Democracy in Flames: Will Charlie Kirk’s Killing Be America’s Reichstag Fire?

On the night of February 27, 1933, a massive fire – apparently set by a Dutch communist who confessed to the crime, though other accounts suspect other communists or even Nazis – severely damaged the German parliament building, the Reichstag. Arriving at the scene, German Chancellor Adolf Hitler declared, “If this fire, as I believe, is the work of the Communists, then we must crush out this murderous pest with an iron fist.”

Within a month, Hitler incinerated German democracy.

Step by Very Quick Step…

The short, catastrophic saga triggered by the fire featured German President Paul von Hindenburg, who had won re-election the previous year. Despite being 84 and in failing health, Hindenburg had run because he saw himself as the only candidate who could thwart Hitler, whose Nazi Party was then on the rise but not yet in power.

Nonetheless, on January 30, 1933 Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor – the head of day-to-day government, as opposed to the president’s more limited but still-pivotal oversight role. He did so out of an unfounded fear of a communist takeover and due to advisors’ assurances that the military and other institutions could keep the Nazis in line.

The day after the blaze (February 28), urged on by Hitler’s insistence that the fire reflected an imminent communist threat, Hindenburg issued a sweeping, repressive emergency decree. Hitler, aided by 50,000 Nazi paramilitary stormtroopers whom he had appointed as official auxiliary police a week earlier, viciously enforced the edict, which  “abolished freedom of speech, assembly, privacy and the press; legalized phone tapping and interception of correspondence,” suspended any autonomy for the 17 states constituting the country and led to the arrest, imprisonment and torture of thousands.

Finally, on March 23, with many  parliamentary members detained, imprisoned or intimidated from attending that day’s session, and with others sufficiently cowed, the legislature passed the Enabling Act. The new law “assigned all legislative power to Hitler and his ministers, thus securing their ability to control the political apparatus.” This completed the consolidation of his dictatorship.

Then There’s Trump

Which brings us to America, today. Shortly after the assassination of Trumpist political leader Charlier Kirk – which, like any other such act, was a heinous crime – Utah Governor Spencer Cox issued a call for civility and unity in the nation’s response. Some other Republican leaders have also pushed back against whole-hog retribution.

Then there is Donald Trump. His Oval Office video address hours after the assassination began in a moderate manner. But after two minutes (and many hours before the murder suspect had even been identified) he quickly segued into blaming “radical left” rhetoric for the death and vowed to go after “those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials and everyone else who brings order to our country.”

In the days since then, the Trump Administration has doubled, tripled and quadrupled down on this tack and tone, including via attacks on actual and perceived opponents. The most prominent target so far has been late night host Jimmy Kimmel, suspended by ABC just hours after Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr pressured it do so with his Sopranos-like “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” suggestion. Asserting that he would “go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” Vice President JD Vance has singled out the Ford and Open Societies Foundations and The Nation magazine as examples of nonprofit, media and other outlets under threat.

Then There Are the Facts

These attacks come from a president whose inaugural address promised to  “immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.”  A president who, speaking of attacks on democracy and on national legislative chambers like the Reichstag, praised and pardoned the January 6 insurrectionists who had violently ransacked the Capitol, injured dozens of  police officers guarding it and arguably contributed to the deaths of several more. A president who has endorsed or tolerated violence on numerous other occasions.

Trump’s solely blaming the Left for political violence sorely conflicts with the facts. The Department of Justice’s own National Institute of Justice in fact produced a 2024 study – oddly (or perhaps not) removed from its site within three days of Kirk’s death – finding far higher degrees of far-right violence:

“Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists [though this calculation evidently excludes 9/11], including 227 events that took more than 520 lives…In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.”

The study was consistent with other expert research and opinion on the preponderance of right-wing violence.

Follow the Leader

In ignorance or denial of such realities, many of Trump’s leading followers have followed his lead in rabidly threatening ways, starting with Vance blaming “left-wing extremism” for Kirk’s death. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller similarly claims that left-leaning political organizations constitute “a vast domestic terror movement. He vows that “With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.”

