Charlie Kirk’s assassination is the latest addition to a grim list of political violence in America. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, former Minnesota Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, President DonaldTrump with multiple attempts on his life — these are not isolated episodes. According to Princeton researchers, local officials endured more than 600 incidents of threats and harassment in 2024, a 74% increase from just two years earlier. Such attacks, threats and harassment are not random; they are signals of a deeper crisis in our political culture.

What happened?

To understand, we must look not only at the shooters but at the ecosystem that breeds them. Violence does not emerge in a vacuum. It takes shape when civic norms erode, when anger becomes the common political language

See Full Page