Matt Gertz’s piece on Charlie Kirk’s assassination aims to calm the waters but instead scolds the right for daring to sound the alarm. His argument — that conservative reactions are overheated “war talk” while violence is “evenly distributed” — badly understates the scale and direction of political hostility toward people on the right, and it glosses over how progressives and their media allies routinely inflame tensions when the target suits their story.
A False Equivalence
Gertz presents a laundry list of violent episodes against Democrats — the Pelosi home invasion, a Minnesota shooting, an attack at the CDC — and suggests they balance out Kirk’s murder and the long line of assaults on conservatives. But tallying incidents without examining motive or context misses the point. Charlie Kirk was not an obscure bureaucrat or a victim of random crime; he was a nationally known conservative figure, targeted mid-speech for his politics. That matters.
Look at the record: a gunman tried to assassinate House Republicans at a baseball practice in 2017, nearly killing Steve Scalise. Pro-life offices and churches have been torched since Dobbs. Supreme Court justices were stalked outside their homes, one would-be killer arrested near Brett Kavanaugh’s residence. A GOP office in North Carolina was firebombed. Even outside Washington, conservative speakers regularly face threats serious enough to require security. These are not one-offs — they form a pattern of intimidation.
When Outrage Runs Only One Way
Media Matters also ignores its own tribe’s reflex to politicize tragedy. After Charlottesville, major outlets mangled Donald Trump’s “very fine people” comment to claim he praised neo-Nazis. Following mass shootings, pundits often rush to blame Republican rhetoric or gun owners before facts emerge. The January 6 riot is invoked daily as a stand-in for every conservative protest, even though millions of voters had nothing to do with it.
Yet when a conservative like Kirk is killed, we’re told to avoid “cheap” narratives and speak only in neutral tones. That asymmetry breeds resentment because it’s obvious.
“War” Talk Is a Symptom, Not the Disease
Yes, some commentators said “this is war.” But Gertz treats those outbursts as the problem rather than a symptom of something deeper: a political culture where violence against the right is too often excused or minimized. When churches are vandalized and speakers mobbed, while editorial pages call for “understanding” of the mob, people conclude they’re under siege. That doesn’t make vigilantism acceptable — it does explain why emotions run hot.
Moreover, the loudest “war” rhetoric comes from fringe personalities, not mainstream conservatives in Congress or the White House. Most leaders, including President Trump, condemned the killing and demanded justice. Media Matters downplays that because acknowledging it would complicate its caricature.
Accountability Isn’t Repression
Gertz portrays calls for investigations — RICO probes of extremist groups, scrutiny of donors who bankroll violent demonstrations — as a blueprint for “political repression.” That’s nonsense. Applying existing law to those who sponsor mayhem is not tyranny; it’s the rule of law. Americans have the right to debate and protest, not to threaten or attack their opponents. Protecting that boundary protects free speech, it doesn’t chill it.
Leadership Requires Clarity
The article saves its sharpest barbs for Donald Trump, faulting him for blaming “radical-left rhetoric.” But the president is correct that rhetoric matters — and there has been no shortage of incendiary talk from progressive corners, from “punch a Nazi” memes to pundits branding half the country as “fascists.” Pretending that only one man’s words shape the climate is naïve. Leaders must name the ideologies that breed violence, wherever they arise.
The Real Task
No serious conservative wants a cycle of revenge. The task is to stop political bloodshed before it spreads. That means condemning violence consistently, prosecuting those who commit or incite it, and demanding that commentators across the spectrum cool the insults and caricatures that make opponents seem less than human.
Charlie Kirk’s assassination is not just “a man was killed.” It is the murder of a prominent voice because of what he believed. That is an assault on free expression itself. Media Matters’ instinct to lecture the victims’ friends for caring too much misses the moral stakes.
If we truly want to lower the temperature, we must first be honest about where the heat comes from — and stop excusing hostility when it is aimed at the people we dislike.
Alex Luther is a contributor for Direct Line News and can be reached at Alex.Luther@mcgopclub.com
Direct Line News is a Maryland-based free-access publication committed to the Republican reform tradition.
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