Charlie Kirk’s murder was the worst political assassination since the 1960s.
America’s attention turned to the growing problem of political violence on the left.
And what Bernie Sanders said after Charlie Kirk’s murder took everyone by surprise.
As West Wing Daily reports:
Bernie Sanders has extreme views on a lot of issues, but he clearly shares one thing in common with Charlie Kirk, which is a commitment to free speech.
After Kirk’s death, Sanders was obviously shaken by it, and he recorded a video where he urged Americans to abandon violence and to learn how to talk to each other peacefully again.
While many Democratic politicians gave generic statements where they disavowed political violence, which is certainly better than cheering it, Sanders did more than that.
He spoke from the heart about how dangerous a time this is and how society needs to step back from the ledge and figure out where everything went wrong.
Many of his fans are socialists and atheists, and some of them might be cheering at the death of Charlie Kirk.
But Sanders made it explicitly clear that nobody should be doing that, and that if this type of activity becomes normal, it will lead to destruction for everyone.
Here is part of what he said: “I want to say a few words regarding the terrible murder yesterday of Charlie Kirk, someone whom I strongly disagreed with on almost every issue, but who was clearly a very smart and effective communicator and organizer, and someone unafraid to get out into the world and engage the public. My condolences go out to his wife and his family.”
“A free and democratic society, which is what America is supposed to be about, depends upon the basic premise that people can speak out, organize, and take part in public life without fear, without worrying that they might be killed, injured, or humiliated for expressing their political views.”
The first thing that jumps out is his praise for Kirk’s intelligence and effectiveness.
Those words probably won’t land well with a lot of his base, but Sanders does not seem to care about that.
Sanders continues, “Political violence, in fact, is political cowardice. It means that you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force.”
“The murder of Charlie Kirk is part of a disturbing rise in political violence that threatens to hollow out public life and make people afraid of participating.”
Sanders was far more blunt in his remarks than many of his fellow Democrats have been, and that could be because he knows a lot of his audience needs to hear that message.
Social media has been flooded with people cheering Kirk’s death. While these people make up a very small percentage of society, they are extreme symptoms of a larger problem.
If every human being isn’t made in the image of God – and many of these people do not believe in God – then there’s nothing wrong with snuffing out human life.
That attitude led to Kirk’s death, and it needs to change before it’s too late.
