FEAR AND LOATHING IN KIRKLAND

F the conservative estimate of 80 political assassinations that have been committed in the US since 1815-things were relatively quiet in the four decades after independence-some stand out as infernally consequential.

- KAJAL BASU

'Infernally' because nothing good has ever come of assassinations, a simple historical lesson that seems to continuously elude Americans who dip into their stashes of weaponry-with arms outnumbering citizens 1.2:1whenever the rage of reflex and irflection descends upon them.

Of the six assassination attempts and two successful assassinations of American political figures in the 21st century, the recent killing of alt-right maven Charlie Kirk stands out as the second-most consequential; the first being the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, which arguably propelled him into the Oval Office.

Kirk's murder is important not only for the brutalité des citoyens it has reintroduced into the public arena, but also for the range of truly outré reactions it has elicited from public figures and the social-media populace.

There are cautionary words from leftist and centrist luminaries, awkward carousing from liberals, remissness of prudence from rightist commentators seeking to blame Kirk's killing on what Trump routinely calls "the radical left Democrats", and outright incendiarism from rightwing trolls who seem to have been energised into an uncharacteristic anti-Israelism by Kirk's putative ante-mortem disenchantment with Israel's genocide in Gaza and, more importantly, by the fear that Netanyahuists had punctured not only Trump's trademark confidence in himself but also taken over Capitol Hill itself.