Charlie Kirk as a martyr

A week or so ago, VP Vance made a comment (that was widely misquoted) that a wise pollster told him that the problem with midterm elections for almost every sitting president was that midterm voters tend to be the angry people and MAGA voters are happy with the Trump Administration, so they don’t have that angry driver to get out and vote in the 2026 midterm.

Well, this assassination provides exactly what the Trump Administration was looking for — a martyr to inflame their supporters to act by voting. I am not saying they are happy this happened to Kirk or engineered it or something — I am just saying this is a terrible political “gift” they will whole-heartedly exploit.

@Ramrouser is getting dragged by some for saying 9/10 will be the 9/11 for a lot of young conservatives but I think that may not be hyperbole — and I think conservative politicians will absolutely feed that fire. At least in the social media under 30 MAGAsphere, Kirk is an immensely popular and influential figure. He could be a powerful martyr for millions of young men and conservative young women.

The eventual power of his martyrdom will depend on the extend to which it reaches outside dedicated MAGA Men and I to the broader population. As a purely crass political matter, that makes it vitally important to Trump, Vance and those who will use his martyrdom for their own purposes to whitewash and nice Kirk’s views — simplify his often extreme rhetoric to be anodyne support for traditional family values, patriotism, being a good Christian Dad and free speech advocate.

I doubt that Trump will mention that Kirk was a vocal supporter of releasing the Epstein Files — mentioning that will be considered in bad taste or something. Bringing up Kirk’s radical statements about gun rights and LGBTQ rights to exist and women’s rights outside a traditional motherhood role subject to the husband’s control will be treated as disrespect for the dead to sanitize Kirk’s martyrdom.

How dare you speak ill of the dead — even if you are quoting his own recorded words — will be a well worn cudgel.

The playbook is well worn for political martyrdom. Martyrdom is political sainthood.
If that is the plan, then it is unlikely to work, as the election is still well over a year away, and I doubt these people will turn out to vote late next year just because of this. Trumpers will need to find some other incident or event that will outrage their base in the fall of 2026 if they expect to get their base out in large numbers to vote. Given how quickly the current political news cycle moves, this tragedy is very unlikely to get anyone out to vote next year who wasn't already going to vote anyway.
 
Whew, I guess we're all safe since they're going after the "Democrat" party instead of the Democratic Party.
And yet just yesterday we were told repeatedly that only liberals were engaging in overheated rhetoric and promoting violence against conservatives. And yet here are Trumpers in tweets calling for us liberals and Trump critics to basically be wiped out and totally destroyed. Real defenders of democracy and freedom of speech and the Bill of Rights they are.
 
In memoriam, Part 3

 
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