On Wednesday, September 10, a shot was fired at a Utah college event, and Charlie Kirk became alive. Relatively unknown to the public outside of the Right Wing fringe that gains shekels and adoration from the misinformed, miscalculating, and mistaken cadre of misplaced Americans, Charlie Kirk became a household name; more than that, Charlie Kirk achieved immortality. Flags at half-mast, Medal of Freedom, statues planned, all for a young man who used the principles of establishing megachurches and planting their orators and turned college campuses into megacampuses, with him as the orator.
Don’t intend to demean his life and ridicule his death. I perceived Charlie Kirk to be a charlatan, who twisted facts and reality to pursue an agenda that suited his pocket, who deserved condemnation, and maybe a few years in purgatory, but did not deserve a fatal bullet that silenced his rhetoric and amplified his message. His family members merit regrets for the act and sympathies for their loss.
Objectives that Charlie Kirk’s divisive rhetoric intended to achieve in life — cancel the Woke and disable the Left — have found their yellow brick road, and the Trump administration is set to stroll down that road, with the help of the jingoist and sanguine media. All reports I have read categorize the killing as a political act and predict “tit for tat” killings leading to a possible civil war. Trump’s initial response urges that to happen. To the question, “How do we fix this country? How do we come back together?” the US president replied, “I tell you something that is going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right are radical because they don’t want to see crime … The radicals on the left are the problem – and they are vicious and horrible and politically savvy. They want men in women’s sports, they want transgender for everyone, they want open borders. The worst thing that happened to this country.”
At this September 15 writing, I find no evidence that the alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, had any political motivation in the killing. Recitations of “the frightening rise in political violence in the United States,” (what is new in violent America?) hides and distracts from the frightening rise in dangerous and hysterical political discourse. Motivation in the killing of Charlie Kirk leans to a personal grudge in a personal situation — Kirk had disturbed Robinson, who had an intimate relationship with another male who was trans gendering to female. An extreme reaction, but disturb the disturbed and the outcome is often extremely disturbing — murdering the lawyer in a divorce case, murdering a judge after harm by a verdict, murdering a swindler who caused grief to others. Motivation in this case has not been defined, so why eagerly insinuate a political motive that is certain to cause havoc and arouse the public? Why not be calm and favor a motive that is more plausible, prevents havoc, and calms the public?
Not one voice for peace and order; megaphones for violence and disorder; the way of those who lead our society. If Harry Truman and his Democratic Party had not approved United Nations Resolution 181 for political reasons, there would be no Israel and no genocide of the Palestinian people; if the leaders of the Democratic Party had nominated sure winner, Joe Biden, instead of friend and sure loser, Hillary Clinton, there would no Donald Trump in the presidency; if the Democratic Party had not soothed Joe Biden’s feelings and realized their commitment to the American public by allowing more reliable candidates to enter the race at an earlier date, there would have been no return of Donald Trump and changing of the presidency to ruling autocracy. These small thoughts of personal gain engineered huge losses for the world.
Keeping Charlie Kirk alive advances ignorance and violence in the 50 states. The idolized man pedaled half-truths, clichés, and simplified arguments to a simplified audience who could not engage in an erudite dialogue and espoused clichés. He found a niche with college Republicans who were clipped by more outspoken students. To his credit as a political organizer, he gathered Republican college students into a more meaningful political force and accomplished much for the Republican Party, but successful political organizers do not warrant the accolades he is receiving and the future monuments that are being designated for him, especially when the efforts have been self-serving.
Kirk was not proceeding well until “he and others adopted a more edgy and confrontational style of engagement, [and] people started paying attention, including deep-pocketed donors and political strategists.” Kirk learned that deceit and Faustian bargains are a route to successful politics and living a comfortable life. The Trump administration has greatly lowered the bar on what is determined to be greatness.
Jesus Christ’s described life was similar to most apocalyptic preachers. Death and resurrection gave him fame. So it is with Charlie Kirk, but doubtful that it will be as long lasting. In with a blast and out with a whimper. One advice to his family ─ if they want him to be properly remembered, they will inform the Israeli authorities not to proceed with canonizing him by having a street named for him in the city of Netanya, a mural painted in Ashdod, and a missile inscribed “In memory of Charlie Kirk.” Identifying him with the genocidal Israelis will change his remembrance from the sweet “accomplishments in the political firmament, “ to an aggravating “enemy of mankind.”