Charlie Kirk’s murder is tragic. He was a prodigy in every sense of the word. Having founded the stellar organization Turning Point USA at the age of 18, he had the brightest of futures.
Among many other things, his death has brought into sharp relief just how severely poisoned some people have become with radical ideology. This was not a random case of a mentally disturbed individual acting out an evil fantasy. It follows what is now an appalling pattern, seen with both of Donald Trump’s would-be assassins as well as the gunman who attempted to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The motivation to commit these shockingly violent acts has been programmed into their heads.
A sickness has penetrated deep into the liberal ethos. Much of it stems from the constant dehumanizing of Donald Trump by Democrat leaders and the news media. The term “Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS)” was originally introduced in jest, to poke fun at those who simply hated Trump but couldn’t articulate why. TDS has now come to mean a real, actual disability in people who, at the mere mention of Trump’s name, lose all moral clarity and ability to think critically.
The nonstop shouting that Trump is an “existential threat”, that the world will end if Trump remains President, and that this is an actual physical fight for our existence, has made things much worse. Weak, gullible minds have been captured by progressive politicians vowing to save them from unprecedented evil. Our public education system, poisoned throughout with far-left doctrine, has rewired the brains of many young people to reject traditional values and morals. The belief that your ideological opponent must be exterminated rather than debated has been maliciously implanted into their heads. They have effectively been turned into robots and are acting out with no restraint.
Most express their demonic hysteria via social media. Some go further and participate in riotous destructive protests. A few go to the extreme and murder (or attempt to murder) their perceived ideological enemy.
It’s easy to see why this is happening. Liberal and progressive people inside and outside of government, including most mainstream journalists, now openly foment racism, spew anti-religious rhetoric, glorify socialism, incessantly refer to conservatives as hateful fascists, and aggressively push transgenderism as if it is a badge of honor. None of this leaves any room at all for rational discourse.
As if to validate their continued devolution into loathsome and unprincipled beings, a quick perusal of some of the vile reactions to the assassination of Charlie Kirk removes all doubt. This includes several Democrats in the House and Senate. It’s even worse than their foul rhetoric following both assassination attempts on President Trump only one year ago. Democrat House members even shouted down a motion to observe a moment of silence for Kirk and his family.
With Trump’s continuing string of policy successes, court wins, and voter support, you would think that at least some Democrat leaders might recognize they are on a losing trajectory and change course. But rather than get their TDS problem under some semblance of control, they have doubled down, spread the disease further, and made it more virulent.
Democrat and progressive leaders need to genuinely denounce and eliminate the violent overtones in their messaging, especially to young people. They also need to articulate policies that are not 100% rooted in pure hate for Donald Trump. Until then, they should not be dignified by any acknowledgement of their presence in Congress.
Thus, while the Republicans still control Congress, their best course of action from this point forward should be to do what is necessary to pass all legislation and approve all judicial nominees and Presidential appointees with only Republican votes. Ignore Democrat pleas or ploys entirely. Majority leader Thune has already started down this path in the Senate.
Why? Apart from their depraved rhetoric described earlier, look what the Democrats in our federal and state governments now vigorously support:
- Illegal immigration
- Crime (rejecting federal assistance, defunding police departments, releasing repeat offenders)
- Men playing and dominating in women’s sports
- Antisemitism
- Lawfare and Judicial activism
- Anti school choice
- Sex change operations for pre-pubescent children
- Complete rejection of merit-based achievement
These are just the highlights. They go to great lengths, including spending enormous amounts of time and money in court, to defend these positions. Every one of these is an affront to our culture, traditions, and values. It is lunacy to fight for these policies since their ultimate end point is the suicide of a nation and the elimination of American culture and exceptionalism. Whether the left truly believes they are on the correct side of these topics, or they are so consumed with TDS that they reflexively oppose anything Donald Trump supports, the calamitous result is the same.
Charlie Kirk did not deserve to die. He was a hero, tirelessly demonstrating for young people the value of critical thinking and respectful debate. His indomitable spirit was legendary, now magnified by his devastating martyrdom. And as we all know, legends never die.
4 Responses
Excellent as always. All the facts summarized in a digestible keep-in-my-back-pocket format. Charlie would be proud.
From time to time, I intentionally flip around all of the major news outlets (CNN, MSNBC,CNBC, ABC, etc…) to make certain that I stay in touch with all different perspectives since I have many friends and family who have different political opinions and viewpoints. Every single time I do that, I come away appalled at the rhetoric, the blatant hate, the deliberate words used to “fire up” the political left. When I do have conversations about current events with someone with opposing viewpoints, they almost always land on “well, Trump started it” and “his rhetoric is way worse than Jasmine Crockett!” I expect to hear that since, granted, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s the absolute certainty of what they think he’s doing/has done/will do that is extremely scary. Facts offered are often wrong, very wrong and are supported by information that sounds desperate, contrived, and even blatantly contradictory…. anything that can make current events sound like Armageddon. Blind hate can do that and a constant reaffirmation of that hate from what so-called credible sources fist-pound about 24/7 is unfortunately having its desired effect.