Countless others have piled on. For Elon Musk, “The Left is the party of murder.” Top Trump loyalist Laura Loomer, whose influence on the president apparently extends to his firing national security staff, claims that “The Left are terrorists” and that  “We must shut these lunatic leftists down. Once and for all. The Left is a national security threat.” Many more MAGA types see the assassination as a declaration of war and vow retribution.

The comment that takes the rhetorical cake comes from right-wing agitator Matt Forney. In an X post that has garnered at least three million views, he actually casts the Reichstag fire’s aftermath as a favorable historical precedent:

“Charlie Kirk being assassinated is the American Reichstag fire. It is time for a complete crackdown on the left. Every Democratic politician must be arrested and the party banned…”

I’m not equating Trump or his followers with Hitler or Nazi Germany here. I’m not saying that America could fall prey to such a degree of tyranny. But I am suggesting that similar political tactics may well be at play, echoing those of 90 years ago and featuring the exploitation of a repulsive, traumatic event.

Harking Back to 9/11

Contrast today’s Trump-fueled outrage with President George W. Bush’s words in the wake of 9/11. Visting the Islamic Center of Washington, DC, he directed his remarks to all of America:  

“These acts of violence [the 9/11 attacks] against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that…America counts millions of Muslims amongst our citizens, and Muslims make an incredibly valuable contribution to our country… And they need to be treated with respect. In our anger and emotion, our fellow Americans must treat each other with respect.”

To my mind, W got a lot more wrong than right in his presidency. But the important things he got right certainly included those vitally important remarks. At an intensely inflamatory point, prone to bitterness and bigotry, they sought to bring out the best in us.

It Starts with Hope…and Includes Redistricting…

Which brings us back to the state of American democracy today, how to save it and how to restore it. There’s painfully, obviously no comprehensive solution. But there is an assortment of partial approaches, only a few of which I’ll touch on right now.

It all starts with retaining, sharing and voicing hope, such as through the upcoming October 18 No Kings rallies across the country. Or participating in local events, such as the weekly, sign-carrying democracy vigils held in the City Park of my hometown, Benicia, California.

It similarly features doing what we can, where we can. With Election Day looming on November 4, those of us in California can campaign and vote for Proposition 50, aka the Election Rigging Response Act. An amendment to the California constitution, Prop 50 allows the Democratic-controlled California legislature to redraw its U.S. congressional districts in response to a similar step recently taken by Republican Texas. The California changes take effect from 2026 to 2030, after which such redistricting power returns to California’s independent, nonpartisan Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC).

Why is this so crucial? To help save democracy. One the few powerful ways of undercutting Trump’s multipronged attacks on our freedoms and institutions, attacks that have only accelerated in his Reichstag-like exploitation of Kirk’s assassination, is for the Democrats to take back control of the House of Representatives next year.

If they do so, they gain the power to block regressive, repressive legislation and influence the budget. Maybe even more importantly in the current context, control over the House also grants the Democrats the power to investigate and publicize his abuses.

But that’s all less likely to happen if Texas and other Republican-controlled states redraw congressional district lines so as to increase Republican representation in the House. Though the national redistricting fight may be stacked in Republican states’ favor, Prop 50 seeks to partly counterbalance that.

Not Normal Times…And No Alternative

In normal times, there would be no need for Prop 50. But, as you may have noticed, these are not normal times. Whether Charlie Kirk’s horrific assassination ultimately proves to be America’s own horrific Reichstag fire, as Trump’s exploitation of his death seemingly intends, is on the line.

Which is why it is so urgent that Californians enact Prop 50. And why those of us based elsewhere do whatever you can to support analogous local or state actions.

These are all just pieces of the puzzle in striving to save our democracy. But sufficient pieces can come together to stave off the darkness and just maybe build a brighter future. There’s no alternative to trying.