Jack of Harts

It was an edgy phrase in a movie twenty years ago. “This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.” But it was just entertainment, right? Just another Hollywood director slyly protesting Republicans in his movie. Comparing them to Hitler and Fascists and all the ists that Hollywood accused Republicans of being. But it wasn’t really important, was it? That was just a Hollywood thing. They are crazy. The rest of America was smart enough not to believe the idiot. Right?

Well, it’s twenty years later now, and Democrat leadership, the Main Stream Media, Hollywood, and even the government when it is under their control have spent the last twenty years calling anyone to the right of the Stalin a Nazi. A fascist. Literally Hitler. Racists. Sexists. All the ists. Dozens of Republican legislators have been shot over those two decades. One was beaten half to death in his own yard. Assassination aimed at the Supreme Court. The President has been shot. Normal everyday Republicans have been shot dead on the streets while walking out of Republican rallies by protestors who decided they wanted to see their political opponents dead. Because they believed what they were told. And who wouldn’t shoot Hitler if you had a chance? And how many cops have been shot dead while sitting in their police cars?

It was only a matter of time before a Republican in politics that we know by name would died of something that wasn’t an easily explained random mugging, car accident, or sudden onset cancer that killed them in a few weeks. It was only a matter of time before we saw a major Republican die on camera, live, where all of us could see. That was almost Trump last year. He turned his head. The bullet hit his ear instead of blowing his head apart on live camera. The assassin still killed a firefighter. And Democrats applauded. They said the firefighter deserved it because he was a dirty fascist who went to a literally Hitler rally. And Democrats went online and shamed the dead shooter for not being a better shot and killing Trump like he should have. But nobody knew the guy’s name. He was just the random fascist firefighter who deserved it, so the applause was muted. The real target had been missed.

This week was different. A big-name political Republican that almost everybody has at least heard of over the last decade was shot on nearly live TV. The footage of his neck being hit and blood spurting out hit the internet in between seconds and minutes. Everyone who wanted to see, and a whole hell of a lot of people who never wanted to, got to see Charlie Kirk die on camera in living, red, pumping color. I have not seen it. That was my choice. I’ve talked to people you have, and the look of shock and horror in their eyes is enough to tell me that I don’t want to look at it right now. I’ve seen the reaction of the youth of this nation to seeing one of their leading voices die before their eyes on screens in their hands. And I have watched video of one of the kids in the crowd jumping and dancing with joy at the fact that Charlie Kirk had died a few feet in front of him. And I’ve watched Democrats across the nation cheer the fact that he is dead. Laugh at it. The applause has been… thunderous across social media and the main stream news. How many people have you seen say “he deserved it.” “He said things.” “He brought it on himself.” “Well, if he’d only kept his mouth shut.” And they’re the ones that are just trying to be a little quiet. The loud ones are not so quiet and are a lot more direct.

In a recent poll, fifty-six percent of self-described “left of center” people said that killing Trump could be justified. Fifteen percent said it was COMPLETELY justified. Only forty-four percent said it was not justified at all. Only fifty percent said killing Musk could be justified. Only eleven percent said it was completely justified for him. But here’s the big problem. There are between two hundred and three hundred MILLION Americans. Based on simple math, there are at least one hundred million “left of center” people. If half of them think it could be okay to kill the political opposition, we are talking about fifty MILLION people in America who could justify it to themselves. Over ten million who already believe it is completely justified to kill the political opposition. After that, they’re just debating names. A few more support killing Trump than support killing Musk. But that’s just a matter of degrees.

No poll I know of asked if killing Charlie Kirk could be justified. So I can’t tell you the exact percentage that do think it could be. But it is some percentage of fifty million people who think it COULD be justified. And there are a lot out there right now who are justifying it. “He deserved it.” “He said things.” “He brought it on himself.” “Well, if he’d only kept his mouth shut.” “He shouldn’t have worn that dress to that part of town.” It’s victim blaming. It’s justification. And their applause is thunderous.

This is how liberty dies. This truly is a Turning Point. Will the last vestiges of our Republic die in the next few years, to be replaced by an all powerful Empire? Or will we be able to resist the darker urges and take a better path? Will we be able to reform the Republic and make it healthy again? I don’t know.

But there are millions of people out there perfectly willing to justify killing us in defense of their Democracy. They will proclaim that they have save Democracy even as they take the route to Empire, as they kill all the evil other guys who stand against them. And they speak with thunderous applause at the death of evil Count Doo…. ahem… Charlie Kirk… Charlie Kirk. Their applause at the death of Charlie Kirk is… thunderous.

This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause.

If we let it.