Political violence isn’t new in America. But the reaction to it today feels different.

After the killing of Charlie Kirk, the country didn’t rally around a message of restraint. Instead, key leaders treated it as ammunition. That shift, combined with a rise in tit-for-tat attacks and a politicized security apparatus, points to a more dangerous phase in our politics.

Barbara Walter is a political scientist at University of California San Diego and the author of How Civil Wars Start. She studies how democracies slide into instability — and how they pull back. I invited Walter onto The Gray Area to talk about what makes this moment distinct, why lone-actor violence is rising, how leaders’ rhetoric can normalize force, and what it would actually take to lower the temperature.

As always, the

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