The entire world watched as Charlie Kirk, the father of two young children, was gruesomely murdered.

But leftists cheered. A group of leftists in the crowd stood around unafraid as soon as Charlie was shot. One man can be seen raising his fists in the air and celebrating. A 71-year-old man, who was later found to have child sex abuse images on his phone, immediately claimed he was the shooter so the real shooter could get away. Across social media platforms and at workplaces, leftists rejoiced or said that Kirk deserved to be murdered. Leftist media outlets tried, without any evidence, to convince their audience that the shooter was either right-wing, or hinted that Charlie deserved to die because of his Christian and conservative views. After Kirk’s murder, even leftist intellectuals such as The New York Times’ Peter Baker and MSNBC’s Matthew Dowd appeared to justify the crime (Dowd has been fired).

The left’s lurch toward terrorism didn’t start with assassinating Kirk. About half or more of the “left of center” respondents to a national and respected poll released earlier this year by the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) said that killing either President Donald Trump or Tesla CEO Elon Musk would be at least “partially justified.” This was about a third of the overall respondents; 13 percent of the respondents who are left-of-center said killing Trump would be “completely justified.”

The same NCRI survey found that pro-violence attitudes were amplified by left-wing social media platforms BlueSky and Reddit. Whole communities exist to praise the assassin of the UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, for example. Another poll, after Kirk’s murder, found that 26 percent of young voters and 24 percent of Democrats believed that America was “better off” with Charlie Kirk’s murder. Nothing close to these deranged numbers can be seen in the polling of those on the right.

Democrat politicians and the media have certainly encouraged this. Media members and Democrats labeled Trump and Republicans as “fascists,” strongly implying that bloodshed against their political opponents was a righteous cause.

Realize where we are: Something like 10 to 25 percent of the population is openly supporting the murder of their political opponents. The violence is absolutely meant to impact the political process. This most certainly has and will alter the decisions of state and federal representatives, judges, and reporters. Nationalists and conservatives won’t be able to hold open-air events any longer, without spending many millions on security.

How to Avoid Civil War

The ugly truth is that we are headed toward something like the Spanish Civil War. Much like the Spanish Civil War — where the left especially targeted the religious, hunting down priests and raping and killing nuns — the left’s violence today has taken on an overtly anti-Christian bent. Whether it be the Annunciation church shooter and his weird connections to a Satanic cult called the Order of the Nine Angles (the recent Colorado school shooter was also potentially connected), or the obvious truth that Kirk’s espousing of the orthodox Christian sexual ethic is what made trans activists hate him the most.

It’s hard to see how we aren’t spiraling toward domestic conflict. The far left won’t stop, and many mainstream Democrats are unflinchingly maintaining that both the shooter was a MAGA-conservative, as they twist past events to make it look like most violence comes from the right, and that MAGA-supporting Kirk had it coming. Democrats even have the audacity to try to minimize Kirk’s assassination and the left’s obscene reaction by bringing up the burning of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s mansion (committed by a far-left activist, not someone from the right) and the murder of Democratic Minnesota State Representative Melissa Hortman (committed by a mentally ill man who had a whole host of potential motives, and who wildly claimed he was acting on behalf of Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz). Plus, no Republicans excused, justified, or cheered the assassination!

In other words, even the mainstream left lacks self-awareness or repentance. The only chance at an off-ramp is to make the left, including Democrat politicians, pay a heavy price for their encouragement, excusing, and even loose material support for violent left-wing terror. What does that look like? Many have already noted a few good ideas. These include:

Criminal code: Throw the weight of the criminal code at Antifa and far-left trans militia groups. FBI Director Kash Patel said a “broad network” of groups had prior knowledge of the assassination. One such group is called “Armed Queers of Salt Lake City” and has ties to foreign communist governments including Cuba and China. A handful of trans social media accounts also had apparent foreknowledge of the assassination. One such account said he hopes someone “evaporates” Kirk and then ominously followed by saying “something big will happen tomorrow.” Another account, days before the assassination, predicted Kirk would be shot on Sept. 10.

Earlier this year, the trans cult calling themselves the Zizians shot an ICE agent in Vermont. All these groups appear to be coordinating, as the Armed Queers of Salt Lake City even held a “workshop” with the Trans/Antifa perpetrators of the ICE facility shooting. A statute like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), created to go after the mob in 1970, could be used to go after these groups and the NGOs and millionaire donors who support them. 

Terror law: The Trump administration is classifying Antifa as a domestic terror organization. This is a helpful law-enforcement tool, but still requires conviction of individual members (no guilt by association) and proof that members are actively involved in a criminal conspiracy.

University free speech: Others have ideated that universities should be forced to accommodate conservative speakers and provide security or lose federal funding. This is a good idea, and Congress must act. Another version of this idea would create civil liability to speaker, audience, and host if universities don’t provide a safe place for free speech.

