Over the weekend, we learned that Jay Jones, the Democrats’ candidate for Virginia attorney general, had been fantasizing about killing his political opponents. Jones not only told colleagues he would shoot Republicans before shooting Hitler or Pol Pot but also expressed a desire to watch children die in their conservative parents’ arms.
These comments would be disqualifying in any sane political culture. But after the assassination of Charlie Kirk last month and the wave of anti-ICE violence that has followed, Democrats had a chance to show they could police their own rhetoric. Instead, terrified of losing a critical statewide race, they have rallied behind Jones. In just weeks, the left has gone from calls to “turn down the temperature” to endorsing a candidate who openly dreams of killing children.
For progressives, power is everything. No behavior is too vile if it helps them win.
Game theory offers a useful way to understand what’s happening. One of its key concepts is “tit for tat,” a strategy in which the first player opens by cooperating and then mirrors the other’s behavior — cooperation for cooperation, defection for defection. The system stabilizes only when both sides know defection carries a cost. Any other strategy invites chaos.
After Kirk’s assassination, many of us warned that serious action was needed before the left’s spiral of violence spun out of control. The Trump administration had to use lawful force to dismantle leftist terror networks — but conservatives also needed a mental shift. If the right allowed progressives to “defect” by celebrating an assassination without paying a price, the lesson would be clear: Violence works.
Predictably, the left denounced the call to enforce accountability as “political retribution.” Libertarians and establishment conservatives joined the chorus. The left’s objection was insincere — it never wants to pay a price for bad behavior. But libertarians, paralyzed by theory, condemned the idea anyway. And the weak-kneed right, terrified of being called hypocritical, repeated the same tired warning: If Republicans act decisively now, Democrats will retaliate when they’re back in power.
It’s an absurd fear in 2025. Progressives have already jailed administration officials, arrested a former president, removed him from ballots, imprisoned protesters and meme-makers, and assassinated a conservative activist. What more are these so-called principled conservatives afraid of? Allowing the left to defect without penalty has been a disaster — just as game theory predicts. Something must change.
When Kirk was shot, a handful of liberals managed the obligatory denunciations. But the “both sides” rhetoric made clear that they took no responsibility. Others reveled in the death of a husband and father, mocking his faith and legacy online. Some were fired, and Jimmy Kimmel was briefly suspended for lying about the alleged shooter — but both Kimmel and the culture that spawned him returned unchanged. Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Ilhan Omar quickly resumed their attacks on Kirk’s character.
The left paid no price for its rhetoric, and predictably, the violence resumed.
Now, Democrats are standing behind a radical candidate who gleefully fantasized about killing Republicans and their children. A few colleagues tut-tutted his words, but none demanded that he step down. Once again, no consequences. For progressives, power is everything. No behavior is too vile if it helps them win.
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Photo by Craig Hudson for the Washington Post via Getty Images
Democracy depends on the ability to transfer power peacefully. Disagreements can be sharp — but they cannot be life-or-death. Yet progressives have made politics exactly that. Conservatives who still insist on “principles” over consequences are sleepwalking through history. Ignoring this escalation has failed. Political assassination has now become an accepted weapon in the left’s arsenal.
When Charlie Kirk was killed, the left dropped even the pretense of civility. They danced, sang, and laughed over his death. And now, with Democrats refusing to remove Jay Jones from the Virginia attorney general’s race, one suspects his murderous fantasies don’t shock them because they’ve also shared them privately.
The left’s immunity from consequence has bred a monster — a political culture that delights in destruction. If conservatives continue to shrink from imposing real costs, that monster will devour the last shreds of America’s social fabric.
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