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Politicians on both sides of the aisle rightly distorted political violence, in particular the insane murder of an exceptional young man: Charlie Kirk.
Kirk was one of the most eminent and energetic defenders of Maga policies in the Trump administration. He was also largely a key contributor to President Donald Trump’s electoral victory in 2024.
Violence – whether he is directed against Trump, Charlie Kirk, CEOs, Governor Josh Shapiro or States legislators in Minnesota – must stop.
A view of flowers and photographs posed by mourning people outside the United States Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, September 11, 2025. (Philp / AFP / Getty
He must stop now.
The last case of the conservatives of Charlie Kirk is targeted for murder
As a country, we have to do more to end the growing tide of political violence grabbing the nation.
Let me be very clear: I have been having for as long as I have been in political and public life that we have to reduce our volume, reduce our temperature and unite.
We have to do more to achieve our common goal as a nation.
Never is more true than today.
Admittedly, it is wrong to blame the political party opposed to violence when it occurs. This is destructive, division and weakens our social fabric at home as well as our position on a global scale.
But that does more than that.
JB Pritzker condemns political violence after the death of Charlie Kirk, says that the rhetoric of Trump “ the walk often ”
As a nation, we have always been proud of our ability to cooperate – not to agree, yes, but to have a faithful opposition and a free debate, not wholesale attacks which may or not lead to violence.
In addition, whether or not a certain rhetoric translates into violence, it has inevitably contributed to a toxic and divisor political culture that we can no longer accept.
Frankly, when I hear my party, the Democrats, say that they must become more aggressive and more hostile against the Republicans, I take care of this – for rhetorical and substantial terrains.
The last thing we need now is a government closure. Notwithstanding what some like Ezra Klein said in the New York Times, we don’t need to fight the Trump administration simply for the fighting.
The murder of Charlie Kirk is the last by increasing political violence on a national level, of the Governor of the AP in Scotus
We must constructively plead to protect the social security net – Medicare, Medicaid, food programs and other social protection initiatives – and do everything that will not close the government but rather to keep it open.
Likewise, I would tell my republican friends that it is difficult to demonize the left, even when the rhetoric is inappropriate and extreme.
I denounce it and I hope they will lower their voices, but I believe that the country needs – especially when I write this on September 11 – a period of reconciliation.
Charlie Kirk Assassination Rocks Capitol Hill, increases the security fears of the legislators
We must avoid entering an era like the one we faced during Vietnam in the 1960s, while in a period of about two months, two of our most important leaders, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, were abatus insensily and brutally.
Let me be very clear about what I am not doing here. I do not try to blame the left, and I do not try to blame the right.
Although rare details have emerged, I do not know with certainty the ideology of the shooter who killed Charlie Kirk. But for me, it is important to use it not as a vehicle for attack or revenge, but as a tool of political reconciliation.
Democrats and Republicans can cooperate on things like stricter borders, even if we do not agree on the global immigration policy.
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We can agree that Ukraine needs support, even if we do not agree on the precise nature and scope of it. We can agree that we must protect the social security net, even if the Republicans do not agree on the programs should and should not be protected.
And above all, we can agree that even if the two parties can have different opinions on what is best for the United States of America, to our heart, Democrats and Republicans all want the country to succeed and prosper.
But what we cannot disagree on is our essential objective as a nation: a free market capitalist company that strives to improve the greatest good for all Americans in a constructive and safe environment.
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Hopefully the heritage of Charlie Kirk – an American proud, a zealous defender and a fighter of what he believed – will lead to a period of greater cooperation and consensus, the nice president that Trump spoke so moving during his speech to the National Republican Convention in 2024 after his own attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.
I say that in the hope that people will not take it as a homily, but as a call for action. Our country has never required more unity, a centrality of goal and a greater will on both sides to cooperate and reconcile.
Click here to find out more about Doug Schoen
