Charlie Kirk Went Into the Lion’s Den of Woke to Defend Freedom of Speech

Trump and Vance Use the Murder to Muzzle Perceived Enemies

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ROUND UP ALL THE USUAL SUSPECTS: In our current Charlie Kirk–saturated moment, a few choice quotes pop to mind.

“Violence is American as cherry pie.”

This truism comes courtesy of H. Rap Brown back in 1967, then a civil rights organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee taking issue with the nonviolent approach espoused by Martin Luther King Jr.

H. Rap Brown is more right now than he thought he was then.

“A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” This could easily have been said by Vice President JD Vance and White House consigliere Stephen Miller as they publicly outlined their plans to crack down on the Ford Foundation and others in what they insist is a vast left-wing extremist conspiracy to foment political violence. In fact, this quote was written by Niccolo Machiavelli in his masterpiece of political cynicism, The Prince. I think it was published around 1530.

Clearly, it’s stood the test of time.

Given that we’re talking about Charlie Kirk, I thought I should give Kirk the last word. “Keep America free,” he said earlier this year when pushing back against limits on free speech. “You should be allowed to say outrageous things,” he insisted, dismissing the very idea of “hate speech.” Kirk then elaborated: “There’s ugly speech. There’s gross speech. There’s evil speech. And all of it’s protected by the First Amendment.”

And that’s when he delivered the punchline: “Keep America free.”

I am, no doubt, being highly selective in my choice of quotes. I have no idea if Kirk believed those words should apply to everyone — even perhaps late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel, recently given the boot from ABC for suggesting, however delicately, that Kirk’s death might be being pimped for political purposes.

“Trump and all his shameless sycophants will exploit Charlie Kirk’s murder to make the case that they need to revoke the tax-exempt status of every church-basement nonprofit that seeks to say no to Big Oil, to raise its voice for the poor, to call out for criminal justice reform, or speak up for immigrants.”

—Nick Welsh

But I like to think so.

Much of what Kirk said, I would put in the category of ugly and gross speech. But he was right: One of the great things about this country is freedom of speech.

Kirk’s genius was being able to say really hateful things and still come across like a likable guy. Charlie Kirk had game. Charlie Kirk was game. He made it a point to go into the lion’s den — college campuses — to take on the woke lions. He was a provocateur. He was in-your-face outrageous. The words “gross” and “ugly” come to mind. In America, you are allowed to be gross and ugly. At least on paper. And you don’t get shot for it. At least on paper.

Every year, Kirk would visit about 150 college campuses, setting up his “Prove Me Wrong” table and taking on all comers. I don’t know if he truly engaged anyone — or merely baited them. But to an exceptional degree, he parachuted into the Land of Woke, verbally sword-fighting any and all comers with his signature rebuttal line, “What about …?” ever at the ready.

The results speak for themselves: 850 campus clubs and 500,000 radio listeners. To the extent there is any cohesive, coherent, left-wing, progressive movement — and not merely the strategically convenient boogeyman conjured by right-wing flame-fanners and monarchists like JD Vance and Stephen Miller — we should pay attention.

Kirk talked to young dudes. Alienated young dudes. Pissed-off young dudes. Dismissed young dudes. Isolated and lonely young dudes. Increasingly nihilistic young dudes. Blow-shit-up young dudes. And he spoke to them where they lived. He did not talk down to them.

And he connected. More than 150 campuses a year. That’s an itinerary that would wear out most rock ‘n’ roll bands. Kamala Harris, by contrast, could not find the time in her busy campaign schedule to appear on air with radio shock jock Joe Rogan.

You can’t win the fight if you abdicate the field. We haven’t failed. We haven’t even tried.

Likewise, people on our side — and I use that all-encompassing collective pronoun advisably — are seriously uncomfortable talking to people of faith, unless — of course — they happen to be old Black ministers who walked across the Pettus Bridge in 1964.

