After the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, Cañon City Councilwoman Emily Tracy posted to her personal Facebook page a link to an opinion piece entitled “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning.” The piece criticized Kirk’s past comments about women and minorities, concluding with the words: “I won’t celebrate his death, but I’m not obligated to celebrate his life, either.”
Posting an article, even without a positive comment, signals agreement, but there is nothing in this piece, harsh and partisan as it is, condoning Kirk’s death. Nevertheless, the Cañon City Council voted to draft a censure motion after an irate crowd demanded the councilwoman’s removal.
If anyone should be censured, it is any public official who uses this tragedy to punish political opponents. Rather than kowtow to vengeful mob sentiment, Cañon City council members should dismiss the censure resolution when they meet again in October.
Also, former state House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese should rethink her post calling for the governor to fire Jazmin Murguia, a suicide prevention coordinator for the Colorado Department of Public Health. Murguia’s profanity-laced social media post criticized people for expressing grief about the conservative firebrand while remaining silent about other tragedies. Abrasive, even hateful, the post nevertheless did not in any way rejoice in Kirk’s murder. Unless she is exhibiting partisan bias in her social work practice, her job should not be threatened. The same goes for teachers who have been suspended for posting criticism of Kirk or his supporters.
There is a difference between lauding the murder of an innocent human being and criticizing the victim’s opinions and statements, between condoning violence and suggesting the public outpouring of grief is selective or disproportionate.
As long as there are politicians who seek to lower flags or have Kirk’s body lay in state, there will be those who react strongly, if sometimes tactlessly, to these actions. Lionizing the deceased as a martyr will likewise. When people like Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas say, “If Charlie Kirk lived in Biblical times, he’d have been the 13th disciple,” I have to respond to my errant Christian brother, “WTF dude, have you no shame?” (For those looking to cancel this column, WTF is short for “withstand thoroughly faulty hermeneutics”).
Kirk was an influential activist and commentator who successfully launched a conservative youth movement and whose tragic death is understandably grieved by those who knew and admired him. Even so, he is not an appropriate candidate for canonization.
Some public officials have bigger plans for using Kirk’s death to silence those with whom they disagree. In addition, to urging listeners to call employers of people they think are “celebrating Charlie’s murder,” Vice President J.D. Vance said on a recent podcast the government should use its power to target liberal organizations starting with the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration would “go after” those engaging in “hate speech.” She backpedaled her remarks after backlash from pundits right and left. Her boss did not give ground, however. When asked by a reporter about Bondi’s comments, President Donald Trump said, “We will probably go after people like you, because you treat me so unfairly, it’s hate.”
FCC Chairman Brendan Carr threatened on a podcast to withdraw ABC’s broadcasting license after late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel said that “the MAGA gang” was trying to characterize the murderer “as anything other than one of them” and trying to score political points. The first assertion is wrong. Kimmel’s show was then canceled. I don’t watch late-night television but found the FCC’s threats chilling. The government should not be dictating network content.
Of course, the Trump administration is not the first to use an act of violence as a pretext to attack free speech rights. Others have tried. If successful, Democrats will be the first to lose their rights, but Republicans will follow. The next unethical president on the left will happily use whatever government bludgeon this administration fashions to pummel the right.
Krista Kafer is a Sunday Denver Post columnist.
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