Washington, DC — The following is a reflection from Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“First and foremost, let’s make this clear: political violence of any kind is abhorrent and has no place in our democracy. In moments like these, national leaders should be seeking to unify the American people, to tamp down division and reaffirm what binds us together as a nation. We should have a national consensus – across all parties and ideologies – about turning down the temperature and trying to bridge the divides and calm the fears that are helping to stoke violence.
After Charlottesville; after El Paso; after the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh; after January 6th, 2021 assault on the Capitol; after the Buffalo grocery store shootings; after the attack on Paul Pelosi; after the attempt on the president’s life; after last summer’s shooting of two Democratic lawmakers and their spouses in Minnesota and last week’s killing of Charlie Kirk in Utah: enough is enough.
As Oklahoma’s Republican Senator James Lankford made clear this weekend in urging fellow elected leaders to call for unity:
“When there’s a fire, you pour water on it, not gasoline.”
Yet in a sharp and unprecedented rebuke to our own national history, many elected officials and government leaders are aiming to stoke divisions and are pledging retribution against perceived political opponents. As longtime political observer Ron Brownstein captured on CNN about this unprecedented response:
“It’s hard to overstate how profoundly President Trump has inverted the first instinct of other presidents at a moment of national tragedy … those are the moments when presidents historically have tried hardest to speak to and for the entire country. You mentioned Clinton after Oklahoma City; George W. Bush going to the Islamic center a few days after 9/11; and talking about respecting all Americans — or Obama singing ‘Amazing Grace’ after the horrible Mother Emanuel shooting” in Charleston. Trump is not only not doing those things, he is doing the opposite.”
Meanwhile, other administration figures are promising to use the administration’s power to punish the “left wing network” and cite Kirk’s killing as justification for a broader crackdown against perceived political opponents.
As a longtime observer of this administration, I have no doubt that the pledge to justify Kirk’s murder will include a major focus on immigration and how to advance the mass deportation agenda. We have witnessed this administration use immigration as the ‘tip of the spear’ – part of a wider assault on the rights and freedoms of every American. I fear this dangerous dynamic will only be turbocharged at this current moment.
We can and should have lively and passionate debates about policy and politics, even on challenging issues like immigration, without resorting to dangerous rhetoric about “invaders” and “the Great Replacement” theory or weaponizing immigration fears to support a crackdown against our fellow Americans; our own cities and communities; and our political opponents.
As former Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake and former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords wrote in a joint USA Today op-ed:
“Some moments are too important for partisanship. The moment our country is in today is one of them.”
Moments of crisis can be revealing – not only of the national mood but of our national leaders. Too many leaders’ response after this most recent instance of deadly political violence should trouble all of us, outside of our usual political and ideological camps.
We need more water, less gasoline.”
