John Hood: Yes, We Can Stop the Fire
RALEIGH — I had strong political disagreements with Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, on both style and substance — and I mourn his death, deem it an indefensible crime, and fear its consequences.
Note my choice of word: I didn’t say I differed with Kirk but condemn his murder. The use of that conjunction suggests potential tension or even contradiction between disagreement and nonaggression. No such tension exists.
Since Kirk’s assassination on September 10, his friends and colleagues have expressed not only profound grief but also appreciation for his personal kindness, Christian faith, rhetorical skill, and entrepreneurial drive. I’m in no position to do the same. I knew Charlie Kirk only slightly, through a few brief conversations.
I respect their admiration for the man they knew. Still, even if that admiration were unwarranted, his death would still be an outrage. Kirk wasn’t a soldier in war or a criminal attempting a violent act. He was slain while debating public issues with university students. His murder was a direct assault on freedom, on the rule of law, on human decency. It robbed a wife of her husband, two children of their father, and countless others of someone they loved.
For the most part, politicians and activists across the political spectrum have responded to his killing with decorum and denunciation. They’d restated undeniable truths. Political differences are inevitable. Robust, passionate discussion of them is necessary and productive. We establish governments, conduct elections, hold trials, and subject the exercise of coercive power to an elaborate system of checks and balances because the alternative — ceaseless cycles of violence, intimidation, and chaos — will never be consistent with human flourishing.
We should all welcome their words. Language matters. The language of leaders is especially important, as it greatly influences the feelings and judgments of their followers.
Now, it is time for action. No, I’m not talking about new laws or security procedures. Perhaps some would help, but the action I mean doesn’t require legislative majorities or technical proficiency. Our current toxic stew of grievance and mutual recrimination isn’t the result of bad policies that can be modified or shadowy conspiracies that can be unmasked.
Each of us retains moral agency here. Each of us can do something to deprive a smoldering fire of fuel before it becomes a massive conflagration.
It starts by recognizing that others can fundamentally disagree with you without being villains, liars, or ignoramuses. Ask them why they disagree. Listen not for the purpose of immediately rebutting their views but to try to understand why they believe what they believe. At worst, you’ll leave the conversation better informed. At best, you’ll signal a willingness to be persuaded by others — which will, in fact, make your own arguments more persuasive to others.
Sound fanciful? I assure you it is not. A decade ago, my friend Leslie Winner and I helped found the North Carolina Leadership Forum. I’m a lifelong conservative who has run a conservative foundation and served in appointive office. She’s a lifelong progressive who has run a progressive foundation and served in elective office.
Based at Duke University, NCLF convenes three dozen people at a time — state and local politicians, CEOs, nonprofit executives, and other civic leaders — to discuss a controversial issue. Our goal isn’t consensus. It isn’t to “solve” the problem. It is to build social capital and give leaders the will, skills, and relationships to model constructive engagement across the ideological divide.
The hundreds of leaders who have gone through our program continue to disagree. They tussle over legislation, clash over jurisdiction, and compete for political power in a closely divided battleground state. The process remains tumultuous, messy, often frustrating. Politics has ever been thus.
The young man who killed Charlie Kirk — and the criminals and lunatics who’ve in recent years killed or tried to kill other political activists, state legislators, governors, judges, members of Congress, and our current president — may well seek a war.
It remains fully within our power to stop them.
John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).
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