Choose your America: In the aftermath of the Kirk slaying, a snapshot of
a fractured nation
[September 12, 2025]
By TIM SULLIVAN
The governor of Utah struggled to find the right words to describe the
question so many have been asking: What is happening in America?
The silence lasted nearly 10 seconds. He looked down. He opened and
closed his mouth.
“Our nation is broken,” Spencer Cox finally said, hours after the public
killing of Charlie Kirk. The governor described violent attacks on both
Democrats and Republicans, including the killing of Minnesota lawmaker
Melissa Hortman and her husband, two assassination attempts on President
Donald Trump and the firebombing of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s
official residence.
His words stood out not just for the stark language about America’s
troubles, but for his sober acknowledgement that the violence reaches
across the political divide.
It can be hard to remember all the scenes of political violence in just
the past few years: Butler, Pennsylvania, the Minneapolis suburbs, San
Francisco, New York City, West Palm Beach. And more. Taken together,
they are enough to make Americans wonder: Is there a way forward? What
might it look like?
“Nothing I say can unite us as a country,” said Cox, a Republican.
“Nothing I can say right now will fix what is broken.”
A troubled nation
Many people, of course, feel America is broken. You can hear about the
country's many troubles — its ideological divides, its anger, its lack
of civility — from conservatives and liberals, from socialist firebrands
and evangelical preachers, from Democrats and Republicans. It is,
perhaps, one of the few beliefs that unites Americans right now.
So many seem to genuinely want those divides to be mended, for the
country to be knitted back together. But the question of why America is
broken, and who is to blame, and how to repair it? That's where things
get complicated.
Because no matter what you believe, today — in both the myriad reactions
to Kirk's violent public death and in general — you can pick the America
you want. You can pick the America that you believe exists.
You can see a president who is systematically removing the rights of
Americans, or a president who is standing up for a forgotten middle
class. You can see signs of fascism in the masked immigration agents
hauling people off the streets, or an administration that is finally
enforcing immigration laws for the good of all citizens.
In Charlie Kirk, you can see a polite, boy-next-door type with a
captivating debating style who loved America, the church, his family,
and the resurgence of conservatism across the country, especially among
young people. Or you can see a political hybrid of the social media age,
a powerful political operative who was willing to exploit America’s
racial divide in search of support and who insisted, falsely, that voter
fraud cost Trump the 2020 elections.
When Cox spoke mournfully about America's predicament, he clearly hoped
Kirk's death could help bring America together. More likely, though, the
killing could drive the wedges deeper.
Just listen to how people reacted to his death. Choose the take you want
to believe.
A divided society, a divided reaction
In the hours immediately after the shooting, officials in both parties
appeared anxious to show restraint and decorum, expressing their grief,
support for Kirk’s family and repulsion at political violence.
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A sign reading “Fly High Charlie Kirk! We love you. R.I.P.” is seen
hanging on a fence with flowers across the street from the Utah
Valley University campus, in Orem, Utah, Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025.
(AP Photo/Hannah Schoenbaum)
“Words cannot describe the shock and horror I felt today,” Arizona
Republican chair Gina Swoboda said in a statement, saying America
“must never condone or excuse acts of political violence.”
Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, who has sparred with
Trump, said she was “horrified by what has happened to Charlie
Kirk.”
“Differing views — regardless of who holds them and how much you may
detest them — should never be met with violence,” she wrote.
Soon, though, even with only the barest facts about the shooting
known, the anger began to spill out. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor
Greene said she was praying that “this country rises up and ends
this.” Then others began speaking up, with politicians warning about
“leftwing Brown Shirts” and Christians under attack.
Trump quickly conferred martyr status onto Kirk, ordering flags
lowered at federal buildings and blaming leftist rhetoric for Kirk’s
assassination in a lengthy video statement released on social media
late Wednesday. “For years, those on the radical left have compared
wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass
murders and criminals,” Trump said, speaking from the Oval Office
and citing only attacks on Republicans.
Democratic politicians, for the most part, appeared eager to avoid
any sign that they were demonizing Kirk. But it wasn't that way in
some left-wing neighborhoods on social media. “Charlie Kirk isn’t a
martyr,” wrote a commentator on X with 130,000 followers, echoing
many others. “He’s a casualty of the violence he incited.”
That carried echoes of the praise for Luigi Mangione, the man
charged with murdering the UnitedHealthcare CEO in Manhattan last
year, and the explosion of social media memes celebrating the July
shooting death of a prominent real-estate executive in the same
borough.
The country's politicians strive to balance it all
Online, of course, it’s easy to remain anonymous, and it can be
impossible to distinguish true praise for political violence and
vigilantism with adolescent trolling. It's different for
politicians, who can't stay anonymous — and who are often looked to
in moments like this to help show their supporters and constituents
the way.
Unlike Trump, his presidential predecessors spoke far more gently,
in keeping with their particular styles. Former Presidents Joe Biden
and Barack Obama said they were praying for Kirk’s family. George W.
Bush called for divine guidance to move the nation to civility.
Their statements sounded, unsurprisingly, like many of the things
they said during their presidencies.
That kind of message took root in some places. In Connecticut,
College Republicans and College Democrats issued a joint statement
decrying violence. And on Wednesday, Cox — a Republican politician
thrust into the limelight by tragedy, like so many public servants
before him — spoke emotionally about a belief in free speech that
goes back to America’s founding, and about how hatred can lead to
violence.
“Is this it?” he asked. “Is this what 250 years has wrought on us?”
“I pray that is not the case.”
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