Faith. Mystery. God. Grace. All that stuff may be certifiably wing-nut crazy. But to steal yet another line, “There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

It was Shakespeare who came up with that.

Let’s talk about Gen Z for one second. Young voters. Young non-voters. They can’t be taken for granted anymore as reliable liberal voters. And let’s look at Gen Z men. Fewer of them are going to college. Fewer are graduating from college. And even those who do don’t make the money they expected. They think about suicide way more than their female counterparts, who, by the way, are attending college and graduating in significantly higher numbers.

Gen Z is famous for having significantly less sex than preceding generations. And young men are having significantly less sex than young women. In fact, Gen Zers are so woebegone, they’re even masturbating less than previous generations. They’re marrying later. They’re having fewer babies. They’re buying fewer houses. They are drawn to political leaders who promise to tear things down.

Gen Z is a generation for which the American Dream was never even a credible illusion.

But here’s the most striking wrinkle of all: Gen Z men are going to church. In fact, they’re going to church in significantly greater numbers than Gen Z women. In fact, this is the very first time in recorded history in which males of the species go to church more than their female counterparts.

It was to this generation that Utah Governor Spencer Cox was speaking when he said, “You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option.”

Charlie Kirk knew who to talk to. He knew how to talk to them. If you want to dismiss him as yet another oleaginous hatemonger, be my guest. The quotes are certainly out there to make that case. It might even make you feel better to do so. In the moment.

But you’re missing the point.

In the days ahead, Trump and all his shameless sycophants will exploit Charlie Kirk’s murder to make the case that they need to revoke the tax-exempt status of every church-basement nonprofit that seeks to say no to Big Oil, to raise its voice for the poor, to call out for criminal justice reform, or speak up for immigrants.

JD Vance — draping himself in the sanctified mantle of Charlie Kirk and speaking to the multitudes who tune in to Kirk’s radio show — all but announced this very game plan. He mentioned the Ford Foundation.

The Ford Foundation?

I make no pretense of knowing what “the truth” is, but as a reporter, I am pretty clear when it comes actual facts. Yes, they change over time and are imperfect snapshots of reality. But when it comes to political violence in the United States — and who is doing what to whom — there have been a multitude of studies.

“Violence is American as cherry pie.”

—H. Rap Brown

While the numbers may vary based on the length of time studied, the overwhelming consensus is that — yes, there is — and has been — left-wing violence in the United States. But when it comes to the number of attacks and the number of dead bodies, those numbers pale in comparison to right-wing political violence. After studying this in great detail, the Justice Department has arrived at the same conclusion.

But just as Vance and Miller were winding up their “round-’em-up-and-shut-’em-down” rhetoric last week, one of the most recent department studies highlighting the striking asymmetry between left- and right-wing violence was mysteriously taken down from the Justice Department’s website.

The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, concluded that between 2020 and 2025, there had been 81 political killings on American soil. “Right-wing terrorists account for over half those murders,” the report concluded. “Islamists for 21 percent, left wingers for 22 percent.” The report was re-released in the wake of Kirk’s murder.

“The big fear from politically motivated terrorism is that the pursuit of justice will overreach, result in new laws and policies that overreact to the small threat and end up killing far more people while diminishing all our freedoms,” the report said. “The government can and should vigorously pursue justice for Kirk and all others murdered by politically motivated terrorists. But it can do so without new political witch hunts, expanded government powers, and a revived war on terrorism.”

At the risk of sounding vaguely religious, “Amen.”

To get back to H. Rap Brown and that cherry pie, he was obviously way more correct than even he knew. We are a violent people. We beat our kids; we beat our spouses; we shoot up schools. We kill ourselves. This week, three Pennsylvania cops were just shot dead — and two more wounded — when responding to a domestic violence call. We will all feel bad for a day and then quickly forget. H. Rap Brown, by the way, is in jail right now for having killed two cops.

To be honest, I love cherry pie. Just not right now. To steal a line from Patrick Henry, “Give me rhubarb pie, or give me death.”

You can leave off the second part.