Is America a broken nation?

Michael Chugani September 22, 2025 09:59

Another day, another shooting, another dead victim. This is today's America. School shootings, political killings, and gun violence even in supermarkets and churches have become numbingly normal.

The latest high-profile victim was 31-year-old social media influencer Charlie Kirk, a far-right White activist whose millions of young followers helped elect Donald Trump in last year's presidential election. An assassin killed him with a single bullet to his neck while he was giving a public talk at a Utah university campus on September 10.

On the same day, a 16-year-old White student with far-right beliefs fired multiple shots at his Colorado high school, critically injuring two students before killing himself. Kirk’s killing outraged America’s right-wing, with Trump blaming “left-wing radicals” for the assassination. But the Colorado school shooting by a right-wing student generated little interest.

Estimates show there were at least 47 school shootings so far this year, leaving 19 dead and 77 injured. Overall shootings exceeded 310 so far this year, with over 300 fatalities. Initial outrage of shootings always ends with public apathy. But not for Kirk’s killing, which has become a rallying cry for the right-wing.

Kirk's political views thrilled the right but disgusted the left. He opposed abortion rights, immigration, transgender rights, and affirmative action that gave non-whites a better chance to climb the social ladder. He said the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a mistake and called the assassinated Black civil rights leader Martin Luther King an “awful person”.

He said last year that if he saw a Black pilot he would hope to himself the pilot was qualified to fly a plane. Kirk, a strong supporter of guns, once said it was worth some gun deaths every year to protect the constitutional right to bear arms. He ironically became one of those gun deaths. His critics accused him of being a right-wing extremist.

But the First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the right to free speech, including hate speech. The only limits to this right are defamation or free speech that incites unlawful acts. It doesn’t matter if I agree or disagree with Kirk’s views. What matters is, as a firm believer of free speech, I support his right to express his opinions.

Kirk’s assassin, Utah resident Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old White technical college student, was turned in by his family after a 33-hour police manhunt. He was raised by conservative parents who supported the Republican Party. But media reports said he started embracing left and liberal ideologies recently. Government prosecutors have charged Robinson with murder and will seek the death penalty.

Kirk’s killing has further inflamed an already deeply polarized country. Trump has threatened to use his presidential powers to shut down what he called the radical left. A popular host with the conservative Fox News channel declared war on live TV against the left.

The left and liberals blamed Kirk’s killing on his extreme political views. They have accused the right of ignoring political killings by right-wing extremists against liberal politicians. Both sides have flooded social media with accusations against each other.

Governor Spencer Cox of Utah, where Kirk was killed, condemned the online blame game. He said: "Our nation is broken" and urged Americans to stop the hate, stay away from social media, and described apps such as X, Tik Tok, and Facebook as a cancer on society.

America has a long history of political violence. Those in recent memory include the assassinations of Democratic President John F. Kennedy in 1963, his younger brother and Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King in 1968, the attempted assassination of the late Republican President Ronald Reagan in 1981, last year’s two attempted assassinations on Republican Trump, and this year’s assassinations of Melissa Hortman, the Democratic Speaker of Minnesota’s state legislature and her husband.

It was ironic that a day after Kirk's assassination, America commemorated the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The attacks unified the country in grief. Americans are now so politically polarized that the likelihood of the country unifying to combat external threats instead of fighting each other may have passed. As an American, I hope I am wrong.

It's not only the poisonous online right-wing and left-wing attacks on each other that are to blame. Politicians in both the Republican and Democratic parties are also at fault. When news of the assassination quickly spread, the Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives asked for a moment of silence to honor Kirk.

After just 30 seconds of silence, a Republican legislator demanded a prayer for Kirk. Democrats asked why Republicans didn't care about the Colorado school shooting that had also just occurred. It became a shouting match with foul language. Democrats demanded that Republicans join them to pass gun control laws. Republicans have long refused, saying the Constitution protects the right to bear arms.

Whatever Kirk's views, it is wrong for a 31-year-old to be politically assassinated leaving behind a grieving wife, two children, and parents. It is wrong for anyone regardless of political beliefs to be a victim of gun violence. A centerpiece of American democracy is to tolerate opposing views. This becomes meaningless when free speech is not tolerated.

America can turn Kirk's tragic death into a watershed moment by unifying like it did after 9/11. But turning the temperature down must start at the very top. Trump has said he wants the country to heal but blamed what he calls the radical left for resisting. Democratic leaders in turn blame Trump and conservatives for dividing the country.

None of this rhetoric sounds promising. America is really a broken country like Governor Cox said if political leaders on both sides can’t use this politically toxic time to find common ground and Make America Great Again as Trump likes to say.

Michael Chugani

A Hong Kong-born American citizen who has worked for many years as a journalist in Hong Kong, the USA and London.