For years now, it has seemed obvious that when Charlie Kirk was gone, he would be remembered alongside great conservative icons such as William F. Buckley, Rush Limbaugh, Paul Harvey, and Andrew Breitbart. What seemed unthinkable is that a horrific tragedy and heinous act of political violence would take him away from us so soon.
When an assassin’s bullet fatally struck Kirk during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, he had already accomplished more in 31 years of life than most of us could hope to accomplish in many lifetimes.
At 18, he founded Turning Point USA, which has now become one of the most important cultural institutions on the right. As Ben Shapiro recalls upon meeting Kirk shortly after he started Turning Point, “Charlie was eager, and he was aggressive, and he was whip-smart. His energy was almost exhausting. When he walked away, I turned to my friend Jeremy Boreing and said, ‘That kid is going to be the head of the Republican National Committee one day.’ I was wrong. Charlie became far more important than that.”
Wrong indeed. It is difficult to overstate how much Kirk has contributed to the conservative movement, particularly for young people. Like Buckley’s Young Americans for Freedom organization a generation ago, Turning Point and Kirk’s fearless activism became an ideological light in the darkness for conservative high school and college students.
I know this from experience. I was a college freshman in the fall of 2016 just as the presidential race was really heating up. At 18 years old from the right-leaning but relatively apolitical suburbs of Cincinnati, I was suddenly dropped into a blender of left-wing jargon and Hillary Clinton propaganda. It became very evident very quickly that conservative beliefs – and most especially support for Donald Trump – must either be abandoned or at the very least kept quiet.
But then I started seeing clips of Kirk going viral on social media. Here was this guy who was barely older than me facing down entire auditoriums full of liberals and expertly defending his conservative beliefs. If he could do that, was it really so difficult for me to speak out in class or on campus about my own conservative values – and my support for Trump?
Four years later, I was a staffer in the White House on election night, and Charlie Kirk was there. I was busy running papers around, but I stopped for a minute to shake his hand and thank him for all the hard work he had done. He returned the thanks and was gracious and kind.
That was the only interaction I ever had with him, and he likely wouldn’t have given it a second thought. But in that moment, I wondered if I would’ve been there had it not been for his voice helping inspire in me the courage to fight for what I believed in. How many others were just like me – who had been spurred to action by his willingness to go into the lion’s den of leftism and tell young conservatives to not be afraid?
Kirk was perhaps more influential than any other single figure in making conservatism relevant and cool again after years in which being a Republican was associated with being old, stuffy, and out of touch. (Now, ironically, it is Democrats who have that stigma.) At just 22, Kirk was addressing the Republican National Convention. It is no coincidence that his rise to prominence has directly coincided with Republicans’ success at winning over ever-larger percentages of young voters.
Even beyond reaching out to young people, Kirk became an indispensable ally to others in the conservative movement – including AMAC. He understood that winning victories requires clarity of purpose and common cause from young and old, rich and poor, black, white, and everyone in between.
Even for those who disagreed with Kirk politically, there is no denying that he represented the very best of the long tradition of political discourse and reasoned debate that makes the United States so special in the history of the world. As Kirk was apt to say, when the talking stops, the violence starts.
And so talk he did – to students, professors, activists, anyone who was willing to step up to a microphone or sit down across from him. He did not launch personal attacks or look to embarrass anyone. His activism was so powerful because he allowed his opponents to present their views and then explained why he believed they were wrong.
That may sound simple, but it’s an example of civic virtue that is all too lacking in America today. While Kirk looked to the future and strived to build a better world for his children and grandchildren to inherit, he was in many ways a throwback to a more idealistic time – a neo-Enlightenment figure who passionately believed that facts, logic, and reason could still win the day if only given the chance.
It was this unbridled optimism which made Kirk such a captivating figure. Even in the darkest moments, Kirk professed a faith in the better angels of Mankind to win the day. Here was an ideological crusader who would fight no matter how long the odds. Here was a conservative champion who believed that this country’s best days are ahead of it, not behind it. He was one of the singular figures leading an undeniable conservative cultural renaissance that was gaining momentum. That is what makes his loss so devastating beyond just the personal loss of a great patriot and a great man.
It would be remiss in any memorial of Kirk to not take a moment to mention his strong Christian faith, which he spoke about often. As Michael Knowles of The Daily Wire put it, “Charlie loved his Savior. The zeal with which he debated politics paled in comparison to the excitement with which he discussed religion.” More than even many on the right, Kirk understood that America can only thrive when we embrace our foundational identity as a Christian nation, and he helped bring that debate back into the mainstream.
Most tragically of all, Kirk leaves behind a wife and two children who will now grow up without their father. We should all pray for them especially during this unimaginably difficult time – and we should commit ourselves to ensuring that his children grow up in the better country that Kirk fought for every day.
In the days and weeks ahead, there will be plenty to say about the disgusting reaction of some on the left and in the corporate press to Kirk’s death, as well as what it portends for political discourse in our country. The anger, pain, and grief that so many feel won’t be easy to heal.
But in this moment, it is perhaps best to reflect on all the good that Kirk did in this world, and to let that example be our guiding light.
Shane Harris is the Editor in Chief of AMAC Newsline. You can follow him on X @shaneharris513.
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