On Wednesday, Turning Point USA president Charlie Kirk was assassinated on the grounds of Utah Valley University. The act weighed heavily on the hearts of many Americans who had listened to and benefited from his presence and leadership, and tributes posted by prominent friends, including Vice President JD Vance and political commentator Michael Knowles, captured the great value he brought to the world. Even prominent Democratic politicians who vehemently disagreed with his politics, such as Joe Biden and Gavin Newsom, condemned the violence and said all forms of political violence must be rejected.
But the murder of a father of two young children was not universally condemned. Anonymous as well as named accounts owned by far-left users authored posts expressing glee in the death of Kirk, calling him a fascist and justifying his killing. Unfortunately, acceptance of political violence is not limited to an immeasurably small group of dregs on the Internet; polling shows a notable minority of Americans view it as acceptable.
In April, the Network Contagion Research Institute, along with Rutgers University, found that 55% of self-identified left-of-center respondents said that it was at least somewhat justified to murder President Trump. Forty-eight percent said the same of Elon Musk, and 40% of respondents, including 59.6% of left-of-center respondents, said it was at least somewhat acceptable to destroy a Tesla dealership in protest.
The question was asked on a scale of 1-7 as to how justified these different acts were, with 1 being not at all justified and 7 being completely justified. Nearly 15% of left-of-center respondents said that the murder of Donald Trump was a 7 – completely justified – and 10.7% said the same of Musk.
In a November 2017 YouGov poll, when asked if violence was justified to advance political goals, only 8% of Democrats and Republicans said it was “at least a little bit justified.” Although the pollster stopped asking the question in the same way in 2020, the percentage of people who said it was at least “a little” justified had already risen to 36% among Republican respondents and 33% among Democratic respondents.
In the latest poll by YouGov taken after Kirk was murdered, 11% said violence can sometimes be justified to achieve political goals, while 72% said violence is never justified. (Another 5% said they would prefer not to say whether they think violence is sometimes justifiable to achieve political goals.)
Saying that violence can be justified was more prominent among Democrats and independents than among Republicans, with 14% of Democrats, 13% of independents, and only 6% of Republicans holding that opinion, according to the Sept. 10 poll. On the other end of the scale, 81% of Republicans said violence is never justified, compared with 72% of Democrats and 65% of independents.
While all three sets of polls make it clear that it is a minority of Americans who are in support of political violence, that minority is significant. Unfortunately, this 10%-40% of people who think violence can be justified to obtain political goals can individually cause severe suffering and chaos.
Perhaps the gruesome sight of increased political violence, as well as condemnation from politicians on both sides of the aisle, can help reverse the polarization that led to these assassinations and attempts. If not, more violence like what America has seen in Butler, Pennsylvania, New York City, Minnesota – and now Utah – is surely on the horizon.