Shucking Oysters: Charlie and the Republican Factory
By Alex Allen
Iryna Zarutska, just 23 years-old, who fled the war in Ukraine in 2022, should be alive today. Instead, one fateful evening in August, Zarutska, a random passenger on a late-night train in Red State North Carolina, was fatally stabbed. Soon after, the attack became justification for Trump and his gang to deploy armies of federal troops to “crime-ridden” Democrat-led Blue State cities across the US.
Weeks later in early September, 31-year-old, evangelical Christian celebrity, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated on his gospel college speaking tour in Utah. While both Democrat and Republican leaders have widely condemned the murder, those who have praised the attack are being systematically shunned. According to a Reuters tally, at least 13 people, from journalists to teachers, have been fired or suspended from their jobs – all part of a surge in righteous-wing rage.
Shortly after the news of the shooting, Trump posted: “We must all pray for Charlie Kirk, who has been shot. A great guy from top to bottom. GOD BLESS HIM!” Trump then ordered the flag to be flown at half-mast “as a mark of respect for the memory of Charlie Kirk.” Louisiana Republican and reserve bylaw enforcement officer Clay Higgins posted that anyone who “ran their mouth with their smart ass hatred celebrating the heinous murder of that beautiful young man” needed to be “banned from ALL PLATFORMS FOREVER.”
The Republicans’ double-cross standard once again contrasts with the mockery some of the same figures – including Kirk – directed at past victims of political violence. When former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul was clubbed by a hammer-wielding nut bar from Canada, Higgins posted a photo making fun of the attack. Anointed by prominent right-winger Steve Bannon as “America’s greatest Christian martyr,” a grinning Charlie Kirk called for the Pelosi intruder to be sprung from jail: “If some amazing patriot out there in San Francisco or the Bay Area wants to really be a mid-term hero, someone should go and bail this guy out.”
In June, a Democratic Minnesota representative and her husband, were shot and killed in their home by a gunman disguised as a police officer. Their dog was also mortally wounded and had to be put down. Trump wrote at the time, “Such horrific violence will not be tolerated in the United States of America. God Bless the great people of Minnesota, a truly great place!” Within days, another Minnesota Democrat member and her husband were assassinated, with Trump repeating the words “such horrific violence will not be tolerated.” No lowering of flags. No tributes. Why? Democrats, of course!
Trump has posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Charlie Kirk, calling him “a giant of his generation, a champion of liberty, and an inspiration to millions and millions of people.” All this national honour, hoopla, and incessant news coverage for a guy who once said that Black Lives Matter, BLM, stood for “burn, loot and murder.” Who, married with two children, preached: “Women should look for men that have self control, and men should look for women that are willing to submit, which is basically a non-feminist woman.”
In 2012, at the age of 19, Kirk with his father founded Turning Point USA, which he described in his 2023 book The MAGA Doctrine as “an educational organization dedicated to protecting the values of free markets, the Constitution and American exceptionalism.” Turning Point USA exploded in popularity during the 2016 Trump campaign for presidency – when Kirk was secretary to Donald Trump Junior – and grew to an organization with 1,800 chapters, 600,000 members and annual revenues of $80 million.
In 2020, ProPublica investigated Turning Point’s finances and found, like every “Christian” organization, that they made “misleading financial claims” and that Kirk had enriched himself while campaigning for Donald Trump. Although a “non-profit,” Kirk owned a $5 million estate in a gated community in Arizona, a $855,000 condo in Florida and earned an annual salary of $407,000.
In the Republican narrative, the assassin is usually a dangerous immigrant, a Black repeat offender, an angry feminist, a transgender female, some marginalized young man or pro-Palestine. Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, is a marginalized young man who lived with a male to female transgender. “It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” Republican Utah Governor, Spencer Cox forewarned. And just in case you forgot, leftist ideology is about equal rights, environmentalism, and democracy, to name a few.
Kirk’s shooting was eerily prescient, moments after being asked a question about transgender mass shooters (in reference to the August deadly mass shooting at a Minnesota Catholic school by a transgender female). “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” asked attendee Hunter Kozak. “Too many,” Kirk responded. “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” Kozak followed up. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” the Turning Point USA founder asked just before he was shot by a bullet in his neck.
In true stately fashion, VP JD Vance escorted Kirk’s casket as it arrived in his home state of Arizona aboard Air Force Two, to be followed by a massive public memorial on September 21 at the State Farm Stadium – a 63,000 plus venue – in Glendale. This is not a funeral of an elected political figure. It’s an over-the-top eulogy for a pro-Trump, pro-gun, anti-Islam, anti-abortion, Christian nationalist who embraced a slew of hostile theories who unfortunately was assassinated.
Kirk’s dutiful, submitting wife, Erika, has vowed to continue her late husband’s call: “If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea,” she said. “You have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world. You have no idea. You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.”
