This killing undermines our democracy

THE KILLING OF Charlie Kirk is a national tragedy.

- ROBIN ABCARIAN COLUMNIST

THE CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST Charlie Kirk, speaking at Utah Valley University moments before a gunman shot and killed him.

It is hard to overestimate the enormity of what happened Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University, where a civil debate about politics taking place under sunny skies turned into a bloody horror show with what are certain to be lasting national consequences.

The immediate aftermath of the right-wing activist's death has evoked some of the dread and instability of late-1960s America, when the assassinations of political figures such as Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led to national introspection and angst about just exactly who we believed ourselves to be.

A violent death like this diminishes us all. Violence begets violence. It undermines the very basis of our democracy — our elections, our 1st Amendment freedoms, our commitment to the peaceful transfer of power —already stressed as never before by the autocratic ambitions of our current president.

"Our nation is broken," Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said. "We've had political assassinations recently in Minnesota. We had an attempted assassination on the governor of Pennsylvania. And we had an attempted assassination on a presidential candidate and former president of the United States and now current president of the United States."

Those who "celebrated even a little bit at the news of this shooting," the Utah governor added, "I would beg you to look in the mirror, and to see if you can find a better angel in there somewhere." Amen.

Social media, never a beacon of calm in a crisis, has become a cesspool of blame and rage.

"The Left is the party of murder," posted X's nonsensical owner, Elon Musk.