EDITORIAL – It’s not right or left who’s to blame; it’s extremists among them

An editorial by Mel Rothenburger.

CHARLIE KIRK didn’t deserve to be assassinated. He also doesn’t deserve a medal.

Kirk was shot and killed as he spoke at an event at a Utah university on Wednesday of this week.

A 22-year-old suspect named Tyler Robinson was arrested only a couple of days later; he was quickly convicted by the court of public opinion and the media. Kirk had already been made a martyr by right-wing supporters. And, in the sense that he was killed for his beliefs, the term applies.

But he was hardly the hero he’s being made out to be. According to various analysts, he was a COVID conspiracy theorist, his stated opinions divisive, racist, misogynistic and xenophobic, as well as an election fraud theorist. He was anything but kind to the LGBTQ movement.

A Brookings Institution study found that a popular podcast he hosted had the second-highest proportion of false, misleading and unsubstantiated statements among 79 political podcasters studied.

These things haven’t been mentioned by his admirers as they heaped praise on him this week. He was, according to those who have supported him, a principled defender of free speech and the American way.

Donald Trump plans to award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which recognizes those who have made “an especially meritorious contribution” to security or the national interests, world peace or cultural “or other significant public or private endeavors.”

More significantly, Trump quickly pointed the finger for the assassination at “leftwing radicals” and their heated anti-right rhetoric.

That’s an interesting thing to say, considering that Trump’s entire political approach is based on sowing division and heated anti-left rhetoric, and that politicians on the left side of the spectrum have suffered injury and death for their views every bit as much as those on the right.

Kirk himself certainly added to the division. He divided people into two types: the worthy (including himself) and the unworthy. Not a strategy for bringing people together.

One of the most intelligent things said in the days following the assassination has come from political commentator Cenk Uygur, who stated: “Number one mistake we’re all making is referring to people on ‘the left’ or ‘the right.’ There are hundreds of millions of Americans who fit those descriptions — and almost none of them did anything wrong. The real problem is not left or right, it’s extremism! From both sides.”

Try telling that to Donald Trump and his Trumpers. To Trump, the “radical left” covers any political opponent who disagrees with him. A “radical” is someone who represents the extreme end of a political party. Trump doesn’t acknowledge that there are extremist conservatives as well as liberals.

Praise on social media for the assassin is disgusting. Is that part of the free speech that Kirk is said to have defended? What those who resort to violence, or who praise it, fail to recognize is that it doesn’t silence the voices they don’t like. It provides a rallying point for believers who become more emboldened and determined than ever.

Mel Rothenburger is a former regular contributor to CFJC-TV and CBC radio, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, and a Webster Foundation Commentator of the Year finalist. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired daily newspaper editor.  He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.