Just a few minutes after it was known that the ultra -right activist Trumpista Charlie Kirk had not survived the attack suffered at a university in Utah, the influencer and the leading leader Andrew Tate, who is investigated for trafficking in people among other things, wrote on the social network X just two words: “Civil War”. An hour later, he added: “It’s The Turning Point, USA”, a sentence that played with the name of the famous Kirk organization. While many of the activists close to Kirk’s ultra ideology, such as Tate himself, made calls to the revolt, on the opposite side there were also those who celebrated the murder of the 31 -year -old. The different reactions to the attack only deepened a growing and unbearable increasingly violent political polarization in the United States.
the Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago Robert Pape, warned this week that the United States is “basically a polvorÃn.” Pope has conducted surveys to measure the acceptance of violence from the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and the most recent results paint a fairly ugly panorama. “We are seeing a more radicalized policy and more support for violence than at any other time Since we have been doing these studies, “the newspaper told the newspaper. The worst thing is that in June of this year, Pape has already warned of this danger in an opinion article in the same medium. He wrote.
In his article, Pape reviewed some of the acts of political violence that the United States has shaken in recent times. That same month, June 2025, and in a single day, a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Minnesota was killed with her husband; and a state senator and his wife, seriously injured. Both representatives were members of the Democratic Party. In April 2025, a man set fire to the house of the governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, also a Democrat, who slept inside with his family. Democrat Nancy Pelosi tried to kidnap her when she was president of the House of Representatives. Not to mention, of course, of the two murder attempts against the president of the United StatesDonald Trump, in just a few months. Both victims and perpetrators were and are both sides of the political board.
In May, Professor Pape and his team conducted “the most worrying survey to date.” According to this study, “about 40% of the Democrats supported the use of force to dismiss Trump from the Presidency, and about 25% of Republicans supported the use of the Armed Forces to stop protests against their agenda.” “These figures – Pape warned – doubled from the past fall [de 2024]when we asked similar questions. “
In Pape’s opinion, there is only one way to cool the environment, that politicians who do not advocate violence, or at least whose speeches are condemnatory of any type of violent action, do not rule separately, but united. “My research suggests that, to reduce political tension and the risk of violence, American political leaders must overcome their political differences and issue joint statements (and ideally, joint appearances) that denounce all political violencethey welcome all peaceful protests and demand respect for the norms, process and results of free and fair elections in the country, “he says.
Rhetoric, speech, although it causes, can also become a solution. If political speeches that confront aggressively generate violence, peaceful allegations can achieve otherwise. It is what he did, for example, Senator Robert Kennedy when he announced the murder of Martin Luther King. “For those of you who are black, the study of the tests makes it clear that white people were responsible. This may fill them with bitterness, hate and a desire for revenge. We could move in that direction as a nation, towards a greater polarization; or we could make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to understand, and replace that violence, that spot of blood that has extended throughout our land. Understand, to pity, to love. […] What we need in the United States is not violence or anarchy, but love, wisdom, and compassion with each other, and a feeling of justice towards those who still suffer within our nation, whether they are white or black. […] Let’s dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago. To dominate the savagery of man and make the life of this world gently, “Kennedy said, unfortunately, like Luther King and his brother, he was killed.
This discursive election of Kennedy clashes frontally with which the US president chose after Kirk’s murder. Instead of calming the spirits, Trump did what is best given, to throw more firewood. “I am full of pain and will go for the atrocious murder of Charlie Kirk. […] This type of rhetoric, the political violence of the radical left, is directly responsible for terrorism that we witness today in our country, and must cease immediately. My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, “he said. Another Republican, a nothing suspected of being close to Democrats as George W. Bush, said something different.” Today, a young man was killed in cold blood while expressing his political opinions. It happened in a university campus, where the open exchange of opposite ideas should be sacred. Violence and hostility must be eradicated from the public sphere. The members of other political parties are not our enemies; They are our fellow citizens, “Bush told the BBC.
While it is true that political violence is not new in a country in which up to four presidents were killed, acts of this type have shot themselves in recent years and It would be wrong to think that it only has to do with the ease of accessing weapons and not with what is preached from politics. The problem, for example, is not only that the Capitol was assaulted, but that Trump pardon all the people convicted of it, which launches a message of acceptance of violence when it is directed towards the adversary. The climb will not stop if politicians do not dare to denounce the aggressiveness of theirs. And aggressiveness are also the speeches offered by Charlie Kick himself, without justifying at all respond to words with violence. “When political leaders denounce the violence of their own side, their supporters listen. Experiments with Biden and Trump appointments show that the rhetoric of the leaders has the power to descale and deter violence, if they are willing to speak against their own side.”
