The horrific murder of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk inspired politicians on all sides to call for calm. “The time for unity, the time for peace, it is now,” Republican Senator Katie Britt of Alabama said. Fellow Republican Senators James Lankford, Thom Tillis, and John Curtis offered similar bromides, and Utah Governor Spencer Cox urged every American to “always forgive your enemies”—a lesson he said he learned from Kirk himself. This is the sort of rhetoric that American politicians typically resort to in the aftermath of political violence. But when it came from Republicans, they were promptly attacked from the right.

“If You’re Not Focused on Fighting Left-Wing Violence, Step Aside,” a Federalist headline demanded. “If I hear an elected Republican say the phrase ‘political vi

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