The assassination that shakes the United States and reignites the cultural war between progressives and the religious right. The founder of Turning Point USA, close to Trump, becomes a symbol of the new conservative generation.
The Assassination of Charlie Kirk shocked the United States. In addition to the murder itself, what caused an impression was the fact that the conservative activist was killed while, holding a microphone, he was holding a public debate on a university campus. Kirk was also known for his dialectical meetings, significantly titled “Prove me wrong”: a format in which he publicly challenged people to refute his conservative ideas on politics, culture and religion. Not only that. Kirk was also very active in the media. In particular, he had a very popular radio program, the Charlie Kirk Show.
Hatred and intolerance after death
Now, what is perplexing is the avalanche of hatred that the activist attracted, before and after his death, from various sectors of the progressive world. There were those who suggested that they had sought the bullet in their neck, those who rejoiced and those who, while expressing a convenient condemnation of the murder, still placed the responsibility for what happened to them on the victim. It is therefore useful to ask ourselves the reason for this hatred towards Kirk. In fact, it is one thing to legitimately not share his political ideas; another thing is the gratuitous poison that was thrown at him.
A climate of growing intolerance
A first plausible explanation is the growing climate of intolerance which, for years now, has characterized large sections of the progressive American world. Let us remember, for example, that in 2022, following the Supreme Court ruling which was quashed Roe v. Wadevarious liberal pro-abortion activists vandalized churches and birth centers. Furthermore, rather than simply expressing dissent over the choice of the majority of judges, many members of the Democratic Party went so far as to delegitimize the Supreme Court itself.
From university classrooms to the White House
However, be careful: if intolerance is one of the reasons behind the progressive hatred towards Kirk, it is probably neither the only nor the deepest. Yes, because the web star he was much more than a simple activist with a passion for dialectics: he was above all a formidable organizer. In 2012, just nineteen years old, he founded Turning Point USA along with conservative businessman Bill Montgomery. This acronym, whose objective was to promote conservative ideas in schools and university campuses, immediately managed to attract wealthy financiers, growing rapidly.
The turning point came with 2016 presidential electionwhen the candidacy of Donald Trump burst onto the American political scene. After initial mistrust, Kirk became one of his most effective allies, leading the project «Students for Trump» in the 2020 campaign and contributing decisively to the tycoon’s reconfirmation in 2024.
Turning Point, the laboratory of the new right
Kirk’s organization was a major architect of Trump’s success among young people. In some key states – Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin – the tycoon earned significant margins thanks to the work of the Turning Point guys on the field. According to a survey by Decision Desk HQa growing number of Generation Z males he is now siding with the Republican Party: a trend that worries the Dems and fuels resentment towards Kirk.
Faith and politics: the new face of the Christian right
In recent years, the murdered activist had turned to religion. In 2021 he founded, together with the pastor Rob McCoy, Turning Point Use Faithto encourage the participation of Christians, churches and religious ministers in public debate. “Friends, we remember Charlie Kirk as an apostle of civil discourse and as a man who loved Jesus Christ,” declared the Catholic bishop Robert Barron.
Kirk was trying to renew the religious rightovercoming the traditional closure of political evangelism. In a public confrontation with a young gay man he said: «Welcome to the conservative movement. You are not defined by your sexual attraction, you are a complete human being.”
The legacy of a charismatic communicator
During her husband’s funeral, the widow Erika Kirkthe new CEO of the association, promised to continue the founder’s work: “We will make everything we have built ten times bigger thanks to the power of his memory.”
His message is clear: defend the First Amendmentthe right to speak and believe, today at the center of the American cultural conflict.
A legacy that scares progressives
Kirk was one of the main ones strategists of the new conservative hegemonyin an America where liberal cultural dominance appears increasingly fragile. The falsehoods spread about the assassin – initially portrayed as a Trumpian extremist, later revealed to be a liberal militant – show how divisive Kirk’s figure remains.
His death, paradoxically, risks making him an even more powerful symbol: the martyr of a political and cultural battle which, apparently, is far from over.
