We knew this was going to cause an uproar, not least because it was a sensible and fair take on Charlie Kirk’s legacy. The New York Times’ Ezra Klein penned a nice column about the Turning Point USA founder, saying he practiced politics the right way. It wasn’t about his views. That’s irrelevant. Kirk was willing to engage in the deepest of liberal bastions, unafraid, and committed to his belief that when we stop talking, bad things happen. He was tragically assassinated on September 10, doing just that at Utah Valley University in Orem.
The discourse on the Online Left at the moment pic.twitter.com/VrU3QtLQ76
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 17, 2025
Klein wrote about how Kirk refused to cede academia to the Left, finally breaking down that blue wall, reaching young voters, especially men, who have swung 44 points to Trump and the Republicans since the 2016 election. When Klein penned his “Charlie Kirk Was Practicing Politics the Right Way,” I’m sure he knew the Left would freak out, and they did. He’s responded, and doesn’t feel any different about his words about the late conservative activist, even as unhinged leftists scream in the background:
I spent some time thinking about that over the weekend. I also just spent time thinking and trying to work through how I have been feeling.
My reaction to this, honestly, is that it is too little to just say we oppose political violence. In ways that surprise me, given what I thought of Kirk’s project, I was and am grieving for Kirk himself. Not because I knew him — I didn’t. Not because he was a saint — he wasn’t. Not because I agreed with him — no, most of what he poured himself into trying to achieve, I pour myself into trying to prevent.
But I find myself grieving for him because I recognize some commonality with him. He was murdered for participating in our politics. Somewhere beyond how much divided us, there was something that bonded us, too. Some effort to change this country in ways that we think are good.
Yet, where I would disagree with Klein is when he mentions other acts of political violence, like the assault on Paul Pelosi and the assassination of Melissa Hortman, a state representative, in Minnesota. Those are entirely different circumstances. A deranged drug addict attacked Mr. Pelosi. Hortman was also killed by a deranged psychopath, who had worked on various state government boards. Kirk was a national figure, cut down by a random person who was a radical leftist. These instances that Democrats think are similar are not the same.
Oh, and it’s peculiar that some Democrats trying to do the ‘both sides’ stuff refuse to cite the time the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion was the center of an arson attack. Why? It was committed by a pro-Hamas leftist.
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