More is Needed

All the above ideas are necessary and worth pursuing to exhaustion. The problem is that these ideas are likely not enough to deter the far left, and are too defensive and reactive. The far left needs to be hit hard if the downward spiral is to be avoided.

• As the White House classifies Antifa as a terror organization, they should move to classify the group as a foreign terrorist organization, if possible, which allows more to be done to go after Antifa members in the U.S. and abroad. Assets supporting Antifa and trans militias should be frozen, homes raided, and associated persons scooped up and placed in detention facilities.
• In the same vein, internet personalities with large followings such as Steven Bonnell (aka “Destiny”) and Hasan Piker have called for the murder of Republicans (Piker), or engaged in wild rhetoric that “you need conservatives to be afraid of getting killed when they go to events so they look to their leadership to turn down the temperature” (Destiny). Thousands of leftists also posted on social media praising the assassination. A database has been created to help employers fire these individuals, but this is not enough.
  
  If the FBI was tasked with investigating Latin Mass Catholics, Turning Point USA, and pro-life organizations under the Biden administration, it can certainly turn on those openly cheering and encouraging violence. Imagine what would happen if this were the Biden administration, a prominent Democrat had been assassinated, and a quarter of all Republicans supported it? Place “Destiny,” Piker, and the leftists who cheered Kirk’s death on the no-fly list, send government agents to their doors in the middle of the night, and investigate the most prolific or egregious examples for other crimes (search Destiny’s computers!). These demoralization tactics should especially be applied to persons tied to mainstream Democrat politicians or media figures, if they choose to incite violence or make threats against federal workers. The goal is not to follow a fully baked and reasonable process. Many of the no-fly-list designations may get overturned in court. But the exact point is to use the unlimited resources of the federal government to flood the zone and exhaust the finite resources of the leftists inciting violence.
• Apple and other tech platforms should face immense pressure from the government to deplatform Reddit and BlueSky. BlueSky tried to stop conservatives from catching users praising Kirk’s murder by banning the ability to search all users’ posts. Reddit is meanwhile a cesspool with many users praising Kirk’s murder. Parler was kicked off the Apple store for far less. But please stop worrying about precedent, or whether this matches what the Biden administration did, and realize what time it is. The Justice Department should also extensively investigate these platforms for possible violations of federal law. Meanwhile, Discord, a chat platform that is a hotbed of extreme left activity, should also face investigation over the assassin’s use of the platform.
• Finally, the Democrat Party and the left have their foot soldiers in Antifa, BLM, and the radical trans militias. Republicans should never stop asking Democrat Party politicians and candidates to disavow Antifa, which is effective because regardless of the answer (disavowing or not disavowing), the person answering is implicitly acknowledging some kind of ideological tie to the group.
  
  But something is needed to both deter the far left and, where law enforcement is unable or unwilling, protect the political process from terroristic influence. A wealthy Christian donor should create an organization of young men, call it the Order of Christ the King, that mimics much of what the Guardian Angels in New York City did to reduce crime and fill the gaps that law enforcement could not — but on a national level. The Order, overtly Christian, would be defensive in nature. Depending on the situation and the state, no firearms would be carried. The organization would not engage in street brawls, either (this is not the Proud Boys). It could do random acts of community service, and be called upon to stand guard if, for example, leftists were threatening a judge’s home, or a church felt like it needed extra security.

What Would Lincoln Do?

These ideas don’t sound nice, because the time we’re in is not nice — roughly a quarter of the population is cheering Kirk’s murder. If American nationalists and conservatives continue to play by rules the left refuses to play by, then we will lose. And losing by choice is not “turning the other cheek,” it’s an act of cowardice that turns your children over to a country run by men who act worse than animals.

For those unwilling to let go of the America of 20 years ago that no longer exists, let Abraham Lincoln assuage your mind. The Democrat Confederates, when capturing black Union soldiers in battle, were digging mass graves and executing the black Americans (and their white officers) on the spot — this policy was encouraged by Jefferson Davis, who viewed the white officers and black troops as leading a slave revolt. Lincoln was furious and released an order in July 1863 promising to retaliate on Confederate prisoners in the North if Confederate forces kept slaughtering black soldiers. The Confederates didn’t take the order seriously — indeed Lincoln had moral qualms about executing random Confederate prisoners — and the slaughter continued.

Finally, after the egregious Fort Pillow Massacre, Lincoln ordered his Secretary of War to set aside about 300 Confederate officers from the finest families in the South. If the Confederates slaughtered more black troops, these 300 Confederate officers would be culled. As a result, atrocities still occurred but much less frequently — Confederate generals realized that Lincoln could mean it this time, and avoided overt massacres to prevent reprisals against their own captured men.