The left is really in trouble now.
“Charlie knew things were not right with America — and especially with young people — and they needed a new direction,” Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, told an at-capacity crowd during a massive memorial service for the fallen Mr. Kirk three weeks ago.
“Charlie passionately wanted to reach and save the lost boys of the West: the young men who feel like they have no direction, no purpose, no faith, and no reason to live,” said Ms. Kirk. “The men wasting their lives on distractions, and the men consumed with resentment, anger, and hate.”
“Charlie wanted to help them,” Erika Kirk stated. “He wanted them to have a home with Turning Point USA. And when he went onto campus, he was looking to show them a better path and a better life that was right there for the taking, if you wanted to see it.”
“My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men — just like the one who took his life,” she said. “That young man — on the cross, our Savior said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. That man. That young man.”
“I forgive him,” declared the recently bereaved widow. “I forgive him because it was what Christ did, and it is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer, we know from the Gospel, is love. And always love. Love for our enemies, and love for those who persecute us.”
“The world needs Turning Point USA,” she told the crowd. “It needs a group that will point young people away from the path of misery and sin. It needs something that will lead people away from hell — in this world and in the next. It needs young people pointed in the direction of truth and beauty. And so I promise you today: every part of our work will become greater.”
“I am tremendously honored to be the new CEO of Turning Point USA,” Erika Kirk said. “I do not take that lightly. Charlie and I were united in purpose. His passion was my passion. And now his mission is my mission.”
“Everything that Turning Point USA built through Charlie’s vision and hard work — we will make ten times greater,” promised Mrs. Kirk. “Through the power of his memory, chapters will grow, thousands of new ones will be created. Faith will add thousands of new pastors and congregations. And yes, campus events will continue.”
And with that, the mantle dropped by the fallen Charlie Kirk was picked up by someone else. Though an assassin’s bullet claimed his life, Charlie Kirk’s work will continue — Apace.
And if the assassin hoped to silence Charlie Kirk forever, well.
He just achieved the exact opposite.
“Charlie Kirk’s legacy of grace triumphs over hate: His bravery is what America needs most,” agreed the New York Post’s Miranda Devine.
“Beautiful, gracious, courageous, and good Erika Kirk gave the most powerful, bravest speech we will ever witness at the memorial service for her husband in a packed stadium in Glendale, Ariz,” Devine reported. “We see clearly why Charlie Kirk chose her to be his wife.”
“Far from silencing Kirk, 31, with a bullet to the neck, the horribly public assassination turbo-charged his vast legacy of words and videos and the grassroots conservative youth movement he built from scratch to change even more hearts and minds across America and the world,” Miranda Devine marveled. “Since his death, views of his videos are in the billions and his social media accounts have added 10 million new followers.”
“What Would Charlie Do?” wondered Susan Crabtree for Real Clear Politics, sketching out “The Path Forward After Darkness.”
“‘The gun was pointed at him, but the bullet was aimed at all of us,’ Trump told a packed State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, blasting what he called the ‘radical left’ for the violence across the country,” Crabtree relayed. “Trump, also in trademark style, couldn’t resist the opportunity to use the platform to score political points. The president teased an autism announcement, slammed Joe Biden’s mental acuity, and boasted about his crack down on crime in D.C., noting that Kirk wholeheartedly backed his focus on cleaning up Chicago, the slain conservative’s hometown.”
“Unlike Kirk, Trump said he didn’t wish his enemies well, although he suggested Erika Kirk might be able to help him overcome his vindictiveness,” Crabtree noted. “‘That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponent[s], and I don’t want the best for them,’ he said. Just a moment earlier, Trump noted that ‘Charlie’s killer’ has been charged with capital murder and faces the death penalty.”
“God willing, he will receive the full and ultimate punishment for his horrific crime,” Trump said during his eulogy. “You can’t let that happen. Can’t let it happen to a country.”
“The Department of Justice is also investigating networks of radical left maniacs who fund, organize, fuel and perpetrate political violence, and we think we know who many of them are,” Trump promised. “But law enforcement can only be the beginning of our response to Charlie’s murder.”
“The comments, though jarring amid the uplifting tributes, were classic Trump, and the largely MAGA crowd appeared to embrace the president’s fierce honesty, often applauding his harshest lines,” noted Susan Crabtree.
Of course, progressive media outlets like the Washington Post prefer Erika Kirk’s example of tears and forgiveness to Trump’s example of calling for justice and a reckoning.
“You thought you could kill Charlie Kirk,” thundered White House deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. “You have made him immortal. Now millions will carry on his legacy. You cannot defeat us, you cannot slow us, you cannot stop us, you cannot deter us. We will carry Charlie and Erika in our hearts every single day and fight that much harder because of what you did to us. You have no idea the dragon you have awakened.”
The dragon, it appears, is Erika Kirk. The young, beautiful, and bereaved widow is picking up the mantle dropped by her late husband.
Soon, the progressive left may recall fondly the days when Charlie Kirk was their biggest headache.
Now, the left is facing a thousand Charlie Kirks.
With Erika Kirk to lead them.
(Contributing writer, Brook Bell)