I never met Charlie Kirk. Yet, like many conservatives, I feel as though I did. Exceptionally bright, articulate, and personally engaging, he was a generational talent whose ability to win the hearts and minds of young Americans was unmatched and helped to sway the 2024 election toward President Donald Trump.
Still, as inspirational as he was, I suspect even Kirk himself would have been surprised by the sheer magnitude of the response to his death. Not since the death of Princess Diana have we witnessed such a global outpouring of love and compassion.
Had Kirk died after a serious illness or a car crash, the effect would not have resonated nearly as strongly. But his death by an assassin’s bullet transformed him into a symbol, a figure whose significance will burn ever brighter with the passage of time. This point is illustrated by a Tuesday evening announcement from Turning Point USA, the organization he founded, that it had “received 54,000+ requests from high school and college students nationwide to start a chapter or get involved with an existing chapter” over the past six days.
The shot that ended Kirk’s life did far more than that — it jolted ordinary Americans back to reality. It sparked a collective cry of “Enough.” Coming on the heels of two attempts to silence Trump, the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the anti-ICE riots, the murders of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., the attacks on Tesla dealerships, Tesla drivers, and the vehicles themselves, Kirk’s political assassination marked the moment it became clear that the Left was no longer satisfied with waging a propaganda war against the Right. Aware they were losing the political debate, they had upped the ante to violence.
While the evidence indicates that most political violence in recent years has originated on the Left, Democrats continue to push the disingenuous narrative that both parties are to blame. That’s just not true.
OPINION: CHARLIE KIRK WAS MURDERED FOR WINNING THE WAR OF PUBLIC PERSUASION
Consider the Right’s response to Kirk’s murder: candlelight vigils and makeshift memorials have been held in communities throughout the U.S. and even abroad to mourn his loss. He was honored at countless football games, concerts, and even a NASCAR race over the weekend. This was in stark contrast to the riots, looting, and vandalism that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020.
The Left initially insisted that Kirk’s alleged assassin was a right-winger, a charge that never made sense, until it emerged that the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson, was in fact a leftist whose live-in partner was a man transitioning into a woman.
Still, as late as Monday evening, comedian Jimmy Kimmel told his audience, “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” How many viewers will believe him?
The Left often points to political violence against Democrats to make the “both sides” case. They frequently cite the April arson attack on the residence of Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro. That night, a man named Cody Balmer scaled a fence and hurled two Molotov cocktails into the home just hours after the family’s Passover seder. What they leave out is that Balmer was a pro-Palestinian activist, angry over Shapiro’s strong support for Israel and his condemnation of anti-Israel protests in the state.
They also tried to portray David DePape, the mentally ill man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer in October 2022, as a right-wing extremist. Yet the dilapidated school bus that DePape called home was adorned with a BLM banner and a gay-pride flag.
Because his “hit list” included the names of Democratic politicians and several abortion clinics, Vance Boelter, the suspect in the June murders of Democratic Minnesota State Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, may indeed be a right-wing extremist. On the other hand, police found a stack of flyers for the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests held the same day as the murders. Additionally, in a delusional letter sent to FBI Director Kash Patel, Boelter claimed to be acting on orders from Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who had appointed him to a state board in 2019.
EDITORIAL: WHAT THE MURDER OF CHARLIE KIRK MEANS
So, yes, while there may be exceptions, it’s fair to say that political violence overwhelmingly comes from one side of the political aisle.
The violence starts with the Democrats’ baseless comparisons of Trump to Hitler and their constant warnings that he is a fascist whose presidency represents a threat to our democracy. Democrats have worked hard to push this toxic narrative, and they’ve been very effective. Sadly, many Americans now see this as the truth.
Even as former President Barack Obama condemned Kirk’s assassination on Tuesday, he couldn’t help but accuse Trump and his administration of causing the deep division in America today.
“But I’ll say this — those extreme views were not in my White House,” Obama said. “I wasn’t empowering them. I wasn’t putting the weight of the United States government behind them.”
No, this hypocrite’s administration only moved heaven and earth to prevent Trump’s 2016 victory and, once that ship had sailed, tried to sabotage his presidency.
The real threat to our democratic republic lies in the effectiveness of the Left’s propaganda campaign that began in 2015 and has only escalated as their Trump Derangement Syndrome has deepened.
Although I’m not sure who originated this truism, during the Democrats’ war on DOGE’s audit of the federal government last spring, Elon Musk rightly noted, “they don’t shoot you because you’re a Nazi; they call you a Nazi in order to be able to shoot you.”
The Left has leveled the same venom at Kirk, who crisscrossed the country championing Trump’s MAGA agenda. But his murder changed the political landscape. The Democrats’ grip on the national narrative has come to a sudden halt. While there may be no persuading the dyed-in-the-wool Left, most Americans have finally acknowledged that the emperor was never regally clad at all, and they will no longer pretend otherwise.
In the days since the shooting, the public mood has shifted with remarkable speed. What began as shock has swelled into an unprecedented groundswell of sympathy and resolve, visible not only in vigils and statements of support from around the world but also in swift consequences for those who cheered the violence. Leftists who publicly celebrated the assassination have been dismissed from long-held positions, a signal that the country’s tolerance for such rhetoric has abruptly narrowed.
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Notably, Kirk not only made conservatism cool again — he made faith compelling again. His unapologetic embrace of Jesus as Lord and Savior drew countless young people back to church, while guiding many more through those doors for the first time. Although a single Sunday does not establish a trend, churches nationwide were reportedly packed with worshippers last weekend, many of them strikingly young.
Kirk’s assassination has altered America and forced a national reckoning. Far from silencing a voice that threatened the power of their propaganda, it has, like Pearl Harbor in Roosevelt’s time, stirred a sleeping giant. And this awakening is only beginning to unfold. This is bigger than Charlie Kirk.