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1. Charlie Kirk and the better angels of our nature

From the Editors
 

The assassination of Charlie Kirk last week is a tragedy for his family, including his wife and two young children. It is also an attack on the principles that make a democratic republic possible.

The world is full of pundits and polemicists who speak or write well, but mostly direct their words at their own existing audience. Kirk was one of the rare advocates who focused primarily on persuasion of those who disagreed with him, being willing to speak to anyone, debate anyone, in a civil and earnest manner. That freedom to speak, to listen, to persuade, and to be persuaded — and to do it all without violence — is essential for a life in a republic. It’s really the heart of Western civilization itself.

Why It Matters. When one person murders another because of his words, the First Amendment is not implicated. But the principle that the First Amendment protects — free speech itself — is deeply damaged. And free speech, more than any of the other rights protected by our Constitution, is essential to a republic of free people. A government can trample a lot of other rights and, while it would be harmful and wrong, the republic could survive. But if the people cannot discuss events and ideas freely and without the threat of harm coming to them, voting becomes a farce and the republic itself withers.

That attachment to free speech as an ideal — and support for the republic requires it — is an idea that many young people, especially on the left, are increasingly discarding. The temperament of the country and even the world has been trending this way for a long time as society’s outsiders and malcontents marinate in their homes, alone, online, and furious. Social media is too swift and too extreme, and fragile minds can become radicalized without even realizing it.

The quick-hit emotional tweets undermine reason. A meme gets around the world before the thinkpiece gets its shoes on. When it’s time to “lower the temperature,” it’s already too late.

In the lizard brain of every human, there lives the temptation to use violence to solve our problems, but what separates men from beasts and civilization from savagery is that we suppress this impulse and work to appeal, as Lincoln said, to the “better angels of our nature.” 

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2. Josh Shapiro’s both-sides dodge

By Ada Nestor
 

Charlie Kirk was assassinated in Utah. A man was murdered for his political speech. That kind of event should have been a line in the sand. It should have demanded moral clarity from leaders who claim to stand against hate. Instead, Governor Josh Shapiro used the moment to fall back on the safest, weakest line in American politics: both sides.

At the “Eradicate Hate” conference in Pittsburgh, Shapiro retold the terrifying story of the night his own residence was firebombed by a pro-Palestine radical, Cody Balmer, who admitted he came armed with a hammer to kill him. He described evacuating his family, thanking God for their survival, and praising the first responders who saved them. It was raw, it was honest, and it was the kind of moral clarity victims deserve.

But then he pivoted. And what followed was not clarity. It was confusion, wrapped in applause lines.

Here was Shapiro’s central claim: “It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or from the other directed at one party or another, one person or another, it is all wrong and it makes us all less safe.”

Why It Matters. It sounds noble. But it is not true. It does matter. Patterns matter. Motivation matters. And the pattern in this country is clear. Political violence is not evenly spread across the spectrum. It is tolerated and in some corners openly encouraged on the left.

The data speaks for itself. Twenty-five percent of “very liberal” Americans say political violence can sometimes be justified. Among conservatives, that number drops to just three percent. The overwhelming majority of conservatives, 88 percent of the “very conservative,” reject political violence outright.

This is not “both sides.” The left is far more likely to excuse political violence. Shapiro’s dodge collapses under the weight of the numbers.

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3. Lightning Round

• Ambler tax collector resigns from Democratic party position following social media comments

• DLCC announces six-figure investment in PA Supreme Court retention elections

• Ben Mannes: Kirk’s assassination is a public safety wake-up call

• Beth Ann Rosica: When elected officials cheer political violence, we all lose

• Seth Higgins: Life isn’t two-dimensional. Neither are people.

• Tasliym Morales: When trauma becomes the platform

• John Rossi: Life lessons at a Philly rec center

• Thom Nickels: Ghost Town — How covid changed Philadelphia forever

4. What we're reading

Attorney General Pam Bondi’s pronouncement this week on the subject of so-called “hate speech” has raised some eyebrows on the right and, amusingly, on the left as well. After having spent the last generation or so claiming that speech by their opponents was “incitement” or “hate speech,” the free speech restrictionists on the left are finding that the show pinches on the other foot. This is, of course, why we have neutrally applied rules like the First Amendment: because too few will rise to defend the suppression of speech that they hate.

Will Democrats learn from this? Will they, against all odds, become true defenders of free speech as many in that party once were? Ross Barkan suggests this week at Unherd that it is possible, if unlikely. Republicans must remember the crimes against free speech that they were, until very recently, decrying — and many on the right are justly pushing back against Bondi on this point. But two parties dedicated to the free exchange of ideas? Well, we can dream, can’t we?

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