The outpouring of love and support for Charlie Kirk has been touching to see—especially considering that it has transcended the typical conservative ecosystem and burst into popular culture. In sporting events across the country over the past week, from New York City to Texas, Charlie’s life’s work was recognized and memorialized in front of millions of viewers.
However, beneath the surface, a more pernicious sentiment lingers. American leftists have cheered on Charlie’s unconscionable assassination, with a concerning number of them appearing to occupy key roles at American universities. While conservatives have highlighted the often radical and near-unanimously blue political affiliations of professors for some time, the reality is that the rot extends far deeper at these institutions.
The vast majority of university employees have nothing to do with teaching or research—they’re bureaucrats. According to the National Center for Education Statistics in 2023, just over 64% of all university employees are anything but faculty. The college where Charlie Kirk was murdered, Utah Valley University, is a quarter-billion-dollar-a-year enterprise. It is also one of the largest employers in the state, with 6,000 employees on its payroll. Of that number, about one-third teach students.
This is an issue that red states have been failing on across the board. When measured on university employees per capita, four out of five of the worst offending states were red, with the average red state employing 100 more university employees per 100,000 residents than blue states.
It’s imperative to point out the bureaucratic rot: Republican governors are employing a fifth column of radical left ideologues that not only oppose American values like free speech but are taking a supplementary role in brainwashing our youth as well.
Suppose an undergraduate wanted an internship with the Occupational Health and Safety Department at Clemson University. In that case, they may be interviewed by Robin “In a world full of Charlie Kirks and Brian Thompsons, be a Tyler Robinson or a Luigi Mangione” Newberry. Clemson has employed him for 30 years, working now as their chief environment, health, and safety officer.
How could students at Middle Tennessee State University feel safe when their associate dean was celebrating a murder on campus? In her own biography, Laura Sosh-Lightsy states, “… two decades of experience in student development, specializing in student conduct and support systems.” From her social media, it becomes pretty clear that she wouldn’t support conservative students, especially those who were impacted by Charlie’s assassination.
Or consider Winthrop University, where their Title XI coordinator shared a video calling Charlie Kirk a “weapon of the enemy” among other justifications for his murder. Could a conservative feel safe reporting on sex-based discrimination to somebody who is openly hostile to them for their world views?
One of the most blatant examples of the endlessly bloated bureaucratic patronage scheme is seen at the University of Kansas. There, an accessible print coordinator espoused on Facebook that Second Amendment supporters are “better in the ground as worm food” than expressing their God-given right to own a gun. No disciplinary action has been taken for an employee openly expressing hostile and violent inclinations toward those on campus.
These are just four of countless examples of state-funded leftist extremism.
Clemson has received over $330 million from state appropriations and grants, Middle Tennessee received $140 million, Winthrop received over $49 million, and the University of Kansas Lawrence campus $178 million in 2024. It can no longer go unanswered that Republican tax dollars are paying the salaries of people who encourage murdering Republicans.
Charlie Kirk’s assassination has undeniably revealed a complex of hate within publicly funded institutions. They are infested with a cultural rot of radical, violence-worshipping leftists that now staff endlessly growing administrative departments, and an even faster increasing bloat of ‘other professional’ positions. For every administrative staff member, such as associate deans, health officers, and labor coordinators, four “other professional” patronage jobs exist.
The best answer to this rot is to cut it out, hinge funding to the reduction of nonessential staff. Republicans can no longer afford to fund a patronage scheme for people who want to murder them.
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