September 12, 2025

Permission to republish original opeds and cartoons granted.

Charlie Kirk’s Assassin Was A Politically Motivated Partisan As The Public Square Has Never Been So Dangerous 

By Robert Romano 

“Hey, fascist” said one of the engraved bullets that tells you almost everything you need to know about why Charlie Kirk is dead. Another said “bella ciao” after an Italian anti-fascist song thought to have been sung during the liberation of Italy in World War II. 

The young man alleged to have assassinated Charlie Kirk, now in the custody of federal and state authorities, was radicalized into believing that he lived in a climate akin to Nazi Germany and so he took matters into his own hands to claim the life of the 31-year-old Christian conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA.  

This is what happens, and will keep happening, in an environment where we commonly view political opponents in the worst possible light. Where the free and open debate that Charlie Kirk stood for is shunned and political disagreements become a cause for violence. 

It’s pretty simple to understand. When you falsely portray your political opponents via media, the internet, educational institutions and so forth as mass murderers, you are putting targets on their backs. When you do it for years and years, you’ve radicalized a young generation. 

Health care CEOs are assassinated in broad daylight and then the killer is glamorized. 

Tesla dealerships were destroyed because Elon Musk got involved with politics. 

Supreme Court justices are threatened. 

Congressmen are gunned down. 

Jewish students are attacked on college campuses. 

Trump supporters are attacked for going to restaurants. 

In 2020, cities were razed to the ground by these same madmen while being praised for their righteous cause.  

They are not going away. And now they are claiming some of our youngest leaders and soon, one day, they will claim even more high-profile targets — if something is not done. Culturally. Spiritually. Societally.  

We are not at war. But we might be one day if we cannot get a handle on what is happening to young Americans who increasingly are being raised in a climate of acute social and political strife. We don’t simply disagree with one another anymore.  

Some young people cannot tell the difference between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler — because they are routinely taught they live in an occupied country. They must join a “resistance” that extremist groups like Antifa are able to appeal to. They become the partisans of the war they imagine but one day could come to threaten national security and federal authority. 

Discredited ideologies from more than a century ago that bear no resemblance to our way of life are viewed as viable alternatives to liberalism, capitalism and the Constitution. Increasing numbers of young people think communism or socialism might be a good idea here in America. 

We do not teach what is required to maintain a healthy democracy and the civil society.  

America’s cities have become hotbeds some of the most violent of these mass political movements. They appear to number in the thousands however disorganized. Occasionally we see them attack federal authorities and buildings, for example, during the recent Los Angeles, Calif. riots that preceded the National Guard being called in by President Trump to restore order. 

While the investigation into what radicalized this specific killer is ongoing, given the repeated attempts on President Donald Trump’s life in 2024, the routine threats that prominent political and social figures receive and now the blood spilt in Utah, politics in America has not been this dangerous since the 1960s.   

Open air political events, even local ones, the lifeblood of our electoral system, no longer appear to be safe. There are not enough deterrents. Not enough scruples. Morals. Principles against violence. Love of country. 

You cannot love this country if you do not love debate. Our ideas compete against one another and then we decide at the ballot box, not with bullets. We have a marketplace of ideas that is becoming mall of madness. 

This morning the President appeared on Fox and Friends and announced the capture of the killer and also that he was considering sending the National Guard to more cities including Memphis, Tenn., St. Louis, Mo. and Chicago, Ill. to bring down violent crime. 

It’s time to take a stand.  

There is the civil society, the one where we talk with one another, the one Charlie Kirk believed in, or there is that state of nature and being silenced that awaits us if order cannot be restored.  

If we cannot defend the public square, if our cities are allowed to become war zones, if our political liberty is threatened by a mob so that we cannot even speak up, then our government of the people will not long endure. We have a Constitution, a country, but we can lose it all if we allow it.  

Robert Romano is the Executive Director of Americans for Limited Government Foundation.   

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/09/charlie-kirks-assassin-was-a-politically-motivated-partisan-as-the-public-square-has-never-been-so-dangerous/  

NYC Mayoral Race Survey Reveals Hidden Pockets Of Trump Supporters And Major Concerns over Crime Even As Mamdani Leads  

By Manzanita Miller  

A comprehensive New York Times survey of likely New York City voters released Sept. 9 is revealing data that could have implications for the future of the city and other urban regions. While the survey was largely conducted to gauge voter support for the candidates in the mayoral race — pitting Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani against independent Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa — it also asked voters to indicate who they supported for president in 2024, and the results are significant.        

Overall New York City voters supported Kamala Harris by 40 points, 67 percent to 27 percent according to the survey. However, looking at the results by borough, President Donald Trump performed surprisingly well in diverse regions even in the far-left city.   

In Queens, which is around 77 percent non-white with a mix of Asian, Hispanic, and Latino voters, Trump won 35 percent of the vote according to the survey. In the Bronx, which is predominantly Black and Latino, the president earned 28 percent of the vote. In Brooklyn, which includes a combination of African American, Latino, Asian, and other ethnic groups, Trump won 26 percent of the vote.  

In other words, not only did President Trump perform at baseline in diverse areas, but he exceeded his citywide performance in diverse boroughs last November. While these results are self-reported votes, the findings are still notable.    

The findings are more significant when compared to how New York City voters voted in 2020. In 2020, Biden earned 76 percent of the vote to Trump’s 23 percent, indicating President Trump improved his citywide numbers by four points in 2024.   

Borough-level election results show President Trump’s largest increase in support came from the Bronx, where he jumped eleven points between 2020 and 2024. In 2020 President Trump earned 17 percent of the vote in the diverse Bronx, and that rose to 28 percent in 2024. President Trump also gained five points in Queens, going from 30 percent of the vote in 2020 to 35 percent in 2024, and he gained a single point in Brooklyn, going from 25 percent of the vote in 2020 to 26 percent in 2024.     

While voters appear on the verge of electing the self-described Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani, crime continues to be a significant concern to city residents and could push them further toward the right in future elections.  

The survey shows Mamdani securing 46 percent of the vote in a five-way race that includes Andrew Cuomo (24 percent), Curtis Sliwa (15 percent), Eric Adams (9 percent), and Jim Walden (>1%). However, crime is the number one concern across the city, with 27 percent of voters citing crime as their number one concern, followed by cost of living (26 percent), housing and rent prices (19 percent), and immigration (5 percent). Crime is of particular concern to Bronx voters (33 percent) and Queens voters (32 percent).   

Mamdani’s plan to address crime includes an intention to “reduce the jail population” at Riker’s, according to an interview Monday. What is more, his past relations with the police have been tense, with Mamdani calling for defunding the Police Department in the wake of the George Floyd riots. He also called the police, “racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety”, in a post on X after the Floyd riots.   

If crime is voters’ number one concern, the city may regret electing Mamdani. The same survey shows that voters support increasing police in New York, not reducing the number of officers patrolling the streets. Voters say 66 percent to 32 percent that they support growing the New York City police force by 5,000 additional police officers according to the survey.    

New York City may well elect Mamdani, but even in a far-left city, we are seeing voters prioritize reducing crime and witnessing a shift toward the right in diverse neighborhoods   throughout the city. New York City is not likely to turn red anytime soon, but the shift toward President Trump in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn and the prioritization of crime as a top concern hint at shifting priorities.  

Manzanita Miller is the senior political analyst at Americans for Limited Government Foundation.  

To view online: https://dailytorch.com/2025/09/nyc-mayoral-race-survey-reveals-hidden-pockets-of-trump-supporters-and-major-concerns-over-crime-even-as-mamdani-leads/