Sanders Warns America: ‘Freedom and Democracy Cannot Survive Political Violence’

Matilda Omonaiye/

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has issued a grave warning about the growing threat of political violence in America, declaring that democracy itself is at stake unless citizens and leaders alike take a united stand against intimidation and bloodshed in public life.

Speaking in the wake of the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Sanders offered condolences to Kirk’s family but focused his address on the deeper danger he said is hollowing out America’s democratic traditions.

“A free and democratic society depends upon the basic premise that people can speak out, organize, and take part in public life without fear — without worrying that they might be killed, injured, or humiliated for expressing their political views,” Sanders said. “That is the essence of what freedom and democracy are about.”

Sanders cited a chilling list of recent incidents; from the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to assassination attempts on Donald Trump, Paul Pelosi, and Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, to arson attacks on public officials and the murder of Minnesota’s House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.

He stressed that the violence has not been confined to one political ideology or party, pointing to victims across the spectrum, including Republican lawmakers like Rep. Steve Scalise.

“This is not about left or right,” Sanders said. “Political violence, regardless of ideology, is not the answer and must be condemned.”

The Vermont senator drew a sharp contrast between democracy as a contest of ideas and political violence as an act of “cowardice.”

“Political violence means you cannot convince people of the correctness of your ideas, and you have to impose them through force,” he argued. “Every American, no matter what one’s political point of view may be, must condemn all forms of political violence and all forms of intimidation.”

Sanders reminded his audience that America’s history has been scarred by high-profile assassinations – President John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Robert Kennedy, Medgar Evers, John Lennon — and warned that such tragedies must never be normalized.

With rising polarization and attacks on democratic norms at home and abroad, Sanders framed the moment as one of historic urgency.

“This is a difficult and contentious moment in American history. Democracy in our country and throughout the world is under attack,” he said. “If we honestly believe in democracy, if we believe in freedom, all of us must be loud and clear: political violence is not the answer and must be condemned.”

Sanders’s remarks strike at the heart of a national debate over security, free speech, and the future of democracy in America, and they come at a time when many fear the nation’s divisions are edging into dangerous terrain.

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