Believe it or not, I am more conservative than my grandma. A few weeks ago, I was arguing with her on the phone about politics. We agreed to disagree, and let me tell you why.
I was raised in Washington, D.C., in an extremely liberal household. Living in the nation’s capital propelled my interest in politics from a very young age. I can even recall debating with my classmates about the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries when I was in the fourth grade. I really started to get involved in politics during middle school.
I would spend my free time phoning voters in swing states on behalf of Democratic candidates. I was a fierce believer in the Democratic Party and an advocate for progressive values. But my political position started to shift at the end of high school and even more following recent events.
Lately, some Democrats have been straying from sanity, neglecting reality and promoting radicalism that is further polarizing the nation.
I was absolutely horrified by my former high school classmates’ reactions to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. They were posting things like “Hallelujah,” “Only one more left” and “He got what he deserved.”Whether or not you agreed with Charlie Kirk, he had a family whose lives are now ruined by a tragedy people are celebrating.
Under very different circumstances, I lost my father when I was 11. As a little girl, I had to bear the emotional burden of losing him, which was not fair to me. Charlie Kirk left behind two young children who will now have to take on that same emotional burden, which is also not fair to them.
Not surprisingly, all of the people who promoted these disgusting sentiments are Democrats. A few years ago, I would’ve been flabbergasted by their comments, but I have come to realize that they’re expected. When former United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was murdered last year, members of the Democratic Party acted similarly. MSNBC even published an article stating that the romanticizing of Luigi Mangione was out of control.
The Democratic Party is losing its humanity. I will admit, I don’t think all are like this. I even saw some Democrats post on Instagram honoring Charlie Kirk last week. But from what I’ve observed, many of the young Democrats subscribe to extremism. This is beyond frightening to me given that they are the future leaders of the Democratic Party.
Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I called my grandma to rant about Democrats and we ended up getting into an argument. My grandma was raised during the Civil Rights Movement. As a young Jew in Brooklyn, she revered figures like Martin Luther King Jr. for advancing racial justice at a time when equality seemed so far from reach.
During the early 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. pressured Democrats in the government, including John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson, leading to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. After this, the Democratic Party gained a reputation for promoting justice, which I believed was pretty accurate. Now, I am not so sure.
Do not get me wrong, I do not think the Republican Party is great either. In fact, I was absolutely horrified upon learning that the FCC had pressured ABC to suspend Jimmy Kimmel’s show over his comments about Charlie Kirk. Even though the show has since been put back on the air, this was a clear attempt to infringe on free speech in America. That said, Democrats cannot claim to be taking the moral high ground and then celebrate when a political activist they disagree with gets assassinated.
The problem stems from Democrats and Republicans who are hesitant to criticize their party, fearing it will undermine their chances during election season. The result is political extremism.
My grandma continues to believe that the Democratic Party stands for justice. She believes that the far left’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death represents a minority opinion within the party that will remain contained. I disagree.
We do agree on one thing: that extremism, no matter its source, is detrimental to American society and will ruin our democracy. But only if we allow it to.