That, Savage said, is the madness of our time: a mild-mannered, respectful young conservative like Kirk branded a Nazi by his enemies and gunned down. “It could happen to any one of us,” he cautioned. “Anyone who writes or speaks from a conservative viewpoint is now seen as a target.”

For Savage, Kirk’s murder reflects what he warned of in his 2013 book Stop the Coming Civil War. He quoted Sen. Thomas Corwin’s words to Abraham Lincoln in 1861: “I cannot comprehend the madness of the time. Treason is in the air everywhere, but it goes by the name of patriotism.”

“That’s exactly where we are,” Savage said. “We’re in the civil war. It’s not coming — it’s here. And it’s one-sided. The left is killing the right. The left is silencing the right. People are terrified to even speak their views in public, afraid of being attacked. It’s a one-way civil war.”

Savage stressed that the rhetoric itself is already inciting violence. “If you’re calling your enemy day and night a fascist, fascist, Nazi, Nazi, Nazi — and then someone kills one of those people — how do you stop it?” he asked.