“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)
It is sometimes very challenging to reconcile the heart of a warrior with the heart of a Christian, and I find myself at one of those junctures this week.
A few years ago, when my son commissioned as a Marine Infantry Officer, I reminded him that a warrior without a heart is just a mercenary. Only some of us are called to be warriors, and if you are not among them, that is OK. But none of us are called to be mercenaries.
This past week, I faced great personal loss with the death of a very dear family member, compounded by concern for two close friends who just told me they are facing significant health issues — all just days before the murder of Charlie Kirk. Some seasons are tough.
Our team has covered Charlie’s murder, the justice we all seek, and the exceptional remarks by Charlie’s widow, Erika.
Seeking to fully understand Charlie’s murder, there are four things I know about his confessed assassin.
First, Tyler Robinson was a deranged sociopathic narcissist, and like all of those who commit or attempt to commit high-profile murders, he was mentally ill. Second, he was inspired by the now-ubiquitous hate rhetoric being propagated by Democrat Party leaders and their ilk over the last five years. Third, he was radicalized by the so-called “antifa movement” of self-styled “anti-fascist” fascists. And fourth, as is the case with an increasing number of high-profile murderers, he is linked to gender-confusion pathology issues.
Let me start with what I believe was the most important causal factor — the chronic infusion of leftist hate rhetoric.
Democrats have become consummate hate hustlers and have spent years fomenting the division upon which their political fortunes depend, and promoting a metastasizing culture of violence.
Donald Trump didn’t create their hate; he exposed it.
We have covered in detail over the last decade the claims launched against Trump and his “MAGA base,” first by Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi ahead of the 2016 election. They repeatedly claimed that Trump, and by extension his supporters, are all “deplorables, fascists, NAZIs, racists,” etc. That rhetoric was then amplified by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris ahead of the 2020 election, and used to incited the destructive and deadly “summer of rage” riots across the nation, resulting in a surge in violence in the following years.
Biden and Harris folded that hate rhetoric package into their endlessly repeated mantra over the next four years that Trump and the MAGA movement were an “existential threat to democracy.” Former CNN commentator Scott Jennings said of the Biden/Harris campaign, “The entire thesis of the campaign was ‘democracy is on the ballot.’”
That thesis was subsequently adopted by Harris and Tim Walz ahead of the 2024 election, with Pelosi and Chuck Schumer spewing a background chorus of incendiary rhetoric.
Recall that Harris, when asked in a high-profile town hall if she believed Trump was a fascist, replied, “Yes, I do. Yes, I do.” She added, “[Voters] care about our democracy and not having a president of the United States who admires dictators and is a fascist.”
And recall how Walz repeatedly asserted Trump and his followers are fascist: “Donald Trump’s tendencies now are fascist tendencies…”
Of course, on a few occasions, Trump labeled Harris and Walz “Marxist,” but that is much closer to the truth than labeling Trump a fascist.
Leading Democrats, including now-House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, have accelerated the “threat to democracy” and other hate slogans since Trump’s second election.
For the record, most Democrat constituents can’t define “fascism,” much less why we are a Republic, not a “democracy,” as incessantly claimed by Demo leaders. But the epidemic of deranged hatred for Trump and hatred for his grassroots MAGA movement has grown exponentially.
Of the resulting high-profile violence over the last year, Commentary Magazine’s Abe Greenwald offered this assessment: “The suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk is 22 years old. The perpetrator of the Annunciation Church mass shooting was 23 years old. The alleged gunman in last December’s killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was 26 years old. The shooter who attempted to assassinate Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, was 20 years old. What happened to Gen Z?”
This is not a “Gen Z” problem. It is an affliction of a subset of Gen Z, what I labeled last year as “Gen N: The Narcissist Generation.”
This subset of emotionally unstable young people, in addition to all the other cultural garbage they ingest, has been infused with endless streams of hate rhetoric from the most high-profile Demo Party leftists in our nation — and that is a major factor in the demographics of leftist violence.
After Charlie’s murder, Pelosi, the titular head of the Trump/MAGA hatefest, attempted to dodge any responsibility, saying: “We just have to change the rhetorical nature of our debate. People don’t have any intention of saying something that leads to something dangerous. We cannot take responsibility for the minds that are out there.”
“Change the rhetorical nature of our debate”? Really, now Pelosi figures that out? Her rhetoric has been a significant causal factor in all the leftist violence over the last decade — to include two assassination attempts against Trump.
