Charlie Kirk's Assassination Has Shocking Civil War Echos

The fallout from Charlie Kirk’s assassination has been frightening in many ways. We’ve been here before: a political reality where opponents are dehumanized—and debate gives way to violence.

And last time, it resulted in the deaths of 750,000 Americans.

Before the Civil War broke out, another near-assassination tore a divided country further apart. As author Stephen Puleo described, the 1856 caning of Charles Sumner “convinced each side that the gulf between them was unbridgeable and that they could no longer discuss their vast differences of opinion regarding slavery on any reasonable level.”

“Compromise,” he added, “had suffered a mortal blow. Moderate voices were drowned out completely; extremist views accelerated, became intractable, and locked both sides on a tragic collision course.”

We must do everything we can to ensure that we are not on a similar collision course today. Trading debate for violence exacts a price too high to pay.