Life of Wry

Just putting a marker on this day, because it feels big: Turning Point USA founder/president Charlie Kirk was shot and killed today at Utah Valley University at the start of what was supposed to be a nationwide tour of college campuses.. part of his Prove Me Wrong series of events. Debating people is, apparently, what he was known for. People who loved him said he would talk to anyone and was generally civil, if dug in and strident. At his events, he invited attendees to challenge him on culture war issues; they’d line up to pose questions or make statements and he’d respond. Not a bad idea, really, even as I would likely strenuously disagree with his positions on pretty much everything. I’ve never listened to him speak, but understand he was very effective in mobilizing a huge youth conservative movement, and trump credits Kirk for getting him elected.

TPUSA’s slogan is We play offense with a sense of urgency to win America’s culture war.

They’ve apprehended two different suspects, but let both go, and now they’re back to square one with an at-large shooter, whereabouts unknown.

So, that happened today. And now the fallout begins.

His killing has poured gasoline on the perpetually inflamed right.. the most unhinged of whom are saying this is war and are calling for revenge. The leader who matters most right now has already blamed the radical left (of course). He couldn’t for just one second try and take the temperature down. He couldn’t try — for once — to speak to the whole nation and call for unity or calm.

Every conservative congress member and pundit I heard speak today said — with a straight face — that people need to stop with all the unhelpful inflammatory, polarizing language. They said this unironically. Evidently, they have never heard their leader speak, nor read one of his tweets. What they really meant was Dems should cool their jets and stop with all their name calling (they are apparently fed up with being called fascists). They said WE are the ones constantly stirring the pot and creating division (again, all said unironically). They said we should remember that we are all citizens of the U.S. and we all want what’s best for the country. We should be able to have differences, but not kill each other over them, they said. Better, actually, if we just see things their way (they didn’t say that, but that’s what they meant).

No talk of guns, either.

I don’t see a way out of our differences. I don’t see any hope for unity. Not with a president who traffics in lies and misinformation, who thrives on demonizing democrats and who purposely polarizes our country, all in a climate turbo charged by social media.

Polarization is deepening. Political violence is increasing. We ARE on a fast and furious march toward authoritarianism. This administration is breathtakingly corrupt. Dear leader’s locked in the congress and the Supreme Court. He’s ruining our economy, our health, our planet. He’s been completely feckless on the world stage and in 8 months he’s lost all of our allies’ respect, and it sure seems our adversaries have partnered up and dismissed him entirely.

He’s singularly responsible for wrecking us. In every way on every level. He has destroyed any shred of unity we once had. We could pretend before, but not anymore. And he blames dems for today’s shooting. The nerve.