The activist’s murder is a disaster for the country.
In December 2023, I spent half a minute with Charlie Kirk in the bowels of the Phoenix Convention Center. Turning Point USA, the youth organization that he founded in 2012 and built into a right-wing juggernaut, was holding its annual convention in the city that the Chicago-born Kirk had made his home. Tall and dark-haired, he was moving quickly with a group of aides through a crowd of admirers. He had just exercised his considerable rhetorical talents in an opening address to 14,000 mostly young, wildly enthusiastic people from all over the country, whipping them up into a mood of ebullient, aggrieved hostility toward the various groups that he warned were trying to destroy America, telling his audience: “This is a bottom-up resistance, and it terrifies the ruling class.”
“Charlie,” I called out, “would you talk to The Atlantic?”
Kirk turned around and looked me over. For a moment, I had his amused attention. “The Atlantic? I don’t know,” he said with a not-unfriendly smile. “If you want to know what elite opinion is on any issue, read The Atlantic.” He delivered another insult or two, then he reached out to shake hands, as if this was all a bit of a game. “Sure, check with my people. Thanks for being decent about it.”
His people never got back to me, but Kirk spent the next year playing a central role in mobilizing young voters—especially men—to elect Donald Trump.
