Charlie Kirk’s Dying Is Simply The Starting

Conservative political activist Charlie Kirk was a youngster when he had an concept to “start a youth organization to try and save Western civilization.”

Kirk based Turning Level USA in 2012 and expanded its presence over the subsequent 13 years, totally on school campuses and thru social media. The group exploded in reputation alongside Donald Trump’s rise to energy — hundreds of thousands of individuals watched TPUSA-branded debate movies boasting supposed takedowns of leftist arguments on subjects like racism, faith and feminism.

So when Kirk was assassinated in entrance of hundreds of individuals at Utah Valley College on Sept. 10, it was no minor loss for the Republican Occasion. The 31-year-old married father of two gave a youthful, healthful face to an getting older GOP and introduced the celebration’s archaic worldview to hundreds of thousands of younger folks. He and TPUSA have been, fairly actually, the way forward for conservatism.

However Turning Level’s mission — and that of the Republican Occasion — didn’t die with Kirk.

“This is a train that doesn’t stop running after Kirk’s death,” says HuffPost senior editor Andy Campbell, who additionally experiences on extremism. “In fact, I think that it only rolls faster.” (For the total story, watch the video above.)

Turning Level USA boasts roughly 3,500 highschool and collegiate chapters nationwide. The group pushes conservative values via internet hosting conferences and religion teams, funding Christian colleges, and donating to Republican political candidates via its political motion committee (PAC).

The group experiences that it has acquired over 120,000 inquiries for brand new chapters since Kirk’s loss of life in September.

Campbell stated TPUSA sounds good on paper. “It gets college students activated,” he stated. “It brings them together, and it helps conservatives push their message into schools.”

However Turning Level USA is funded by GOP particular curiosity teams, and the group’s coffers are full. TPUSA amassed practically $400 million in donations between 2012 and 2023, in keeping with tax data collected by ProPublica.

Campbell stated that “war chest of money” is funding a widespread plan to rid the American public training system of leftist pondering. “[Kirk] used Turning Point USA to push far-right ideology and Christian ideology into schools across the nation,” he stated.

“One of the reasons we’re living through a constitutional crisis is that we no longer have a Christian nation, but we have a Christian form of government, and they’re incompatible,” Charlie Kirk instructed the group at a Turning Level occasion in Aug. 2024. “You cannot have liberty if you do not have a Christian population.”

Turning Level USA is the tip of the spear in a wider GOP plot to upend public training in America, largely for the good thing about white Christian conservatives. In Republican-led states like Texas and Florida, politicians are loudly waging warfare on “woke” pondering. In 2021, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis launched the Cease W.O.Okay.E. Act, which might not solely censor educators on subjects like racism and privilege but in addition enable dad and mom to sue college districts that train vital race principle. A federal choose struck down provisions of the invoice the subsequent 12 months, calling it “positively dystopian.”

In Texas, Republican state lawmakers handed a invoice that requires public colleges to show the Ten Commandments. Invoice sponsor state Rep. Sweet Noble (R) stated college students ought to see the doctrine and bear in mind “God is watching.”

Kirk branded himself as a champion of free speech, as soon as saying: “You should be allowed to say outrageous things.” Throughout his tenure as CEO of Turning Level USA and host of his eponymous podcast, he definitely did.

Kirk overtly opposed same-sex marriage and believed that solely monogamous, heterosexual spouses ought to be allowed to undertake youngsters. He denounced the notion of white privilege and denied the existence of systemic racism. He described trans folks as a “throbbing middle finger to God.” He referred to as the 1964 passage of the Civil Rights Act a “huge mistake.”

“He put a face on what is effectively the rantings of a Reagan-era conservative radio host,” Campbell stated. “That includes what the right-wing movements call ‘venerating the housewife.’”

“Getting married and having children is a values-based decision, and women have to stop thinking about themselves all the time,” Kirk stated on the Sep. 8 episode of his present. “Me, me, me.”

Alongside his spouse Erika, Charlie Kirk directed younger girls to eschew skilled targets in favor of getting married, having infants and submitting to their husbands. And but weeks after his homicide, Kirk’s spouse turned the brand new CEO and chair of the board at Turning Level USA.

“Erika Kirk taking over really speaks to the hypocrisy of everything she and Charlie Kirk have stood for,” stated HuffPost senior reporter Lydia O’Connor, who profiled 36-year-old Erika Kirk within the days following her husband’s homicide.

“Throughout her marriage, she has had a career. She has had a podcast. She’s had a clothing line. She’s had other ventures,” O’Connor stated. “She has multiple degrees, and apparently this worked fine for them, even though, publicly, she’s been saying the opposite, saying things like a woman’s main job is to be a, quote, ‘helpmate’ to her husband.”

Following her husband’s loss of life, Erika Kirk addressed “Charlie Kirk Show” viewers with an emotional promise that Turning Level would proceed its mission even with out Charlie. “They should all know this: If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea…You have no idea the fire you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” she stated.

A grieving widow is a strong image on the forefront of a motion, and Erika Kirk has demonstrated savvy in wielding her affect. At Kirk’s nationally televised memorial service in Glendale, Arizona, Erika Kirk quoted scripture and forgave her husband’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. She acquired raucous applause.

At that very same memorial, Turning Level USA registered hundreds of voters.

“If the assassination of Charlie Kirk was meant to thwart his influence, it seems to have had the exact opposite effect,” Campbell stated. “Donald Trump and his administration have turned Charlie Kirk into a martyr.”

Campbell believes the GOP will use Kirk’s homicide as a political instrument for years to return — significantly to ingrain conservative Christian ideology in colleges. President Trump has already established a Division of Justice activity drive to “eradicate anti-Christian bias.” On Oct. 14, he posthumously awarded Kirk a Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, on what would have been his thirty second birthday.

“This death is being used to further that ideology and crystallize it into something that will last beyond Kirk and Trump,” Campbell stated. “This is a well-funded, well-operating machine that was here before Charlie Kirk, and will continue on after.”