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RandySF

(77,125 posts)
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 04:18 AM 23 hrs ago

No, Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way

Tragedy is a powerful shaper of narratives. In the aftermath of the horrific assassination of MAGA champion Charlie Kirk, a husband and father of two, it was natural that his allies, including President Trump, lionized him as a patriot, free-speech advocate, and activist. And political opponents somberly denounced the terrible killing, as they should, with some hailing Kirk’s devotion to public debate. There’s a tendency in such a moment to look for the best in people or, at least, to not dwell on the negatives. That can be a good thing. Yet as Kirk is quickly canonized by Trump and his movement—on Thursday Trump announced he would bestow upon Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom—a full depiction of his impact on American politics is largely being sidestepped.

In promoting a story on the murder of Kirk—headlined “Charlie Kirk killing deepens America’s violent spiral”—Axios described him as a “fierce champion of the right to free expression” whose “voice was silenced by an assassin’s bullet.” New York Times opinion columnist Ezra Klein, wrote, “You can dislike much of what Kirk believed and the following statement is still true: Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him. He was one of the era’s most effective practitioners of persuasion.” Klein added that he “envied” the political movement Kirk built and praised “his moxie and fearlessness.”

Here’s the problem: Kirk built that movement with falsehoods. And his advocacy was laced with racist and bigoted statements. Recognizing this does not diminish the awfulness of this act of violence. Nor does it lessen our outrage or diminish our sympathy for his family, friends, and colleagues. Yet if this is an appropriate moment to assess Kirk and issue bold statements about his participation in America’s political life, there ought to be room for a true discussion.

Kirk, a right-wing provocateur who founded and led Turning Point USA, an organization of young conservatives, was a promoter of Trump’s destructive and baseless conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Two days before the January 6 riot, Kirk boasted in a tweet that Students for Trump and Turning Point Action were “Sending 80+ buses full of patriots to DC to fight for this president.”



https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/09/charlie-kirk-legacy-ezra-klein-2020-election-trump-turning-point/

15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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No, Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way (Original Post) RandySF 23 hrs ago OP
Thanks for posting SocialDemocrat61 23 hrs ago #1
I have noticed the NYT has mostly disabled the comments about Kirk articles fujiyamasan 23 hrs ago #2
Traitor to the USA inspires Traitors NOT Cha 23 hrs ago #3
Kirk's J_William_Ryan 23 hrs ago #4
He was pracicing politics the FAR right way DFW 22 hrs ago #5
Even further, he was practicing politics the Nazi way. harumph 19 hrs ago #13
He was a fierce champion of HIS OWN right to free expression. Heidi 21 hrs ago #6
and selective editing underpants 21 hrs ago #7
He probably cheated at golf, too. (nt) Heidi 20 hrs ago #11
In summary underpants 21 hrs ago #8
But here's the question I have about all this... SKKY 20 hrs ago #9
The man was a provocateur and charlatan cachukis 20 hrs ago #10
Ezra Klein is wrong more often than not. Passages 20 hrs ago #12
Evidently when you have the integrity to speak the plain truth like Dowd, you get canned. harumph 19 hrs ago #14
He was promoting bad things, but I understand the argument EdmondDantes_ 19 hrs ago #15

fujiyamasan

(653 posts)
2. I have noticed the NYT has mostly disabled the comments about Kirk articles
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 04:41 AM
23 hrs ago

They’re milking this for all they can. It’s top of all headlines.

I think the readers mostly know that all this adulation and fawning over a dead white supremecist fascist like Kirk is absurd. Douthat is also insufferable. Worse than Klein.

There’s no way I would pay for access to that rag. Not sure why anyone does at this point.

Cha

(314,213 posts)
3. Traitor to the USA inspires Traitors NOT
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 04:48 AM
23 hrs ago

Patriots.

They've abandoned the US Flag for the Confederate, Russian and Traitor Flags.

AXIOS is Full of Gaslit Shit.. .. Fascist Wing Bullshit.

TY for this...

J_William_Ryan

(2,986 posts)
4. Kirk's
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 04:57 AM
23 hrs ago

lawless killing shouldn’t be used to conceal or whitewash the fact that he was a promoter of racism, bigotry, and hate; a conservative ideologue who was responsible for spreading all manner of rightwing disinformation, conspiracy theories, and lies contributing to current political division and acrimony.

DFW

(58,862 posts)
5. He was pracicing politics the FAR right way
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 05:36 AM
22 hrs ago

And he reaped the ultimate reward for his efforts.

harumph

(2,981 posts)
13. Even further, he was practicing politics the Nazi way.
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 08:14 AM
19 hrs ago

Not hyperbole. Point by point there is little to no distance between the positions he promoted and what the Nazis espoused.
I have no doubt he would have felt very much at home in the party. Do I think it's OK that he was shot? No. Do I think
our national discourse will suffer from his absence? No. Just another self aggrandizing malignant carnival barker. I hope his story soon becomes yesterday's news.

Heidi

(58,689 posts)
6. He was a fierce champion of HIS OWN right to free expression.
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 06:10 AM
21 hrs ago

Last edited Fri Sep 12, 2025, 08:54 AM - Edit history (1)

Not for *the* right to free expression.

underpants

(192,816 posts)
7. and selective editing
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 06:59 AM
21 hrs ago

He spliced his appearances together to make it look like he “owned the Libs”.

SKKY

(12,646 posts)
9. But here's the question I have about all this...
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 07:08 AM
20 hrs ago

...How long before Erika Kirk and Corey Lewandowski are a couple?

cachukis

(3,428 posts)
10. The man was a provocateur and charlatan
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 07:22 AM
20 hrs ago

mimicking the ways of rush limbaugh and using the same audience. He full well knew what he was doing.
Sure he was in the public eye, but controlled the narrative.
It is normal to rue his violent death, but it is also normal to find fault with what he stood for.

Passages

(3,566 posts)
12. Ezra Klein is wrong more often than not.
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 07:59 AM
20 hrs ago

Here he is a coward, and unable to state the reality that violence begets violence....through rhetoric and in Kirk's case, a deliberate practice in demagoguery.

Shame on Ezra.

harumph

(2,981 posts)
14. Evidently when you have the integrity to speak the plain truth like Dowd, you get canned.
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 08:20 AM
19 hrs ago

Ezra has jettisoned his credibility. Our lefty version
of David Brooks. Spilling much ink, yet either saying nothing of value, or subtly supporting
the received wisdom handed down by our billionaire zoo keepers.

EdmondDantes_

(889 posts)
15. He was promoting bad things, but I understand the argument
Fri Sep 12, 2025, 08:21 AM
19 hrs ago

We need people more involved politically, socially. I don't think we get to say it's only the right way if someone agrees with us. Part of what Trump and his counterparts in other countries are appealing to are the disaffected. Bringing them in is necessary. There's plenty of research showing a correlation between things like knowing gay people or minorities and not hating them. If we leave the disaffected outside to only stew in their anger, it just keeps boiling.

I get the anger towards Kirk because he was a hateful bigot, but I still feel banning that is a mistake. The ACLU defends nazis being allowed to march and all sort of theory.

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