When Charlie Kirk was tragically shot and killed at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Sept. 10, the nation was rightfully shocked and saddened. The killing sparked national concern because it is part of the growing political violence targeting both sides of the political stage and is antithetical to the country’s core values of free speech and political progress through discussion and debate — not violence.

In the week since Kirk’s death, almost all political leaders of both major parties have condemned the shooting and had initially praised Kirk’s mission through his right-wing organization Turning Point USA.

Among comments worth noting are these two: “The best way to honor Charlie’s memory,” said California Gov. Gavin Newson, “is to continue his work: engage with each other, across ideology, through spirited discourse.” And this from the editors of Politico’s Playbook: Kirk’s approach, they wrote, “was to persuade, to use charm and charisma and provocation and the power of argument to convince people of the righteousness of his cause.”

Those were gracious ways to express his mission and life’s work. 

But Kirk was a controversial figure not because he sought unity and grace among Americans, but because he was deliberately polarizing in a time when social media amplifies harsh, partisan voices.

As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote last Saturday, Kirk’s vision for America wasn’t one “of peace and pluralism, but white nationalism and the denigration of Americans deemed unworthy of and unfit for equal citizenship…. He embraced the rhetoric of white pride and warned of ‘a great replacement’ of white rural Americans.”

Kirk was also what Trump would call “nasty” in describing any of his opponents, Black Americans in particular. Bouie recited several of those comments, including when Kirk told listeners of his podcast that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson “is what your country looks like on critical race theory,” that former Vice President Kamala Harris was “the jive speaking spokesperson of equity,” and that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. “was awful.” 

Bouie also cited a 2023 event in which Kirk was quoted as saying, “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 of the 1960s.” 

And it’s no surprise that his beliefs were firmly against allowing any tolerance for transgender people in America and denounced LGBT identities as a “social contagion.”

What made Kirk a national figure on the right, in this era of extreme partisanship, is that he embraced, as he himself said, “radical” speech and ideas. He played hardball with his use of intimidation and harassment and was also hypocritical. Like many MAGA supporters he called for free speech when it benefitted conservative ideas but embraced, as Bouie wrote, “authoritarian politics and the repression of opponents” when their speech promoted liberal, or even main-stream, ideas. 

What American, for instance, would agree with a call for law enforcement to “‘investigate first, define the crimes later.’” Yet that’s what Kirk called for in an editorial, as Bouie wrote, “demanding the legal intimidation of anyone associated with the political left.” And, Kirk continued, “for even the most minor of offenses, the rule should be: no charity, no goodwill, no mercy.”

None of Kirk’s caustic views, however, drew calls to shut him down from voices on the left. Kirk had helped start Turning Point USA in 2012 and has focused on bringing a more conservative ideology to America’s educational system for the past dozen years. While always provocative, with verbal assaults against the liberal perspective, such tolerance had been expected.

Not so today. A chorus of political repression from the rightwing of the Republican Party, including the president, is using Kirk’s death to censor liberal views. 

Importantly, they’re using misinformation to press their case. First, that Kirk’s death has any connection to organized liberal groups, including the Democratic Party. Second, that his death was part of a vast organized plan against MAGA and leaders of the political right. Third, that funders of the political left, such as George Soros or any other specific funder, had any connection with activities that led to Kirk’s killing. 

It’s all a cover for outright political repression of the opposing political party — and that should worry all Americans. Trump has made no bones about ruling as a dictator and he’s made alarming strides these past nine months to do just that. Trump is now calling for his party, and levers of government, to harass those expressing legitimate views. 

If Americans want to live in a democracy, that’s a step too far for all of us — Republicans, Independents and Democrats. The appropriate response is to support free speech at every level and push back against those in power who would restrict criticism. That’s the American way.

Angelo Lynn