Kirk

  Charlie Krik’s last rally

 Sniper on a rooftop

The shooter?

            

The shooter?

Kirk

“Charlie Kirk Is Assassinated, as America Blisters With Hate and Violence”

Newsweek Headline, September 10th.

“Big government sucks.” 

22-year-old Charlie Kirk on his national debut at the 2016 GOP Convention in Cleveland

I am writing this blog on the day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk and on the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the crash of a passenger jet in fields in Pennsylvania as brave and patriotic passenger help take down that plane, destined towards a high-value target elsewhere. These events need to be seared into the soul of the country for all time. Let me be clear, I’ve followed the very charismatic Charlie Kirk for years, even receiving his Turning Point feed, and his vision for the United States under one singular perspective that pushed Christian thought into places, I am relatively certain would have been reprehensible to Jesus himself, is pretty much the antithesis of my vision of unity through the diverse voice of each and every American.

But Charlie was unique, a living example of the First Amendment at work, married to a beauty queen and a father of two, who grew up in suburban Chicago, a college dropout who welcomed debate, took on his political foes straight on, and welcomed those who could oppose him with a cogent argument... face-to-face. The Arizona resident was as middle class as anyone could be: “His father was an architect whose firm designed Trump Tower in New York City; his mother was a mental health counselor. And Kirk, starting in high school, was an avid listener of conservative talk radio icon Rush Limbaugh…

“Kirk got his first taste of activism when he and a classmate launched a protest against the rising price of food at his high school cafeteria. But it was an opinion piece he wrote while he was still a teenager for the conservative news site Breitbart, in which he discussed liberalism in textbooks, that set him on the road to becoming a national figure.” NBC News, September 10th. His subsequent impact on national politics is the stuff of legend.

Kirk did things for the Republican Party no one else had been able to do in this modern era. Using the vernacular and life struggles of Gen Z (and a few Millennial stragglers), he gave them a path to GOP conservatism. He railed against DEI, believed in expelling undocumented workers quickly (even harshly), but his appeal to both MAGA diehards and traditional fiscal moderates in his party was a unifying force in a party that had been torn apart at the seams, pitting “RINOs” fiscal moderates against MAGA radicals.

Kirk was soon a Trump favored son, and at 31, was on a short list of potential future Republican presidential candidates. He was a talk show host, major activist, and showman extraordinaire. His recent rallies, focusing on high school and college campuses and towns across America (with high-profile speakers and often with a fireworks display), drew large crowds of younger actual and potential voters looking for a definition of the future that could resonate with them. A future I passionately disagreed with, but I truly respected his voice and self-made political power.

There was no doubt that Kirk was a star, perhaps even the star in a post-Trump era. His rising stature was such the Charlie Kirk took the podium at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in 2024. He spoke for and of his generation, creating a new cohort of Trump supporters from a body of young minds that too many elders had written off as lazy and disconnected. He wasn’t an oligarch nor interested in becoming a spokesperson for the mega-rich. With Trump taking office in January, Kirk could easily have stepped into significant political appointment… he could easily have won Trump’s endorsement for a run for Congress… but Kirk preferred the role of powerful activist with an ability to rally and connect with formerly disenfranchised young voters, who felt abandoned by their country.

So, there he was, on September 10 at one of his events, at Utah Valley University. As USA Today (September 10th) reported shortly after Kirk’s assassination from a sniper’s buttle, the 31-year-old media personality was at the campus kicking off his "The American Comeback Tour," where he was hosting his "prove me wrong" table, where audience members debate the activist in a public setting. According to Utah’s Deseret News, more than 6,000 people signed a petition asking Utah State University to bar Kirk from coming onto its campus on Sept. 30 for another of his events. Kirk had become a force to be reckoned with, and even those at the top of the GOP almost never criticized Kirk.

“[Kirk’s Turning Point political group] is controversial even among Republicans. Its leaders have sought to oust those they disagree with. During the 2024 election cycle, Kirk publicly criticized the leadership of former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel and called on his donors to stop giving to the national party. McDaniel stepped down months later.

“Kirk himself has pursued provocative political positions, such as a social media campaign to discredit the civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. He has encouraged traditional gender roles, praising the values of ‘marriage and motherhood’ for young women. Turning Point now boasts allies at the very top of the GOP's chain of command. ‘Charlie Kirk and Turning Point have been a major reason why the conservative movement is finally growing a spine,’ Donald Trump Jr. said in a written comment to The Arizona Republic in 2024. ‘Turning Point's influence has grown because they pick the right fights, work their butts off, and they don't apologize for it. ... That inspires people.’” USA Today.

After the shooting, Trump went from lavish praise – ““No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my Sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika, and family. Charlie, we love you!” to unhinged blame without evidence to back this statement:” “For years, those on the radical Left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now.” Trump still clings to the notion that his statements about a vast array of people, absolute “demonization” on steroids, did not legitimize this horrific practice. And the “State Department will take ‘appropriate action’ against foreigners in US praising Kirk's death, official says.” CNN, September 11th.

Opposed to political violence, Kirk still embraced the open and gun-friendly interpretation of the Second Amendment. With all the mass shootings in this country, a legitimization of gun ownership with few if any limitations, it was cruel and ironic that a sniper using a high-powered bolt action rifle, which he abandoned in a nearby wooded area, ended Kirk’s life. As of this writing, the FBI believes it has photographs of the killer (see above picture released by the FBI) and will soon make the relevant arrest.

So where are we with all this? “One-third of college students say using violence to stop someone from speaking on campus is acceptable, at least in rare cases, according to a survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)… ‘Every year, we survey 70,000 college students. And we ask them their acceptance for using violence to stop a campus speech,’ FIRE Executive Vice President Nico Perrino told CNN’s Audie Cornish.” CNN September 11th. Time for a huge national reset… or… People just seem to be getting angrier all the time.

I’m Peter Dekom, and the proliferation of highly specialized weapons across the United States, including the massive profits of gunmakers from buyers smuggling such US-made weapons to “south-of-the-border” narco-cartels, has given those disgruntled and passionate (or just greedy) a license to kill that would even make 007 quiver in fear.