Charlie Kirk’s job was possible only in a democracy.
A co-founder of the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA, he made his living by sharing his ideas on social media, making arguments in opinion columns and books and giving speeches.
On Wednesday, he died while doing that work, shot while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. He was 31 years old, a husband and a father.
This is a tragedy. Charlie Kirk’s death is heartbreaking — for his wife, for his children, for his family, friends and community. And it is a tragedy for all Americans, because political violence is never acceptable.
The killing is the latest in a disturbing string of attacks.
Earlier this year, a Minnesota state lawmaker was assassinated in her home while another Minnesota lawmaker and his wife survived an assassination attempt. These were not national figures. They were local public servants just doing the everyday work of democracy. Their targeting, like Kirk’s, was an attack not only on individuals, but on the very idea of public service.
We have been through this before. In the 1950s and ’60s, political violence scarred American life. Civil rights activist Medgar Evers was shot in his driveway. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a motel balcony. Robert F. Kennedy was killed while running for president.
Echoes of that era are all around us. Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s family home was set on fire in what authorities believe was politically motivated arson. Texas lawmakers sheltering in Chicago to block restrictive voting laws received a bomb threat. Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a rally in Pennsylvania. And now, Kirk has been killed while speaking to students.
Layer onto this the harassment of election workers, the threats against school board members and the violent targeting of Jewish institutions. What we see is not random; it is a surge of political violence spreading across parties, across ideologies and across communities. The Department of Homeland Security has already warned that political violence is one of the greatest threats facing America. The evidence is everywhere. The constitutional promise of free speech means nothing if you can be killed while speaking your mind. And here’s the truth: Democracy cannot function under fear. The constitutional promise of free speech means nothing if you can be killed while speaking your mind. People cannot vote or serve in public office if they face threats to their lives. If Americans come to believe that stepping into the public square could cost them their lives, then the foundations of self-government collapse. When leaders demonize opponents as enemies, when they traffic in dehumanizing language, when they normalize threats as part of politics, they create the climate in which violence flourishes. Words can hold our democracy together. Words can also light the fuse that tears it apart. This is not a Republican problem or a Democratic problem. It is an American problem. That is why the shooting of Charlie Kirk is not about just him. It is about all of us. It is about whether we still believe in the bedrock principle that our disagreements belong in legislatures, in debate halls and at the ballot box — not in the sights of a gun.
Symone D. Sanders Townsend is an author and a co-host of "The Weeknight." 
