Historian Jon Meacham on political violence and the threat to American democracy

For Jon Meacham, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, and author of “The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels,” this past week has been disturbing – and all too familiar. Asked what is the state of America’s soul today, he replied, “I think that we are in a dangerous place. There’s never been a once-upon-a-time in American history. There’s not going to be a happily-ever-after. But there are moments that you and I could agree we would like to see replicated – and this is not one of them.

“Political violence erupts in America when there is an existential question – who is an American? Who deserves to be included in ‘We the people,’ or ‘All men being created equal’?” he said. “When that is in tension, when we don’t have common agreement about that, then, if you look at it historically, violence erupts.”

And on Wednesday, it did.

At Utah Valley University, the crack of a gunshot once again rattled America. Charlie Kirk, a prominent 31-year-old conservative activist, was assassinated as he engaged in public debate.

By Thursday, a suspect was in custody: 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson.

Kirk had a fervent following on the right, and was a key organizer in President Donald Trump’s movement. [At the 2020 GOP Convention, Kirk referred to Trump as “the bodyguard of Western civilization.”] He also had his critics, who called him an incendiary voice [as when, on his eponymous show, he exclaimed, “The entire Democrat Party project is how quickly we can turn America into a third-world hellhole”].

His death has become the latest convulsion in a divided country.

Meacham told Robert Costa that, “We do not want to be in a place where because you disagree with someone, you pick up a gun. That is not what the country can be. And if it is, then it’s something different.”

It’s not America? “It’s not the America we want,” he said. 

Kirk’s murder is the latest of numerous acts of political violence since last summer, when we saw the first of two assassination attempts on candidate Trump, followed by (to name just a few) the firebombing of the Pennsylvania governor’s home, Democrat Josh Shapiro; the killing of Democratic lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband in Minnesota; the murder of Israeli embassy officials in Washington; and the killing of police officer David Rose outside the CDC headquarters in Atlanta.

Costa asked Meacham, “Are we in a particular time in America when all of this seems to keep happening?”

“We are, self-evidently,” Meacham replied. “And I think it’s because we are experiencing an era in which we are debating, not only the means of politics, but the purpose of politics.”

Meacham says the purpose of America is an urgent cause for leaders, and for citizens: “When we lose the capacity to engage in argument and dissent and debate peaceably, we are breaking faith with the American covenant,” he said. “And the American covenant is that we live in contention with each other, but we’re not at each other’s throats.”

Asked what our political leaders can do to keep that covenant, Meacham said, “Make the case. Tell the story. What do you want the country to be? This is why history matters, I think, more than ever, because there’s not a hell of a lot going on in the present that you want to say, ‘Yeah, we want more of that,’ right?

“You want to tell the story of Omaha Beach. You want to tell the story of the Pettus Bridge. You want to tell the story of Gettysburg. Because those were moments where imperfect people actually created a more perfect union. It’s not that they were superhuman. Quite the opposite,” he said.

They got through it, Meacham said, “barely.”

But even if Americans can just barely carry on this weekend, Meacham says we must: “If they could do it, then we can, too, if we decide that this country is about a more perfect union, it is about dissent, it is about respecting each other, and it is not about hunting each other down.”

     
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Story produced by Sara Kugel. Editor: Chad Cardin. 

     
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