A prayer for Charlie Kirk and the country he loved

My thoughts are with Erika Kirk, Charlie’s widow, his 3-year-old daughter, and his 1-year-old son, who must now go on without their father. Nothing is more important than taking a moment to be present, spiritually and emotionally, to what they are going through now, which few people can imagine. I certainly cannot.

As horrific as this crime is, the response on both sides of the aisle has been, in some ways, more disturbing. The basic lack of humanity frightens me. And the political recriminations are embarrassing, childish, and somewhat pathetic, actually.

Yesterday was not our finest hour as Americans. We look like fools. Perhaps we are foolish; OK. That makes it all the more important to at least not look like idiots. We’re in two wars, at least, a trade war, a debt crisis, an AI arms race, etc., and all news is global.

Judge not

The rush to judgment and commentary is just premature, for at least 3 reasons:

• First, we do not know who murdered Charlie or why. It is possible that he was killed for his political views and partisan affiliation, and maybe even probable. I don’t know that, though. Neither does anyone else. I wish we would all take a deep breath, D’s and R’s, and just stop talking. A day of silence — one single day — where no one is allowed to talk politics, would do this country a lot of good.

• Second, as of this writing, the assassin is at large. That poses acute danger of further political violence. And if not apprehended at all, that threat becomes indefinite, inchoate, and ominous — a dark cloud hanging over our politics. This would be a very bad outcome. Whatever energy we have, then, should be invested not in attacking the other side, but in apprehending the killer, ensuring that person gets a fair trial, and holding them accountable so that others are not tempted to attempt the same.

• Third, based on what is already known about the shooting, the killer seems pretty skilled, careful, calculating, sophisticated. This appears premeditated. Talented amateur? Professional? He climbed on top of a roof ~200 yards out, dressed in all black, barely detected, and delivered a devastatingly accurate shot — one bullet — straight to the victim’s neck. He disappeared almost immediately. And he has not yet been caught.

  • Someone competent enough to get this far almost certainly thought through the political consequences.

  • He had to have known, I think, that this would enrage the right, provoke reactions from the left, and possibly lead to retaliation or copycat violence.

  • If he knew this, and pulled the trigger anyway, that means he willed this toxic result on our already poisonous discourse.

  • Why?

• I can think of at least two possibilities:

  • Possibility #1: the conventional wisdom and rush to judgment is correct, and the assassin really is a mentally unstable and/or misguided leftist who killed Kirk simply because he did not like what he had to say. Politics and partisanship, plain and simple.

  • Kirk was on the first stop of a national tour of college campuses, that schedule was public, and his killer was clearly following it. So maybe this was just opportunistic: violence to harm the right, or Trump, or Vance, or Kirk, committed by a leftist/anti-Trumper who despised what they stand for.

  • Possibility #2: the killer really had nothing against Kirk. But on the eve of 9/11, one of those rare days Americans feel patriotic and somewhat unified, this is quite a perfect way to sow chaos, anarchy, and division. A thrilling victory for America’s enemies, foreign and domestic.

Master debaters vs. people who like to masturbate

Let’s not hate Republicans so hard that we forget who our real enemies are, and the very real harm they wish for us.

Whatever you thought of his views, Charlie Kirk was immensely productive, one of the good guys, a family man with a good heart and good intentions.

I agreed with Charlie on many things, disagreed with him on many others, and never had the good fortune of knowing him personally. He was such an extraordinary force in public life that I felt like I did. He loved our country and wanted to make it better, especially for young people, and especially through public discourse, voting, and competitive debate.

That’s why Governor Newsom, to his great credit, had him on the very first episode of his podcast.

Progressives, to their great discredit, gave him hell for it.

Liberals who want to win vs. illiberal losers

As a high school debater and lawyer, it would be very difficult for me to think someone who loves to argue and tries to persuade is The Problem.

The problem is that too many Americans, especially young people, want to shut down conversations altogether. Indeed, even here, they tried to do just that. For them, every political issue is a moral issue, having bad politics means you’re a bad person, and their tribe has a monopoly on righteousness, justice, wisdom, and truth.

This is some truly epic bullshit. And most voters know it.

Democrats: catch up. The fight we need in the party is not between socialists and centrists, or populists and the establishment. The real fight is between liberals of all policy persuasions, on the one hand, and illiberal progressives who are allergic to intellectual growth and believe they have a constitutional right to never be offended.

Enemies foreign and domestic

Charlie was imperfect in heated conversation, and sometimes fell short of his own high standards, as we all fall short sometimes. He said some things I wish he hadn’t, or said them differently than I wish he had said them.

But he didn’t deserve to suffer for speaking. He did not deserve to have his character assassinated, well before he was killed in flesh and blood. No one does.

Why not?

Well, as always, it’s pretty hard to improve on Lincoln:

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”¹

Let’s not forget who our real enemies are, foreign and domestic.²

Charlie Kirk was absolutely not one of them.