Opinion: Charlie Kirk, an American Statesman

By John F. Di Leo, Opinion Contributor

On September 10, Arlington Heights, Illinois native Charlie Kirk was assassinated while giving a speech at a university in Utah.

Though he never held political office, he was what our Founding Fathers would have identified as a statesman: a man devoted to philosophy and history, active in politics, but not consumed by acquiring public office for himself. Rather, his calling was to support, and even revive, the American culture championed by the original American vision. Charlie Kirk believed in the Judeo-Christian tradition, in Western Civilization, in the philosophy of limited government that made the United States the City on the Hill, the role model republic for the modern world.

And he became a star in our culture, by carrying that message to millions – by writing four books by the age of 30, by starting several organizations, the most important being Turning Point USA. How? By thoughtfully engaging with his audiences, one at a time, cordially, seriously, respectfully.

And for that – yes, for exactly that – he was gunned down, in public, right in front of an audience that included his own young daughter.

We don’t cry for him, personally, because we know that if anyone would be welcomed at the Pearly Gates without needing to stand in line, it’s Charlie Kirk.

But we mourn for his wife and children, for his friends and colleagues, and for a nation whose current second chance for revival is owed in large part to this very special young man’s dedication and talent, these last dozen years.

There have been student organizations before – on both the right and the left – but no other has been as successful as Turning Point USA. He is irreplaceable.

And of course, that’s why he was the Left’s target.

One assassin is directly responsible. We hope the killer will be found, prosecuted, and properly punished for this evil crime.

But we must not make the mistake of thinking this killer was just one extremist, one nut, one lone wolf, as the Left, once he’s found, will definitely insist.

One only needs to look at the headlines that filled the Internet as soon as it happened. “Right-wing activist shot in Utah,” they read. “Charlie Kirk, right-wing speaker killed.” “Right-wing influencer dies.”

When was the last time the same publications referred to any Democrat activist as left-wing? Do they put “left-wing activist” or “left-wing speaker” before the name, when covering news stories about Bernie Sanders or George Soros, or Hakeem Jeffries or Barack Obama? These are the leaders of American Marxism; they are the radical practitioners of most of the tactics used by Lenin and Stalin, Guevara and Castro, Rohm and Goebbels. If anyone deserves a scary-sounding adjective, it’s them.

You can’t get more left-wing than this cadre of violent statists – but the press just calls them “liberal” or “progressive” instead of identifying them as the “left-wing extremists” that they most certainly are.

The left-wing radicals of the US Senate and House, not to mention their fellow travelers in Hollywood and Manhattan, have increasingly encouraged their obedient followers to shout down conservatives who make speeches, to chase conservatives out of restaurants when they take their families to dinner, to chant outside conservatives’ homes when their families are trying to sleep, to break up conservative rallies and deny them the free speech that America was born to cherish.

And this is what the modern American Left does, day in and day out, while the Right gives reasonable speeches, engages in cordial debate, and writes respectful articles in the newspaper and on the web.

Is it any wonder that some in the rank and file of the Left take it upon themselves to engage in violent acts against whoever their leaders have most recently demonized?

Whether it’s to stab a defenseless blonde girl to death in a light rail car in Charlotte, or to assault rabbis and Hebrew school students walking in New York, or to shoot up a congressional baseball game in Washington DC, or to beat an innocent pedestrian couple half to death in Cincinnati, or to assassinate a keynote speaker at a student assembly – the Left just tells their foot soldiers who to hate, and some of those foot soldiers are sure to act.

The press calls today’s conservatives “right-wing,” but in history class, their side uses the very same term when describing the Nazis and Fascists of the 1930s and 40s.

The modern Left is in full agreement with those same Nazis and Fascists on 95% or more of the issues, while today’s conservatives are diametrically opposed to them on absolutely everything, but that truth doesn’t stop them.

The press knows this. The teachers and professors know this. Their politicians know this. Maybe the actors don’t.

But that doesn’t matter to them. What matters is that this tactic works, and they will do what works. Use the same term for conservatives that they use for the Nazis, and then sit back, and let that slander do its work. This is the way of the modern Democrat.

What can you do, when one side is honorable, and the other side is not? When one side champions freedom, and the other side is all about power?

All we can do is what the late Charlie Kirk taught us to do: teach, inspire, define, clarify.

In Charlie Kirk’s absence, we must try to take his place and keep driving forward – with the blessing of Divine Providence – because the restoration of the American Way is too important a cause to surrender.

We are all Charlie Kirk now.

Copyright 2025 John F Di Leo