They'll Make a Martyr Out of Him if They Can
A Brief Word on Charlie Kirk and his Untimely Death
Forgive the extra-cynical title: I break my normal format to write today in memoriam of a man whom I did not like, whom I did not respect, and whose values fundamentally disagreed with my own. This was a man with dangerous rhetoric1; this was a man who disingenuously engaged with young adults to attempt to sway them to his own, often extreme, political beliefs. But this alone is not enough. Problematic rhetoric is insufficient grounds for the event that occurred today.
You have likely already heard, but Wednesday at a speaking and student engagement event in Utah, Charlie Kirk, a prominent ultra-right-wing podcaster and political activist, was shot and killed. Law enforcement is still searching for a suspect after the initial catch and release of two suspects. Presumably, this killing was on ideological grounds, but that is uncertain until we know more (that is, anything) about the shooter.
I have been quite a bit preoccupied today, but I had the chance to discuss with some close friends three predictions for the populist right-wing core of the Republican party coming out of this event:
They’ll blame the left/Democrats, even if it wasn’t the left/Democrats.
They’ll demand additional security, and that market will take off2.
They’ll make a martyr out of him, if they can.
And before I was able to put my word onto digital paper today, even before his body is cold, all of one, two, and three3 have already started. To be completely transparent, I’m concerned. My short-term fear is in more needless death. President Trump has already declared flags to be flown at half-mast until Sunday evening, an honor he removed from former President Jimmy Carter and notably did not elect to pursue for the two-months’-prior assassination of Minnesota State Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman and her husband. His death has been politicized by this and more, before a motive has even been established; that alone is enough to be concerned.
Going forward, if the Charlie Kirk martyrdom messaging doesn’t land, they’ll abandon him. His widow will get something, don’t get me wrong—maybe a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a spot at the next State of the Union address, maybe a generous payout from the government, or maybe a generous GiveSendGo payout4 (one of which has already started and has raised $119k as-of this post going up, mind you). But while his message will live on, he will become just another list item of the long list of perceived greivances that Trump and MAGA-aligned right-wingers like to throw around. I think this is the more likely case: his death will become yet another justification of the steady erosion of existing institutions that we’ve seen for the entirety of the second Trump administration.
But if it lands… if this fuels the fire that’s aggessively been stoked (and very clearly not by the “radical left” as President Trump so quaintly put it), we Americans have a whole new host of problems that we are staring down the barrel of. I don’t want to speculate right now on what happens in that case, but I am particularly concerned about increased domestic militarization, as well as loss of Democratic focus on maybe the only issue that’s capable of sticking to the President anymore: the Epstein files.
I end to say that while I hold no love and no respect for this man, death by a human hand at the age of 31 was not among the things that he deserved. I even feel next to no schadenfreude for a man who once claimed that, “I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment…” The violent rhetoric needs to step down, but it’s already still persisting in the highest office of the land. In the interest of combating divisiveness, left-wingers, liberals, and centrists of all kinds need to be firm in decrying political violence, and encourage those across the aisle to do the same, even if it falls upon deaf ears. And then move on and move forward, trusting the law to do its job. Violence will only ever be met with more violence, and that’s the big question now.
I will cap off this post with the words and portent of another man I usually deeply disagree with but whose words now I both agree with and am greatly concerned by (as it reads like a contemplative threat to me), Speaker Mike Johnson:
“We need to be thinking thoughtfully about our language and what we’re saying and how we treat one another,” Johnson said. “This could be a big moment … I feel like something has changed.”
The man often echoed support for Christian nationalism, spread disinformation about COVID-19, and believed in the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory (that white people are systematically being replaced by non-white people intentionally). Problematic.
Beyond private security, I could also very easily see a public option; that is, I could see increased requests to public police forces for Republican events or even Secret Service details coming out of this.
Find below my transcript:
…the monster who attacked him was attacking our whole country. As assassin tried to silence him with a bullet, but he failed because together, we will ensure that his voice, his message, and his legacy will live on for countless generations to come. Today, because of this heinous act, Charlie’s voice has become bigger and grander than ever before, and it’s not even close.
I should do a full write-up on GiveSendGo as a divisive platform at some point: at least two top donation messages ($1k each) on this fundraising campaign seem to be calls to retaliatory political violence: “This is the Turning Point” as well as “Vengeance is mine saith the Lord; I will repay.”