Which Way Is The Wind Blowing?

The 1933 Berlin Reichstag Fire

The 1933 Reichstag Fire

Last week's senseless assignation of Charlie Kirk is a tragedy. Whatever your political views, violence is not the correct solution. The FBI announced the arrest of a suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, on Friday, but no motive has yet been announced.  

Utah Governor, Spencer Cox, made an emotional plea for an end to political violence. His plea; "An off-ramp":

"We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that's the problem with political violence — it metastasizes because we can always point the finger at the other side." 

A "watershed moment": The governor framed the killing as a pivotal moment for the nation. With Americans having a choice between escalating division and finding a way to de-escalate. "Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history, or the beginning of a darker chapter?" he asked. 

I personally fear this to be the beginning of the darker chapter predicted. 

Charlie Kirk's widow spoke angrily Saturday with this threat "You have no ideal what you have unleashed" and "the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry".

According to the site "lost in History:

On 27 February 1933, the German parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, went up in flames from an arson attack. Adolf Hitler skillfully harnessed the after effects of the Reichstag Fire to seize absolute power. Hitler claimed the fire was a Communist attempt to overthrow the government. He played upon public and political fears of chaos to consolidate his power, cementing the rise of his Nazi regime.  As the newly named Chancellor, he used the fire as an excuse to seize absolute control in Germany and ultimately declare himself Fuhrer. All this happened in little over a year.

Already the killing of Kirk is being used to further divide the nation. Steve Bannon, “We are at war in this country. We are!” Fox News host Jesse Watters also said Wednesday night, “They [liberals] are at war with us, whether we want to accept it or not. What are we gonna do about it?”  Trump confidant Laura Loomer, "No mercy. Jail every single Leftist who makes a 'threat' of political violence".

On Alex Jones' InfoWars Oathkeepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of seditious conspiracy himself for his part in the Jan. 6 insurrection (later pardoned), called on Trump to “invoke the Insurrection Act and to declare the left in this country in obvious open rebellion against the law of the United States.” 

Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is tearing into conservatives who “immediately” blamed Democrats for the death of Charlie Kirk. Crockett noted that some conservatives blamed the trans community for Kirk’s death “as soon as it happened.” Donald Trump Jr. and Megyn Kelly respectively said Thursday that trans people are “more violent” than Al-Qaeda and that many are “murderous.”

At a time when a calming voice is needed, Trump himself doubles down on blaming the 'radical left' after a vow to go after political violence: 

"The radicals on the left are the problem," Trump continued, "and they're vicious and they're horrible and they're politically savvy, although they want men and women sports, they want transgender for everyone, they want open borders..."

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With an ineffective congress and a politically bias Supreme Court, Kirk’s murder may give Trump the pretext to try to enact the wildest fantasies of his most extreme supporters. That may prove difficult without popular support or a legal structure to pull it off. However, it doesn’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. 

I hope that this is not Americas' "Reichstag Fire Moment".

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