We Can Give No Clemency To The Assassination Left

Last week, conservatives were bludgeoned, once again, by the reality that they live in a country full of people who want them dead.

Charlie Kirk — a man known for his love of country, open and respectful debate, and Christian faith — was allegedly assassinated by a left-wing maniac. Many on the left tried to justify it, and some even cheered.

While the wound is still fresh, and we are finding out who people really are in the wake of such a horrific, and horrifically public, assassination, now is the time for action — serious action.

We do not need “unified condemnations” followed by zero action. Many on the left are offering this pathway, which is something weak-willed people on the right might be inclined to accept in order to move on without rocking the boat too much.

The time for conversation is over. The left only ever wants to “turn the temperature down” when their rhetoric gets someone shot or killed. And then they turn around and build it back up again. And then people — whether they be praying at a school, contributing to public discourse, or running for president — get shot or killed.

The spreaders of this rhetoric are not fringes of the far left. These are the rank-and-file, and we know that because Democrat members of Congress jeered at the idea of a moment of silence in the moments after Kirk’s death on the House floor.

Sharing a country with people like this is untenable. It is too late to turn the temperature down. Without resorting to violence, Americans need to pursue complete and total dominance of those who would cheer Kirk’s death, egg on more violence, and justify it away later.

There is no “unity” moment. There is a submission moment — one where social and political power is systematically stripped from a left-wing political movement that has proven time and time again it is far too violent and irresponsible to wield it.

And that moment makes the Trump administration and Congress squarely responsible for how our country gets out of this without a civil war. They need to take systematic action against what appears to be the greatest domestic terror threat in the country: left-wing political violence.

So, what does that look like?

‘Lists, Names, Raids, Arrests’

Federal investigators have been focused on eradicating whatever the Democrats believe is “white supremacy” — things like not wanting to wear masks and being concerned with public school curriculums — for decades, claiming this was the greatest terrorism threat in the country.

That is obviously not true. But, whatever funding and resources went toward that goose chase needs to be reallocated toward the threat of left-wing violence, which we can all see actually exists.

Violent factions of the establishment left, often fomented online and funded by mega donors, need to be ripped apart, and it is the Trump administration’s responsibility to utilize whatever federal resources necessary to make that happen.

Trump already called for a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) investigation into far-left billionaire George Soros for funding “agitation” — or worse. While Soros is well-known to have a network of organizations that attempt to subvert American society, the depth of this issue obviously does not stop at Soros.

The groups, communication systems, networks, logistical programs, and the rest need to be uncovered and eradicated, root and branch. They need to be treated as terrorist organizations. As Blaze Media host Auron MacIntyre said, we need “lists, names, raids, action, no excuse.”

The FBI needs to identify, subvert, and prosecute all Antifa and similar cells, and work with social media companies under threat of a criminal charge.

Kirk’s alleged assassin engraved bullets with expressions from Antifa, LGBT, “furry,” and gaming subcultures, much of which is rampant on online platforms. Gov. Spencer Cox, R-Utah, suggested that the alleged assassin had been radicalized into far-left violence online, and we also know that he was on the platform Discord and communicated about his weapon and the killing after the fact.

Kirk’s alleged assassin is alive and in police custody, which is often not the case in other instances of left-wing violence. Authorities will need to analyze this person to fully understand how he became homicidal and what forces were acting on/encouraging him. It could provide valuable insight into how someone who could have otherwise been a normal person could have been radicalized to the point of committing an assassination.

While this alleged assassin used Discord, there are other platforms that are cesspools of left-wing radicalism — where the standard-bearers of the American liberal movement are openly cheering Kirk’s assassination. Another such platform is Bluesky.

While Apple, Amazon, and Google removed the social media app Parler from their platforms after it was falsely said to have had a connection with the January 6 riot at the Capitol, they are silent on the fact that Discord and Bluesky are allowing the celebration and encouragement of political violence.

The Big Tech oligarchs could use some encouragement, perhaps in the form of legal liability.

Campus Discourse

Charlie Kirk was assassinated on a college campus while displaying for the world what public discourse is supposed to look like.

