People who are truly non-partisan are not likely to take seriously remarks made by arch partisans on the importance of non-partisanship.
In a Hartford Courant story printed days after the
assassination Charlie Kirk, reporter Chris Keating provides a quote from
US Senator Chris Murphy on the assassination of conservative Christian
fundamentalist Charlie Kirk: “’No more
glorification or rationalization of violence,’ Murphy wrote on X. ‘I’m not
going to pull punches – I think Donald Trump, and his celebration of January
6th, has done more to normalize political violence than any other American. He
should apologize and put those people [pardoned rioters at the US Capitol
building] back in jail. But some voices on the left celebrated Luigi Mangione.
We just need to be crystal clear – and Trump needs to lead – that political
violence is unacceptable no matter who pulls the trigger and who is the target.
And any perpetrators go to jail, no matter who they support… No new gun law is
going to eliminate political violence if we don’t address the root causes, but
why not be more careful about giving guns to people who have shown clear signs
of brokenness? This surge in political attacks isn’t the only existential
threat to our democracy. It feels like our experiment is under threat from
multiple fronts. Which is why Democrats and Republicans need to start showing
more allegiance to our democracy than to party.’”
It‘s a mouthful.
There is no indication that January 6th rioters
at the US Capitol were political assassins of the same stripe as Kirk’s assassin.
And there were no assassinations at the Capitol that in any sense resembled
Luigi Mangioni’s assassination of Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Healthcare.
Murphy’s crystal clarity falls far short of commonplace clarity, which is prone
to make clarifying distinctions. Then too, Murphy’s remarks above on gun
control represent a sharp political pivot. Connecticut’s stringent gun laws
were sold – some would say oversold -- in Connecticut by both Murphy and the
state’s senior U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal as an effective means of curbing
what both called “gun violence.”
On first, second and third sights, Murphy’s usual political
pronouncements, many of which trail off into formulaic denunciations of Trump, are
not the reflections of a non-partisan politician. Murphy has been, throughout
his twelve years in the US Senate, a highly partisan left of center Democrat, a frequent guest at approving media interviews.
And he has not been sparing of denunciations of Trump, twice in recent days the
target of political assassins, or Republicans who associate with Trump.
Trump the demon is never far from Murphy’s thoughts, nor is
legislation designed to reduce what Murphy calls “gun violence.” By gun
violence Murphy appears to mean violence committed by persons, some of whom are
repeat offenders, armed, legally or not, with guns. His reformulated position strikes
a new and discordant note: “No new gun law is going to eliminate political
violence if we don’t address the root causes, but why not be more careful about
giving guns to people who have shown clear signs of brokenness?” One can almost
hear Murphy confessing, “Guns don’t kill people. Broken people kill people.”
Without a careful examination of “root causes,” one cannot
arrive at root solutions to pressing problems.
Republican leader in Connecticut Vince Candelora disagrees –
non-violently, of course – with Murphy’s highly partisan approach. Candelora is quoted in the Courant story to
provide ideological balance: “’For me, Chris Murphy’s remarks aren’t the
starting point on where we should be as a country,’ Candelora told The Courant
reporter. ‘I think this issue goes well beyond democracy and political parties.
I think this is just a base, fundamental issue of humanity. … We are either at
the beginning of a very dark period in our history or this is coming to an end.
… While political parties may spar and disagree, we don’t systematically pick
up weapons and kill each other because of our speech…To me, it’s not about
democracy. It’s not about political parties. … We have a much bigger problem
than just our political parties.’”
A day prior to the Kirk assassination, Murphy was at his
usual political stand delivering his usual left of center anti-Trump message:
President Trump is a threat to our democracy, and any means necessary must be
used to thwart his designs, all of them, all the time.
“You’re not going to convince Donald Trump to stand down in
his attempts to destroy our democracy through yes de-escalation politics,”
Murphy told former Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd. “Like, that’s just not happening. So, our only
opportunity, our only chance to save our democracy, is to fight fire with fire
right now. So, yeah, do I believe the fact that, you know, that we’re now
blowing up norms? Yes. But literally for two seconds, because if you spend only
more than that being sorry for the fact that the old world doesn’t exist, then
your democracy is gone.” And here Murphy became self-righteously animated.
“Like, we’re in a war right now to save this country. And so you have to be
willing to do whatever is necessary in order to save the county.”
Truth cannot survive such heated and distorted rhetoric. We are
not in a war to save democracy or the country from the ravages of a Hitler,
because Trump is not Hitler, and the country is not in the grip of a fascist
president. The father of fascism, Benito Mussolini, was once asked to define his
Godless creed. He did so in a single phrase: everything in the state, nothing
outside the state, nothing above the state. That is not the political credo of
the usual conservative Republican. Kirk, a
convincing evangelical Christian, was a victim, never an aggressor. He died a
victim of the kind of historical darkness that swallowed his brutal assassin in
one gulp. Candelora is right: “We are either at the beginning of a very dark
period in our history or this is coming to an end.”
Pray it may come to an end quickly.
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