By As the Trump administration continues, the left, including those in higher education, are becoming more and more radical and violent.
A recent essay by Nicholas Decker, a PhD student in economics at George Mason University, is sparking national concern over the direction of political rhetoric on the left. Decker posted an article titled “When Must We Kill Them?” on Substack, in which he suggests that violence might be necessary to resist what he sees as authoritarianism under former President Trump’s leadership.
In his writing, Decker describes the Trump administration as a “barbaric regime” and questions whether peaceful protest is enough to protect democratic values. He claims that “violence” has always been the true foundation of political power and criticizes various policies from Trump’s second term, including accusations of suppressing the media and undermining the judiciary.
I do not wish for this essay to be a mere catalogue of outrages. The conduct of the present administration is as well known to you as it is to myself, and can be understood by any sensible person. On it, no further comment is ventured.
What remains for us to decide is when we fight. If the present administration wills it, it could sweep away the courts, it could sweep away democracy, and it could sweep away freedom. Protest is useful only insofar as it can effect action. Our words might sway the hearts of men, but not of beasts.
If the present administration chooses this course, then the questions of the day can be settled not with legislation, but with blood and iron. In short, we must decide when we must kill them. None of us wish for war, but if the present administration wishes to destroy the nation I would accept war rather than see it perish. I hope that you would choose the same.
But what to do? The rot of the present administration runs deeper than one man. The sacrifice of a hero is insufficient to save our nation, and a gust of wind on a summer day would not have saved us. For let us make no mistake; the problem is not one man, but a whole class of people. If one head is cut off, another would take its place.
Violence only makes sense as part of coordinated strategy.
While some readers see Decker’s tone as exaggerated or fringe, others warn that his words signal a deeper shift in political conversation—one that reveals how extreme leftists have become over the past decade. His essay surfaced not long after an attempted assassination of Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania by a leftwing, pro-Palestine activist.
A recent wave of research is raising alarms about a disturbing shift in left-wing political culture, particularly among younger Democrats. A study by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), conducted with Rutgers University, identifies the rise of an “assassination culture” on the American far left. This emerging ideology not only justifies but increasingly romanticizes political violence, especially through memes and ironic slogans shared widely on platforms like BlueSky.
Survey data shows that 55% of left-leaning respondents found the idea of killing former President Donald Trump “somewhat justified,” with 48% expressing similar views toward Elon Musk. Moreover, 39% supported the idea of destroying Tesla dealerships in protest. These views, far from being fringe, are becoming normalized in progressive online communities.
The study also highlights a ballot initiative in California that glorifies a real-life political assassination, suggesting a cultural shift where violence is framed as resistance. Parallel research from 2022 by the Southern Poverty Law Center found that 44% of young Democratic men supported political assassination, making them the most supportive demographic of such acts.
This normalization of violence, often masked as satire or activism, signals a deeper erosion of democratic norms and a growing tolerance for extremism in mainstream progressive circles.
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