I imagine conservative commentators will be writing about Charlie Kirk for months, if not years to come. They should. His broad intellectual as well as activist impact on the Conservative Movement cannot be understated. He made MAGA mega, no doubt.
Although I ran into him at the 2017 Politicon Convention, I never attended Charlie Kirk’s forums and town halls. I didn’t have a chance to meet him or ask him policy-based questions. Many of his admirers and staff are remembering him by broadcasting his incredible debates, including his best answers, and his best moments owning the left and destroying their weak arguments.
However, another way to honor the man is to show how he shined in the midst of the most difficult or even embarrassing debates. Even in the most challenging times, he came out stronger, and his example and his advocacy not only unified conservatism but strengthened it against perverse onslaughts from not just the socialists, but the LGBT activists and the anti-Semites.
His stance against socialism is unquestioned. He advocated for free markets, free enterprise, and free people. For a while, it seemed that Kirk was content to be a dynamic libertarian activist. However, the current culture wars afflicting our country are bigger than economic freedom. We must ensure a robust respect for faith and family, too.
One seminal moment when Kirk learned from mistakes and improved his conservative (and Christian) message occurred after his Culture War forum at The Ohio State University in October, 2019. At the time, Kirk was showing more liberal leanings, sharing the stage with openly gay commentator Rob Smith, a “former” leftist who had voted for Bernie Sanders.
A group of white nationalists, traditionalist Catholics, and other hard-core dissident right commentators took over the town hall. They bombarded Kirk with questions about his conservative credentials. Sadly, many of these critical types were addicted to collectivism, identity politics, and empty ethno-nationalism, none of which has anything to do with our constitutional republic, our Christian heritage, or our Anglo-American legal tradition. They intended to stomp on and embarrass Charlie Kirk, but he weathered the storm pretty well.
However, some of them asked challenging, appropriate, and very probing questions, calling out TPUSA’s growing tolerance of “conservative” drag queens, welcoming homosexuality, and tolerating same-sex marriage. How does any of this win the culture war? In fact, it's caving to the culture war. Another college student in the crew asked Kirk why he supported allowing foreign nationals to attend American universities and then have green cards stapled to their diplomas. Doesn’t sound like America First!
It was a respectful question, and Charlie Kirk really struggled with it. In many previous forums, he had advocated for the United States bringing in the best immigrants and giving them work permits. However, taxpayer money pays for this entire foreign workers’ immigration pipeline, and those same immigrants push American kids out of good-paying jobs. Charlie Kirk remained calm, despite the challenge. He restated his position, then attempted to clarify with his immigration enforcement proposals. While answering, one could recognize that there was a problem. The next day, he abandoned the position entirely.
To his credit, Kirk would later change other views when pressed on whether they reflected “America First” priorities. He wanted to make this country better; he wanted to change the culture in colleges, and when confronted about his more liberal stance on some issues, he was willing to change his mind. A pastor in West Virginia informed me that Charlie Kirk stood by biblical values when it came to marriage, sexuality, and opposition to LGBT. The TPUSA donors, however, did not want him to take a strong stance on these issues. Kirk eventually rejected their bad advice and proclaimed the truth. He began pushing back more on the donors to his organization who had supported liberal positions on cultural issues.
In the final years of his ministry and political advocacy, Charlie Kirk took a firm stance for family and in direct, blunt opposition to the LGBT agenda. He also took a firmer stance not just against illegal immigration but against mass legal immigration, too. We saw him embrace more of a complete “America First” agenda. He even spoke out against legalizing marijuana, a sacred cow for libertarians.
Charlie stood up to the dissident voices who not only wanted to normalize so-called homosexual or transgender conservatives, but also against the communistic elements who wanted to normalize rejection of Israel and hatred of Jews. This position put him more at odds with some of the growing cohort of so-called conservative influencers like Candice Owens and Tucker Carlson. It was not a popular position with a contingent of the younger generations on the dissident right, for sure. But Kirk was willing to stand his ground, while recognizing that a difference of opinion was emerging on the right regarding foreign policy.
Kirk stood strong for our constitutional values, he stood up for natural law, and he rigorously defended free enterprise, free markets, and free people. Above all of this, the world was stirred and inspired by this young man openly declaring his faith in Christ and urging a restoration not just of conservative political power, but Christian moral authority in our country. He was not afraid to share the gospel, to tell people to go to church, to get involved in the Christian faith once again.
We also need to credit Charlie Kirk extensively for taking on very difficult issues like the corrosive consequences of the Civil Rights Act on our constitutional order. He boldly debated that we need to rethink that entire legislative program. Many of his worst critics have claimed that he wanted this country to go back to segregation or Jim Crow. That is a total lie. He connected with people of all backgrounds, and he brought in all kinds of demographics into the conservative movement.
What he explained about the Civil Rights Acts of 1960 and 1964 was that these laws opened up all kinds of lawfare against any business or entity if there was any kind of disparate impact. If a company didn’t reach a quota for a certain demographic or ethnicity, that company could face federal fines! This is not liberty. This is tyranny!
Kirk explained the importance of natural rights as opposed to civil rights, focusing on not what the government can give us, but what God has already given us. Not only was he not afraid to challenge the Civil Rights Act, and read, quoted, and developed the ideas of Sam Francis, a conservative thinker from the early 1990s and 2000s who had confronted conservatives for becoming “beautiful losers” who played opposition only to give way as the left continued to conquer the culture, winning battle after battle and the culture war for the heart for this country. All of these insights you can find in his last book Right Wing Revolution. I encourage all of you to read it when you have a chance.
Charlie Kirk was a happy warrior and a successful political operative. No doubt about it, President Trump won Election 2024 because of TPUSA’s extensive, intense, innovative campaign strategies. But Kirk’s commitment to a complete MAGA agenda will win back the culture.
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