Kirk’s Killing Is Unleashing New Attacks on Civil Society. We Must Respond With Bravery.

For the last year, many people from across the ideological spectrum have put themselves on the line in publicly defending and championing the value, integrity and independence of civil society, against the threat and increasing reality of government suppression.

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In this moment, we are going to need even more of that bravery.

Political violence is obscene. It must be resolutely disavowed, with no exceptions. It has also, historically, been used as a rationale for suppressing civil society, and particularly civil society associated with the ruling party’s ideological antagonists.

At this moment, we don’t know who shot Charlie Kirk. We know absolutely nothing about the murderer’s relationship with any organization or association. But significant portions of the right are already signaling their belief that suppression is the appropriate response to the killing. Blake Masters, the GOP’s senate candidate in Arizona in 2022, declared: “Left-wing violence is out of control, and it’s not random. Either we destroy the NGO/patronage network that enables and foments it, or it will destroy us.”

From the Oval Office, President Trump vowed to “find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund and support it.”

Again, there is no evidence that any nonprofit or funder had any association with the killing. But Kirk’s murder is now serving as an excuse for what has long been an ambition of the right — a full-scale crackdown on the progressive left.

This is a moment of immense peril for civil society. And it’s a moment when, even more than in the past, we need individuals to rise to its defense — from the left, center, and right. Doing so does not excuse political violence. On the contrary, affirming civil society is a way to reject the enticement of violence. But it will require many of us taking a brave stand.

This essay was originally posted on LinkedIn.

Benjamin Soskis is a scholar of civil society and philanthropy, and the co-editor of the HistPhil blog.