paul Pelosi, husband of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, attacked with a hammer in their home
Dec 2023–Jan 2024: Solomon Peña, failed GOP candidate in New Mexico, orchestrated shootings at homes of Democratic lawmakers
2024–2025
June 13, 2024: Donald Trump grazed by bullet in assassination attempt at rally in Pennsylvania. One spectator killed
October 2024: Second attempt on Trump at Florida golf course, thwarted
January 2025: Craig Greenberg, Louisville mayor, targeted in shooting attempt. No injuries
June 2025: Melissa Hortman, MN House Speaker, and husband assassinated. Sen. John Hoffman and wife wounded
August 2025: Gunman attacks CDC headquarters in Atlanta, killing Officer David Rose
September 10, 2025: Charlie Kirk, conservative activist, assassinated during speech at Utah Valley University
📊 Reuters Special Report (2023)
Since the January 6, 2021 Capitol attack, Reuters identified 213 cases of political violence.
Of the 14 fatal political attacks where the perpetrator’s political leanings were clear: 13 were committed by right-wing assailants 1 was committed by a left-wing assailant
Much of the violence was personally targeted, not just property damage, and often aimed at Democrats, election officials, or social justice activists.
Examples include: A Trump supporter murdering a neighbor for being a Democrat. The Buffalo supermarket shooting by a white supremacist who cited far-right ideology.
SPLC Data Summary (2015–2024): ) The Southern Poverty Law Center has been tracking extremist groups and domestic terrorism for over 50 years.
In 2024, the SPLC tracked 1,371 hate and antigovernment extremist groups, the vast majority of which were right-wing
The SPLC does not maintain a large category of left-wing extremist groups. Most of its documented groups fall under: White nationalist Anti-government militias Christian nationalist Male supremacist Anti-LGBTQ+ Anti-immigrant Neo-Confederate Hard-right education and parental rights groups
🧨 Violent Incidents:
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL): From 2015 to 2024, 76% of extremist-related deaths were caused by right-wing extremists. Only 4% were attributed to left-wing extremists, including anarchists and Black nationalists
🧭 SPLC’s Focus:
The SPLC has historically focused on far-right extremism because it poses the most consistent and deadly threat to public safety and democratic institutions.
Left-wing extremism, while present, tends to involve property damage (e.g., arson, vandalism) rather than targeted killings or mass violence.
So, how is it that folks on the right can ignore this and honestly believe that “leftists” are responsible for most politically motivated violence? I put “leftists” in quotes because the reality is that most people who fear the left don’t even know what the left is. Trump has referred to Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi as “radical leftists.” They are both solidly centrist democrats, but to the uneducated or willfully ignorant, radical leftist encompasses everyone from middle-of-the-road Dems (Schiff, Mark Kelly) out to liberal Dems (Jamie Raskin, Corey Booker, Gavin Newsome), social democrats like Bernie and AOC; celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, George Clooney…….actually, it’s hard to name them all because the music and film industries are crammed full of liberals; almost all environmental groups; organizations such as Earth First, PETA, Food Not Bombs, DSA (Democratic Socialists of America), and any number of other social justice groups; Antifa, which the right loves to hate, but is more a disunified collection of anarchists than a cohesive leftist group (which, btw, has not been found responsible for one single death in its history, but is still the left-bogeyman held up as a counterpoint to the deadly rioters of January 6th). The protests in Portland in 2020-2021 were definitely violent, but it was a series of clashes between protesters, police, right-wing groups such as Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer, and Oath Keepers, federal agents, and Antifa.
The bottom line is that to Trump, his followers, and definitely Charlie Kirk, all of the above fall into the category of “radical leftist.” Kirk also liked to throw in the term “Marxist,” though either he had no idea what Marxism really was, or he knew that using it was bullshit and chose to do so because it’s was a safe, historically tested epithet.
Not one person mentioned in the previous paragraph was/is a Marxist. But if they hear it from their president, and hear it parroted on Faux News and other propaganda outlets, they will believe it. And they will accept the completely erroneous view that the “left” is violent; that Trump’s name-calling and mean-spirited treatment of anyone who disagrees is just fine; that the January 6th riots were instigated by Pelosi and “the left”; that the climate of hateful intolerance is a product of the Democratic Party. More quotes – again, not cherry picked – very typical:
The lengths Democrats/Liberals will go to in their goal to silence Conservative speakers
The INSANE DemocRat politicians are happy to hear about this assassination attempt. We are UNITED in PRAYER for the life of Charlie Kirk. WOKENESS IS EVIL.
We all know who did this it was the radical left all of them are responsible and I'm done with these people I'm sick of just being forced to live with insane people as our neighbors
At what point will we hold the left-wing media accountable for all the hate that their followers are doing.
Typical democrat/progressive justice. This is what's broken, the democrat party.
This is evidence of how the left responds to loosening arguments. We need to be aware of this response by sick people.
This is also an attack on Christians
Are you surprised??? Its a war on Christians and MAGA
What does it all mean? I’m not sure, but I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my life. We have millions of people who are upset and angry at people like me. They blame us for violence that pales in comparison to their own. They blame all of the hate on those of us who correctly call the president a fascist; even when he goes on the airwaves and declares without a shred of evidence that Kirk’s murder was carried out by “radical leftists.” In that same speech he blamed us for calling him a fascist and equating him and his followers to Nazis. That’s what he said led to Charlie Kirk’s death.
And it’s completely lost on MAGA that the leader of our country was angry at being called names while calling names; that calling someone a fascist when his rule has all of the characteristics of fascism, is not the same as calling someone a violent, radical leftist when they are no such thing. There is not a powerful radical left in America. The young man who killed Kirk is not part of any leftist organization. The man who tried to assassinate Trump was a registered Republican with not one tie to left-wing groups. Same with the guy in the bushes with a rifle while Trump was golfing.
The “violent left” is made-up, but will used by right-wing extremists, of whom there are many, to justify God-sanctioned vengeance against Satan’s minions (aka – anyone left of center). And they will be either subtly or overtly encouraged by the “man” who is supposed to represent all citizens. And that man is undoubtedly going to use this incident to crack down on dissent. More military; more ICE; more declarations of war against American cities in Blue states; more of everything that will reek of his own hatred of those who won’t bend a knee to him, but will be applauded by people who are perfectly willing to accept violence against the “enemy within.”
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