One side lionizes him. Another side vilifies him. It should not be hard for both sides to agree that Charlie Kirk was a divisive figure, which is not altogether bad at times because properly-presented division should trigger properly presented discussion.
—In an ideal world anyway.
n an ideal world anyway.Some speakers are provocative for the purposes of dividing people. Others speakers are provocative as a way to bring people together. Will the passage of time and the softening of partisan passions that time-borne perspective brings produce more productive understandings than these times now allow?
We present to you today a lengthy series of quotes from Charlie Kirk whose recent assassination is a national tragedy regardless of the spectrum with which we observe our political world. We have found some comments that we think apply to his side of the aisle as much as he applied them to the other side. We have found a few that almost sound a little liberal.
Put together from brainyquote.com and msn.com, these quotations, and a couple of others from Snopes, we think, gives us a peek at the character of the man. Some who read these entries will enthusiastically agree with everything he said. Some will enthusiastically disagree with everything he said.
Was he playing the game of divide and conquer? Was he trying to encourage the other side to cross over into unity?
In the emotion that comes with tragedy, acknowledging greatness or acknowledging something far less is easy. The sharpness of the differences is a reflection on him as well as a reflection of us.
Perhaps the healthiest thing to do with Charlie Kirk’s verbal legacy is to ask ourselves why we react to his words as we did when he spoke them—-and how we can get beyond those differences, if we have the courage to look within ourselves to do so.
Five years from now, ten years from now, when the emotional response to tragedy had passed, how do you suppose we as individuals as well as we as a nation will think about the things he said—if we remember them at all?
When you reach the end, you might rightfully ask, “Did he really say all these things?”
Factcheck.org put out a lengthy piece asking the same question and answering it. We suggest it will be helpful if you read the article regardless of which Kirk side you are.
Viral Claims About Charlie Kirk’s Words – FactCheck.org
There also are other fact checking sites on the internet you might want to look at.
At the end of this long list, we will present some compelling thoughts of former Vice President Mike Pence who put the focus on these days after the assassination more on where it should be.
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If you believe in something, you need to have the courage to fight for those ideas – not run away from them or try and silence them.
We have to tell our babies to stop crying.
As government imposes the will of a few upon the many, the many begin to resist. Ultimately, it becomes necessary for the government to use force to make the people conform.
When you deliberately distort and selectively present the truth, you lie.
I’m urging all my millennial peers and the young people coming up behind us to look for signs and symptoms of them being in a Democrat-induced delusion. Don’t confuse the dream state of the socialists with any sort of reality. If you spot any signs of this politically terminal affliction within yourself, please seek help.
One of the most horrifying and surprising evolutions we have witnessed among our widespread campus network is the rapid movement away from tolerating opposing ideas and respectful debate to the deployment of obscene bully tactics from the left.
The truth is that while those on the left – particularly the far left – claim to be tolerant and welcoming of diversity, in reality many are quite intolerant of anyone not embracing their radical views.
Many textbooks fail to present students with both sides of an issue. Students are being pushed toward an education that demonizes free enterprise while advocating top-down government, deficit spending and class warfare.
I started a college campus-based nonprofit in June 2012 called Turning Point U.S.A. to target millennials in college. Our mission was to create a powerful conservative grassroots activist network on campuses and identify, educate, train and organize students to promote the principles of freedom, free markets and limited government.
Political correctness is the deadliest of political weaponry.
Liberal-socialist women generalize about women as if they are some sort of monolithic voting block of disenfranchised, victimized citizens.
For anyone who can only handle about 12-minutes-per-day of anything news related before needing to retreat into isolation, allow me to recommend spending those 12 minutes listening to the opening monologue of ‘The Rush Limbaugh Show.’
The Democrats want a pathway to citizenship for the illegal immigrants so they can become Democratic voters in a few years – and some Democrats even argue that non-citizens ought to be able to vote in U.S. elections.
You can’t watch Fox News without seeing five or six segments a day about the nuttiness on college campuses.
Liberals like to say there aren’t any limitations on speech, and it’s true that they can say or do just about anything. But conservatives apparently can’t even stand still while wearing a MAGA hat without crossing a line.
Say what you will about President Trump’s tone, tactics or tweeting, but even his most strident critics admit he’s at his best when on the offensive.
Conservatives are branded bigots and we are falsely accused of hate speech when we express traditional values and ideas that have made America the greatest country on Earth.
This silent majority are the Americans who love God, their family, and our amazing country. They don’t want their morals, their job, or their lifestyle threatened by the government or any candidates.
Cultural Marxism that has permeated all of Europe and has been the driving force that has brought France – the nation of Liberty, Fraternity and Equality – to the brink.
President Trump identifies the hatred and intolerance expressed by his radical opponents and names it for what it is.
I believe we’re broken by sin upon birth.
If there’s one thing Democrats are good at, it’s killing American jobs.
The perverse gift of the Chinese coronavirus is that it has given Americans an up close and personal look at the horrors of big government – and, by extension, socialism.
When students have access to low-interest loans and government aid, colleges have no incentive to cut costs. Why should a college lower tuition if more students are able to pay with subsidized loans from the government?
If you take away what a person owns, you control what that person can do.
It is part of our human nature to want to be liked. It is part of our human nature to worry about what others think of us. It is an attribute of greatness and of American exceptionalism to not surrender to our nature, but to be guided by an inner calling to persevere and to prevail, no matter the personal cost.
Democrats have long been the party of voter fraud.