As is true with most things of this magnitude, time will tell and hopefully time will cool the divisiveness. But will that time need to be a generational cycle or an election cycle? I guess we’ll find out.
Not sure if this will make sense but throwing this out there for perspective sake… I travel a lot. I’m in and out of airports almost on a weekly basis and every airport has its own version of chaos. One thing, though, is constant. People need and want a line to stand in. It may end up being the wrong line but that’s not my point. There is comfort in knowing that you are heading somewhere with lots of people, all going in the same direction. Stepping out of that line for any reason is courageous (trust me) and could even be dangerous from a travel perspective so it’s just safer, more comfortable to stick it it out and follow the flow. How can 50+ people ahead of me all be wrong?
This analogy is not intended to point out our propensity to be lemmings, not at all. Instead, it echoes a couple of things that your article points out…. the bravery of the few who question the destination and leave the line as well as the inclination of the many to stay in lock step with each other, collectively defend the reason for the line and why they choose to stay in it, blind faith or boarding pass facts. Both can be right or wrong.
There will always be differences of opinion, of understanding. But the beauty of it all is that we are all free to make a choice and defend it but never with voices filled with hate, a raised fist or use of a weapon, ever. That shuts down the entire airport and then no one goes anywhere.
Thanks for the great comment K! Very well said. Another thing we saw (or more correctly didn’t see) from CNN, MSNBC, etc. is that they still even now refuse to report that Tyler Robinson’s romantic partner roommate was trans. Can’t have that get out to all their lemmings because it would ruin the narrative. You make a great analogy with the airport lines.
I’m exhausted with the complexity of the picture surrounding the death of a leader for his beliefs and the motivation of those that conspired (intentionally or not) to snuff that debating voice out, so I will provide a zoomed out perspective of human nature.
You’ve done a great job outlining the current State of the Union, as it relates to our country’s divisive political framework, but within the problem to find peaceful discourse, lies a paradox-conundrum rivaling the Riemann hypothesis that our founders recognized and tried to address – debate of thoughts for government and recognizing religious faith freedom. Just as those that put their precious life on the line for our country in war or protecting the people of this country, there are more people that put their entire life on the line for their respective faiths everyday, and not only when their country or it’s people are in danger. Charlie put himself in the midst of the two groups, patriots and ‘faithians’.
To simplify my thoughts, think ‘my’ in your head. ‘My country’ ‘My religious beliefs’ ‘My political party’ My sports team’ ‘My college’ ‘My City’ Even personal things like ‘My playlist’ ‘My doctor’ ‘My recipe’ ‘My car’ ‘My whatever’ they are all difficult to change within a person’s identity and belief that their ‘My’ is the best. The later beliefs are singular (personal to only them). They are difficult to change but with some focus or debate with someone respected, they may change. That being stated, nobody is going to change my mind about ‘My playlist’ it’s the best, but I digress…
On the other hand the Group ‘My’ Beliefs are all but impossible to change, you can change a few within the group, but with the limited time you have on this earth you or anyone else will never change the overall belief of those groups completely. This is especially true for religious faith groups and their beliefs, as well as political party’s and their beliefs for governing. They can only be diminished through peaceful discourse, intimidation or fear. At the top of the ‘My’ list is the only group that is unified, ‘My country’ but it divides almost irreconcilably within the second and third groups of ‘My religious beleifs’ and ‘My political party’. Charlie Kirk understood the conundrum clearly at a young age and he also recognized through his personal encounters that the younger generations were those he might influence or change by ensuring they heard open debate and he was confident that his core beliefs would resonate. He did exactly that as a primary focus in a peaceful plan to debate with the youth in this country. He knew the enthusiasm of that younger flock would resonate through their friends and family – because they decided what to believe, not told to believe. Charlie was very very brave man to face the challenge of divisive yet peaceful discourse in spite of those outside of that discourse that chose intimidation, fear and violence when their efforts at peaceful discourse fell short.
Thanks Johnny. Agree with everything you say. Division along political lines has existed in this country since the beginning. But up until now, I would generally call it a healthy division, based mostly on policy differences. That’s not at all what is happening today.
As we talked about in the article, the primary “policy” of the Democrats of late has been to hate Trump, damage Trump, get rid of Trump. That’s it. That policy has now been extended to any conservative that supports Trump, and can effectively articulate and debate the elements of the MAGA movement. Charlie Kirk was a unique threat in that regard because of his youth, wisdom well beyond his years, and positive connection with the next generation of voters.