All experts want to be wrong but few have that hope. The murder on Wednesday of Charlie Kirk, key figure of the ultra -right of the United States, fundamental ally of Donald Trump and the 31 years of the most decisive person for the mobilization of conservative young people in the country, looks like a turning point that places the US before a New era of political violence. Perhaps, these experts, many politicians and countless citizens fear, have already begun.
Los Episodes that pushed the abyss to a nation that has that violence in the DNA of its history have gone intensifying In recent years, as long as Polarization wound It became increasing and more radical. Numerous polls show that in a country where more and more Americans see the political violence Like a problem serious are also increasingly, at the two ideological extremes, those who believe legitimate resort to it. And the cases in which they have recently accumulate.
Escalation
A Non -exhaustive list of recent years includes Assault on the Capitol For a mob that believed Trump’s lies about electoral fraud, the Attempt to kidnapping Michigan’s Democratic governorhe Murder attempt by a conservative judge of the Supreme and the hammer attack on Nancy Pelosi husband.
In July of last year the most serious of the two occurred in a rally Murder attempts that faced in the electoral campaign as a candidate Trumpto which a bullet only touched an ear. And it was a relief in a country where four presidents have been killed And another, Ronald Reagan, victim of an attack.
Since the Republican has returned to the presidency, however, political violence has intensified, with episodes such as the Murder of the CEO of United Healthcare in New Yorkthe attack on the house of Jewish Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania or the Murder of two workers from the Israel Embassy in Washington. And in a country where opponents of Elon Musk attacked the concessionaires of Tesla and where a vaccine critic during the pandemic killed a policeman in a shooting against the headquarters of the CDC In June there was the Murder of a Minnesota Democratic state congressman and her husband by an attacker who also left a Democratic Senator and his wife.
The latter had been the most serious episode until Wednesday, when Kirk’s murder fell like a bomb in the country. And although there were no missing voices that immediately rose to denounce what happened with forcefulness, regardless of the ideology or the party, it was soon clear that The options to stop an escalation, at the rhetorical moment, are limited.
“It was violent populism”
Robert Pape, a political scientist who directs the project on security and threats from the University of Chicago and after the assault on the Capitol began to do surveys on attitudes towards political violence, has identified the current moment as “a“ a It was violent populism. ” In statements to ‘The Washington Post’ he said that, according to historical parameters, there are “high murder numbers, murder attempts and violent protests, and is happening both on the right and on the left “.
“This goes far beyond the cyclic appearances of militia violence that we have seen for 20 years. It’s a different leveland Different of political violenceto. It is a fact that can be demonstrated, ”said Pape, who has directly defined the country as“ a POLVORIN“In other statements to ‘The New York Times’. In that newspaper another expert, Matthew Dallek, Political historian of the George Washington University has identified this moment as “The most violent politically in the US from 60 and 70“Of the twentieth century, those of the struggle for civil rights, the murders of JFK and Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and the repression of protests against the Vietnam War.
Incendiary words in the oval office
Not everyone is collaborating to try to avoid extending flames and reactions from ideological and partisan extremes have fed the idea that a ““guerra”, Or have appealed to do so.
Even from the oval office, incendiary words have come out. In a video hung on social networks on Wednesday, Trump said that “it is time for Americans and media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the Tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree Day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way. ”And it was a message that could open the door to a call to descale rhetoric, tension and confrontation but Trump then did something very different.
“For years the Radical left He has compared wonderful Americans like Charlie (Kirk) nazis and the worst criminals and mass murderers in the world. This type of rhetoric es directly responsible for terrorism that we are seeing in our country today and must stop immediately, ”he said.
“My administration will find all those who have contributed to this atrocity and another political violence, including organizations that finance it and support, as well as Those who chase our judges, agents of the law Anyone who makes order in our country, ”he said also, avoiding talking about Democratic victims when he reviewed episodes of violence.
His words come according to Federal agents They have been intensifying the arrests for months Immigrants And when the president has already ordered to deploy Troops in Los Angeles and Washington DC. And they shake a country shocked and where the fear that the murder of Kirk revive a fire that already sweeps the nation is extended.
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