Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:
The murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk highlighted the intolerance that has reigned for years in a polarized United States. And unfortunately, some sectors are using the tragedy to ramp up divisive rhetoric and promise a “war” against the “radical left,” whom they blame for the young activist’s death.
Over the past decade, inflammatory rhetoric, misinformation, and lies have become part of the current administration’s strategy and style of governing. The narrative, once limited to marginal white supremacist groups, about the “invasion” of immigrants and the theory of the “great replacement” of whites by minorities, has become part of Republican discourse and public policy.
These white supremacists, driven by messages of intolerance that we are in a war of “them” against “us,” have moved from words to action in massacres such as the one at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018 and at the Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, where the attacker wanted to stop the “invasion” of Hispanic immigrants, according to his own lawyer.
In this spiral of rhetoric and recriminations, 31-year-old Kirk was murdered by a 22-year-old white man from Utah who, according to family and friends, had gradually become radicalized.
But by blaming the “radical left” for Kirk’s death without presenting any evidence, the administration and its allies are ignoring the attacks perpetrated against Democrats, such as the Minnesota lawmaker who was murdered alongside her husband, and the hammer attack against the husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
And how can we forget the deadly assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, when a mob attempted to prevent the certification of the 2020 presidential election? There were deaths and injuries, including 174 police officers, but those responsible, eventually convicted and imprisoned, received a presidential pardon in January of this year and are called “patriots” and “hostages.”
Kirk’s death intersects not only with the clash of opposing ideas that in some cases lead to violence, but also with the eternal debate over easy access to guns in a nation that, in fact, has more guns than people.
It also exposes the role of social media in serving as a platform for those who promote rhetoric and lies that a sector of the population believes to be true, with the danger of appealing to individuals who decide to take violent action on their own.
And it highlights the country’s leadership vacuum at the highest levels.
A leader would call for sanity and calm. But that has not been the case. Instead, Kirk’s death is being used as an excuse to double down the attacks on the liberal opposition and Democrats. It is also being used to justify extreme public policies, as is the case in cities across the country that have been militarized under the pretext of fighting crime, especially through indiscriminate raids against immigrants who are labeled “invaders” and “criminals.”
In fact, the press reported on plans to “dismantle” left-wing institutions for promoting “violence and terrorism.”
The United States has had a history of violence at various stages. Its expansion was made possible by displacing, dispossessing, and eliminating Native Americans. The Civil War between the South and the North resulted in more deaths than in any other war in which the United States has participated. Then there is its treatment of African Americans, first with slavery, then with racial segregation, the political assassinations that marked the bloody struggle for civil rights, and discrimination against Hispanics and other minorities of color, including the deportation of Americans of Hispanic origin.
Many of these struggles continue today, as we witness with indiscriminate deportations and the militarization of cities led by African American Democrats.
But the United States also has a history of aspiring to be better. That aspiration has led to advances in civil rights, women’s rights, and minority rights. Those same advances are under attack in this new dark chapter of our collective history.
And despite this, the best option is not to add fuel to the fire and to keep our sights set on that aspiration to be better as individuals, neighbors, and as a country.
The original Spanish version is here.