Assassination is the most extreme form of silencing someone (while remaining mindful of Søren Kierkegaard’s observation, “The tyrant dies, and his rule is over. The martyr dies, and his rule begins”). But while assassination is the most extreme form, other methods are far more common — and easier to accomplish — on college campuses.

In fact, the systematic threat of violence, from both school administrators and local or campus police has been a fairly potent deterrent in the past. They claim that bringing peaceful, conservative speakers to campus poses too much of a threat and that they need to pay for their own security. What they really mean is that conservative speakers shouldn’t come to campus unless they want civil unrest.

There are two paths: Either the left wins, and their assassination of Kirk will give the administrators more fuel to continue to make that argument, or we start taking back our country from those people and force them to not only host conservative speakers, but pay top dollar for their personal safety.

If the left wins, maybe conservatives will come to campus, but their speech will be limited to indoor, closed formats with extreme security measures that the usually small conservative campus organizations who invite the speakers cannot afford. The leftists in the faculty and leadership of the school will be able to say that conservatives are allowed, but shield their students from alternative viewpoints.

That is unsustainable, and the solution is simple: If a university cannot find effective security for a conservative speaker on its own dime, then they should lose federal funding immediately.

Universities that receive public funding and do not advance political discourse in the American tradition that is open, peaceful, and reasoned are of no use to the country, and violators of that tradition should no longer be allowed to operate.

If any school, or organization granted charter by the school, is found in violation of the First Amendment, the school and organization should lose all federal funding immediately. Because schools have their own revenue streams, if it is found to have replaced federal funding with its own to help those violations flourish, they should lose all federal funding.

If the school is in any way associated with the violative activity, all their money should be taken away, and getting the money back should be a years-long, arduous process of regaining the public’s trust while paying high-percentage punitive taxes on all revenue.

State and federal governments should put these schools on a two-front funding war.

The left no longer gets to own the institutions of higher education because all they seem capable of doing is pumping out radicals who hate our country so much that they view it as their obligation to do as much harm possible to those with whom they disagree, and by any means necessary.

They should be required to commit a (high) percentage of their endowment to hosting, protecting, and advancing conservative speakers and causes — a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of left-wing funding they do regularly.

Clearly, the only way to truly guarantee security is to destroy the left. But as an olive branch, perhaps they should just be forced to interact with conservatives on a daily basis.

Whether it is calling for violence, doxxing, intimidating, censoring, debanking, assassinating, or more, these people have proven for the past century they are incapable of wielding the power they have had, and so it must be forcibly taken from them.

That is why, on top of provided security for conservative speakers on their own dime, schools should also be required to host conservative speakers extremely frequently — maybe at least weekly.

They have made political discourse in the United States so dangerous that staff, faculty, and students need exposure therapy in order to not be motivated to kill their fellow citizens.

Here’s an idea: We can call it the “National Charlie Kirk Speech and Debate Series.”

More exposure therapy is needed, so here’s another idea: All schools that receive federal funding are required to have a minimum of 50 percent conservative faculty, or lose federal funding.

They should be forced to fire anyone who shuts down speech. If they do not, they will be steamrolled. Universities should also have to fire any employee, tenured or not, who cheered the assassination of Kirk (and there are quite a few).

Democrats Are The Party Of Political Assassinations

It’s a fairly uncontroversial statement. The left continues to display how thirsty they are for violence because they constantly justify it.

But conservatives, including in the Trump administration and Congress, need to make sure everyone hears about how violent they are every hour, every day, every minute so that it becomes unthinkable to put them in positions of power.

While Trump described it well during his Oval Office address to the nation after Kirk’s death, much more needs to be done about how Democrats’ extreme language directly causes such violence.

Any member of Congress who says Trump or other conservatives are “Hitler” or that death and destruction are impending if a conservative policy priority is enacted should be immediately expelled from their seat.

Do Not Relent

Many on the right view the assassination of Kirk as, to use the name of Kirk’s own organization, a “turning point.”

Some have posted publicly, and others have confided privately, that a public execution for the alleged assassin and co-conspirators is in order. Not because of some bloodlust, but because there cannot be any question at all that political violence against fellow countrymen will not be tolerated.

The moment is raw, and it has the potential to move quickly out of hand. Playing around the very people who inspire such violence is not an option. Right now, to hold the country together, their movement can receive no quarter.

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.