I’ve largely avoided commentating on recent events. The murder of Charlie Kirk was a horrific crime. Even as I think that he employed a style of debate that was needlessly provocative (to put it mildly), and he took positions that I think are terrible, no one should be murdered while engaging in peaceful debate and conversation.

I was listening to a podcast earlier and I thought the host spoke very powerfully about our politics. The fact is, we have to learn to live together without violence. Republicans, Democrats, liberals, conservatives, progressives, moderates, libertarians, socialists, atheists, Christians, Jews, Muslims, gay, straight, trans, MAGA fans and Bernie bros. No one is going anywhere. You aren’t changing anyone’s beliefs with a magical argument so we all agree. No one is going to permanently defeat the other party or group politically as long as we have elections. If we can’t learn to live together then the American experiment is fundamentally doomed. We are going to have to be okay with the other side having power every 2+ years. We have to be able to compromise with each other, and this can be done without sacrificing our principles or values.

People keep trying to pin this on sides, but this was the work of one man. Maybe a few people at the most. This is not the fault of the radical left (whatever that is supposed to mean), just like those on the right who have committed tremendous acts of violence don’t represent everyone on the right.

This is not a call for kumbaya politics, where we can all hold hands and just get along. This is simply a reminder that our system is based on the notion that people can deal with their differences through democratic means, and that people can be responsible enough to self-govern. In the possibly apocryphal words of Benjamin Franklin, we’ve been given a republic, if we can keep it.