Charlie Kirk is dead. I did not have that on my 2025 bingo card.
When the notification popped up on my phone that he had been shot, I was surprised. Hearing he had died made my stomach drop—not because I’m a fan. But learning that someone was killed in a targeted attack was alarming. As alarming as when I heard about the Democrats in Minnesota being killed by a nutjob with a hit list.
Alarmed because… is this where we are now? Is this what counts for political discourse? Discourse that I don’t remember signing up for.
I also didn’t sign up to have a sitting president, within moments of an assassination, blame his opponents for the death. Or for social media trolls, talking heads, and administration officials to jump on the bandwagon and blame anyone who doesn’t subscribe to similar political viewpoints. Or for people to try and turn someone so divisive into a martyr:
We need a National Day of Remembrance.
Everyone—public and private—should be flying their flags at half-staff.
Charlie Kirk deserves a statue in the Capitol building—because MLK has one.
Now we’re hearing administration officials talk about going after left-wing organizations that “promote extremism.” I’m not sure who that would be, but I’m guessing we’ll learn quickly who they have in mind. Laura Loomer even brought up banning the trans pride flag.
Yet I don’t know why I’m surprised, because this is where we are as a country. We’re working with a political system that is broken. A system where the shrillest opinions—on both sides of any argument—bubble up to the top. A system where sound public policy is less important than social media likes and followers. Sure, moderates exist, but we don’t hear from them often because louder voices prevail, or because they’re threatened by people within their own party.
Once upon a time, people worked across the political spectrum to reach a compromise on policy. Not every issue was absolute. More was thought than said out loud. If something dumb was said, we didn’t hear about it repeatedly for weeks, and it wasn’t amplified around the globe. Being from Texas, I always assumed it was one of our U.S. congressmen. We could roll our eyes and go about our day, hoping no one else heard, and knowing the news would fade away.
Or maybe you think I just want to remember differently. Because I do remember Reagan ignoring AIDS and sucking up to Jerry Falwell; same-sex marriage being demonized by Bush; and Trump not wanting anyone from “shithole” countries. I also remember how upset Mitch McConnell was with a Black man in the White House.
But I’d like to think that somewhere underneath all the noise, the hatred, and the rhetoric, we are better people. That the country as a whole hasn’t gone this far off the rails. I’ve enjoyed seeing people across social media push back, willingly pointing out Kirk’s past statements about marginalized communities and DEI. Pointing out that while he might have been politically savvy, neither his success nor his death changed the fact that he was misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and racist.
Except, based on current events, pushing back isn’t likely to fix our current situation. We’re already seeing vitriol ramp up, with the potential to do real harm to a lot of people. And we have no idea where that will end.
But we need to fix it somehow. And before we have more martyrs—on either side.