Nothing in socialist doctrine argues for the abuse of power, from Thomas More, to Karl Marx, to Chavez, to Ocasio-Cortez. Historically, however, it has been the case that socialist countries often end up violently suppressing their citizens.
How can it possibly be that so many Americans are rallying to support Ocasio-Cortez, when all they need to do is look at Venezuela to see where she is leading them?
We have been indoctrinated to see the world through a politically correct lens.
There are young conservatives out there, and there have been for decades.
Many migrants awaiting asylum hearings in the U.S. never show up for their court dates. And the longer they stay in the U.S., the more sympathy they draw in the media and from many compassionate Americans.
Too often, teachers and professors misrepresent conservative viewpoints, and intentionally muddle what it means to be a conservative.
Whenever there has been a debate on the national stage, nobody has had to go looking to find me. I’ve been there. Always making the argument for free markets, first principles, and limited government.
It is extremely difficult to stand up for principles when many of your friends are automatically liberal or just do not care.
Trump is the first president in a generation who is willing to take political risks to secure our border.
In addition to making sense and serving the needs of justice, rehabilitating prisoners and releasing them when they are ready can save taxpayers money.
Tiger Woods experienced perhaps the greatest fall from grace of any celebrity in American history.
Entrepreneurs take measured risks, not hopeless gambles.
America’s young people deserve more than a mediocre future – and we now have demonstrated proof that President Trump is building a path for our success.
The United States has been turned into a mindless true-false test, instead of the complex essay exam, it should be. You are either for open borders, or you are racist and anti-immigration. It just doesn’t work that way.
There is no question that automation is – and has been since the start of the Industrial Revolution – displacing workers and creating disruption within the economy and labor market.
Young people in college – many living away from their parents for the first time in their lives – are particularly vulnerable to the leftist propaganda campaign designed to turn them away from supporting President Trump and turning them away from believing in American exceptionalism.
In politics as in sports, the best defense is a good offense.
Since the end of WWII, France’s steady movement away from Western ideas of individual liberty and self-determination – and toward collectivist action and conformance – has created a people overly dependent on government, hobbled by crippling taxes and lacking in individual initiative.
We’ve been conditioned to see a video of white people in MAGA hats standing in front of a Native American and assume that the white people are racists.
For years, elites in both political parties have ignored the illegal immigration crisis growing on America’s southern border.
The left has viewed the coronavirus pandemic as a political ‘opportunity’ from the start.
I know many young conservatives all across the country that are isolated and ostracized due to their beliefs. They are portrayed as bigots, misogynists and ignorant just because they are conservative.
A healthy economy is a foundation for a healthy future.
Yes, America is a nation of immigrants – but the immigrants have to enter legally.
Yes, college tuition is a problem for many young Americans, but it is a problem exacerbated by government subsidies and an overwhelming demand to get a college degree, despite high dropout rates.
I have been advocating in favor of free markets and against socialism since I was a teenager.
The case for socialism is always made based on an ideal and a promise. The ideal is that humans can lovingly coexist in a sharing and peaceful way. The promise is that this time, unlike failed attempts elsewhere, socialism will be implemented properly, and no citizen will suffer as a result.
The real reason Democrats are pushing for universal mail-in balloting has nothing to do with the global pandemic which originated in China; they simply believe it will help them win elections.
We have to teach goodness to our infants.
We live in a welfare state society – one that is already bloated and overburdened. We cannot continue to absorb and support an endless stream of people who will inevitably need legal residents to subsidize their lives.
Conservatives by and large believe in the corrective power of the free market above all. If we don’t like how private companies are doing business, we should just start our own to compete, right?
Once we lose our border protection, the road to citizenship, voting and welfare benefits for a flood of new immigrants will be all but paved.
I founded Turning Point U.S.A. to take the fight for ideological diversity directly to a progressive stronghold: the nation’s leading colleges and universities.
We must also be real. We must be honest with the population. Having an armed citizenry comes with a price, and that is part of liberty… We need to be very clear that you’re not going to get gun deaths to zero. It will not happen. But I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment,
I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, new age term that does a lot of damage.
Black women do not have brain processing power to be taken seriously. You have to go steal a white person’s slot.
This is something that I hope will make Taylor Swift more conservative: Engage in reality more… Reject feminism. Submit to your husband, Taylor. You’re not in charge.
Gun control, like vaccines and masks, is focused on making people feel ‘safe’ by taking freedoms away from others. Don’t fall for it.
Now, I will say that for future retirees, people under the age of 45, we should absolutely raise the retirement age. I’m going to say something very provocative. I’m not a fan of retirement. I don’t think retirement is biblical. You say, ‘Charlie, I’m just gonna retire and I’m just gonna go golf.’ I think, what a waste of the gifts that God has given you.
I have a very, very radical view on this, but I can defend it, and I’ve thought about it. We made a huge mistake when we passed the Civil Rights Act in the mid-1960s.
MLK was awful. He’s not a good person. He said one good thing he actually didn’t believe.
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Former Vice President Mike Pence, who had watched some of the angry words spoken in the wake of Kirk’s death, suggested we develop or keep a proper perspective on what had happened and what we should do and be next:
—Regardless of whether we agree with what Charlie Kirk said, we must remember that he had a right to say what he said, just as critics have a right to express themselves. And all of us should oppose any efforts to end or limit that freedom.
A death might still the voice of one person but we cannot allow it to mute the voices of all of us.
I am an American Citizen who refuses to believe that all other rights in all other amendments are possible because of the Second Amendment.