Of such claims, commentator Clay Travis correctly concludes, “You cannot call your political adversaries Nazi fascists and modern-day Hitlers and then say political violence is wrong when your deranged lunatic supporters act on your statements and kill or attempt to kill the people you’ve attacked.”
Politically, the Demo hate claims are sinking in. An ABC News/Ipsos poll finds that “half of Americans see Donald Trump as a fascist.” And those who make such specious claims about Trump are also calling the half of America who voted for him “fascist.”
There is now ample bloody evidence that the Demo rhetoric has deadly consequences.
As Charlie would say, “PROVE ME WRONG”: Charlie Kirk’s blood is on the hate rhetoric hands of Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Tim Walz, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, et al. This is the terminus of years of leftist hate rhetoric, and Charlie’s murder is the new cancel culture.
Further, indicative of how empowered leftists have become — believing they can spew hatred with impunity like their Demo leaders, there are now countless thousands of cases of haters being fired for posting assertions that Kirk deserved to be murdered.
The offenders are school teachers, school board members, and college professors. They are federal, state, and local “public servants.”
Celebrities are getting checked: Stephen King is trying to salvage his future book sales by apologizing for his incendiary comments about Kirk.
Of course, among the fired are Leftmedia talkingheads and scribes, starting with MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd.
One post by a media executive with our local CBS affiliate here in Chattanooga, (who has yet to be fired), is typical of the hate being posted by thousands of others: “If you don’t have something nice to say, you shouldn’t say anything at all. So, about Charlie Kirk…man what a marksman! 200 yards away, directly in the left carotid artery…impressive.”
Beyond the hate rhetoric from Demo leaders, what seems to have lit the fuse on the delusional slide of Kirk’s assassin were online posts by leftist Antifa radicals. Utah Gov. Spence Cox told The Wall Street Journal, “It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.” The FBI is investigating those leftist groups to determine what they knew about this assassination and when they knew it.
The second most powerful thing prosecutors can do is go after those who had knowledge of Robinson’s plans — arrest and charge anyone who had any advanced knowledge of this and did not report it. That example needs to be set.
And the last factor I mentioned: the alleged assailant was in a relationship with a “transgender” man, who believes he is a woman. Gov. Cox also confirmed that relationship. Notably, the association between high-profile murderers and those with gender pathology, those connected to the gender-confusion cult, is now well established, even prompting AG Pam Bondi to raise the issue of whether this pathology should fall under the mental health prohibitions to purchase firearms.
Notably, Gov. Cox has been an amazing voice of reason and calm in the wake of Charlie’s murder. In 2024, Cox delivered a speech on “How To Disagree With Respect — Not Hate.” We have posted his remarks immediately following the attack, and his remarks on the arrest of Robinson are equally measured.
Bottom line: There are deranged sociopaths on both sides of the political spectrum, but the derangement pathology on the Left is now far more mainstream, which is why the vast majority of violence across our nation is perpetrated by Democrat constituents.
And that leads me to the stark contrast between how conservatives have responded to Charlie’s murder versus leftists responses to perceived injustice.
Patriot feature writer Samantha Koch noted: “When George Floyd died, a man with a history of drugs, crime and violence — the Left took to the streets to burn cities to the ground. When Charlie Kirk died, a man with a history of service, love of God, and open conversation — the Right took to the streets to pray. We are not the same.” Our friends at The Daily Wire posted a visual representation of that stark contrast.
So, how do I choose to respond to Charlie’s murder?
As I noted in the opening paragraphs above, “None of us are called to be mercenaries.”
A year ago, I wrote a column a week after the first assassination attempt against then-candidate Trump, titled “Hate, Division, and a Resolution to Rise Above,” It was a reflection on a resolution passed by our Tennessee legislature and signed by Gov. Bill Lee, calling for Americans to rise above the moment, “Seeking God’s blessing and humbling ourselves to receive His Grace and Mercy, transforming ourselves, our communities, our State, and our Nation.”
I believe this is again one of those moments — and it will not be the last.
Another man martyred for speaking the truth declared: “Hate is too great a burden to bear. … Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” That, of course, was Martin Luther King.
There is no doubt in my mind that if Charlie could speak to us right now, he would advise the same, and that is the only conclusion one could draw from his testament about his faith over the years.
Further, I am wrestling with forgiveness of Tyler Robinson because he was a mentally deranged sociopath. That does not mean we don’t seek a full measure of justice, but it does mean that embracing hatred for him only inflicts our hearts.
Finally, I would ask that you join me in a prayer I send up every morning for the Lord’s blessing upon our nation, that good and righteous leaders would rise and prevail, and that division would be healed so we would be united as Americans.
Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776
