The memorial offered Kirk’s acolytes a powerful potion of faith, martyrdom, and mercy from his widow, along with promises from some of the most powerful people in government to crush the forces of liberalism they want to hold responsible for his death. For the non-MAGA world, it was also a warning. Trump will drain every drop of political usefulness out of the tragedy of Kirk’s death. With Kirk as the patron saint, the Trump administration will expand what many consider a holy war that not only divides the country but also aims to eliminate the other side.
“Our enemies cannot comprehend our strength, our determination, our resolve, our passion, our lineage, and our legacy hails back to Athens, to Rome, to Philadelphia, to Monticello,” Stephen Miller, a top Trump policy aide, proclaimed at the memorial. “Our ancestors built the cities. They produced the art and architecture, they built the industry.” Miller went on to say, “We stand for what is good, what is virtuous, what is noble. And for those trying to incite violence against us, those trying to foment hatred against us. What do you have? You have nothing. You are nothing.”
What can derail such a radical movement? The release of the Epstein files? Already America has a Department of Justice prodded openly by Trump to punish his political enemies, while dropping an investigation into White House border czar Tom Homan. The National Guard is in American cities, and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are grabbing victims off the street. We’ve seen the suspension of Jimmy Kimmel and Trump’s ongoing assault on free speech — unless it involves ugly speech like Kirk’s often was.
All of the above should sustain a strong and passionate countermovement. But who on the Democratic side can pack a stadium with true believers for hours on a Sunday afternoon? The Fighting Oligarchy Tour promoted by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York has had some success, but it’s hard to see it as the antidote to the multitudes swaying with upraised arms to Christian music at Kirk’s memorial.
Some may still dismiss the power of such fervor, as then-presidential candidate Barack Obama did in 2008, when he talked about people who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Obama survived the fallout from that observation and twice won the presidency. But Trump, who happily took in the guns and God crowd, now represents it. Meanwhile, his administration is packed with emissaries like Vice President JD Vance, who praised Kirk as “a martyr for the Christian faith” and spoke about how Kirk’s death has freed him to speak up about his own faith. “As much as I love the Lord, and as much as it was an important part of my life, I have talked more about Jesus Christ in the past two weeks than I have my entire time in public life,” Vance said at the memorial.
The Constitution gives Vance the same freedoms of speech and religion it gives everyone. That does not include the right to require others to believe what he believes. To me, the most troubling aspect of the Kirk memorial was the notion that there is only one way to be a patriot, with lockstep MAGA political ideology and a shared set of conservative Christian beliefs.
Once again, the right is controlling the narrative, just as it did during the presidential election with the message that Democrats are radical leftists who don’t care about Americans like those who found inspiration in Kirk. What is the counterargument, and who is going to make it? With midterms looming, and the Republican narrative supercharged by Kirk’s killing, it’s no easy task.
Expressing forgiveness toward her husband’s alleged killer was an amazing moment of grace from Erika Kirk, who also told her audience, “The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.”
Then, after Trump spoke about hating his opponents, she returned to the stage and warmly embraced him while “America the Beautiful” played in the background.
That potent convergence of right-wing politics and evangelical passion is what Democrats are up against.