Escalation Is The Only Strategy
Matt
Sept 15, 2025
The assassination of Charlie Kirk has become the pretext to open the floodgates of violent rhetoric and censorship in the United States. Right wing talking heads and politicians are firmly holding on to the narrative that "The Left" (which to them is just a nebulous group that defies a real definition other than 'those who oppose us') created an environment of hostility that directly caused Kirk's death. While it appears so far that Nick Fuentes may be the most ardent steward of the ecosystem which birthed that specific tragedy, it is Trump and the Republican Party (which cannot be meaningfully separated except by their specific legal roles and authority) which has been leading the charge on creating the volatile America we now reside in.
Today, September 15th, the US military carried out a strike on a vessel from Venezuela in international waters, killing three people. So far we have seen zero evidence that this boat actually carried any drugs, that the occupants were drug dealers, or that the administration has any legal justification or authority to kill these people. And if I had a nickel for every time this has happened in September...
Seriously though, this matches exactly what happened on the 1st of September, when the US military carried out a strike on a boat in international waters, which Venezuela stated was actually returning home rather than heading for the US, without evidence of drugs, criminals, or legal authority.
However, these strikes don't just exist in a vacuum. Outside of what might be seen as Trump's run-of-the-mill belligerence, these strikes were foreshadowed. First explicitly, by Trump's promise to "wage war" on drug cartels. Then implicitly, by Executive Order 14157 (issued January 20th), which designates drug cartels (along side "The Cartels", Tren de Aragua and MS-13 are explicitly named and "other transnational organizations" are also included) as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. This E.O. builds on the foundation of a history of expanding interpretations of AUMFs over the last two decades (like those which created the justification for the invasion of Iraq) by pulling cartels into the ever broadening definition of 'Terrorist'.
So, it seems the justification for this escalation in the modern war on drugs comes from the application of three tools:
- Designating targets as "Terrorists" in a legal sense
- Like-wise designating target activity as an "Imminent Threat"
- Leaning on a reasonable cultural disdain for drug traffickers to curb dissent
There is a lot more to unpack here, including the potential for oil drilling off the coast of Venezuela, the waning of Maduro's authority, and more, but the sum of these parts that I'm aiming at is the escalation and expansion.
In a similar fashion, Trump built much of the campaign for his first term on the back of violently cracking down on immigrants, particularly those from Latin America, or in his words "Removing Killers, Rapists, and Drug Dealers" and he continues to use this exact phrasing to justify his hostile actions. He has authorized and deployed ICE to take migrants from anywhere they can be found, often snatching them up violently with large groups of masked men. These people are subject to deportation and/or imprisonment without due process and many of the people picked up are here legally. Of those who are not, the vast majority are not criminal in anything other than a civil violation due to their migrant status. And now a person can literally be stopped for their skin color, accent, job, or location. The escalation and broadening of scope was foreshadowed, just like the strikes in the Caribbean.
Now, after Kirk's passing, with no time given at all for reflection or grief, the Trump admin, Republican politicians at every level of state and national power, and the entire right wing media apparatus (both television and internet) have united to declare that "The Left" must be destroyed. In the days since:
Vice President JD Vance took over as guest host of Kirk's podcast, proclaiming that the administration will "go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates, and engages in violence."
US Rep Clay Higgins said he would "use Congressional authority and every influence with big tech platforms to mandate immediate ban for life of every post or commenter that belittled the assassination of Charlie Kirk."
US Rep Bob Onder said "If we didn’t know it already, there is no longer any middle ground. Some of the American left are undoubtedly well-meaning people, but their ideology is pure evil. They hate the good, the truth, and the beautiful, and embrace the evil, the false, and ugly. And they literally will kill those with whom they disagree..."
For fucks sake, Brian Kilmeade just had to apologize today for saying that we should kill the homeless. Michael Savage Weiner has literally been calling "Liberalism" (again, not fitting any real definition) a mental disorder for more than two decades. These people called Kamala Harris a Marxist (if only...). And we don't even have to get started with the vile things Kirk himself said (seriously, just open Reddit and scroll for 30 seconds). If they don't know "extreme rhetoric" then no one does.
The Republican party and all of their apologists (from shit-heel Twitch streamers, to weaselly podcasters and through the dregs of cable news and talk radio) have spent my entire adult life saying insane shit about their political opponents, while the vast majority of the time Liberals snap their spines bending over backwards to placate them. Hell, Rush Limbaugh started his inane ramblings in the 80s, and that guy just died in 2021. But that doesn't matter to them. In their minds calling Trump supporters 'Deplorable' is inciting violence and quoting Charlie Kirk's greatest hits about women and minorities is celebrating his murder, but Trump calling his political opponents "Communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical-left thugs that live like vermin" is actually just super chill. I'm actually kind of surprised they made Kilmeade apologize. How long until we get a clip of Trump saying he was right?
Evidenced by tiffs about rising tariffs and Nobel Peace Prizes (that ship has clearly sailed), racist deportations and internment, extrajudicial killings and overseas bombings, it is clear that when Trump and his sycophants declare war on American cities and civilians they mean it, and their strategy only includes going further.