DAVID MARCUS: Progressive madness killed Charlie Kirk, a once-in-a-generation leader

A generational leader in the conservative movement was lost on Wednesday, as Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, was assassinated during a live event at a Utah university, the latest in a rash of political violence tearing America apart.

For millions of Americans, especially the young, Kirk was an inspiration whose message of patriotism and self-reliance shone like a bright light in our cynical age of national self-hatred. But for millions of others, this made him a very dangerous threat.

CHARLIE KIRK, TURNING POINT USA FOUNDER, DEAD AT 31 AFTER UTAH CAMPUS SHOOTING

When Kirk founded TPUSA, back in 2012, it wasn't supposed to be possible that a conservative could walk onto college campuses, those most high bastions of far leftism, and not just command a crowd, but create a movement.

At that time, being a young conservative was almost an oxymoron. Yet, here was a walking, talking Alex P. Keaton with a rapier wit and a finger on the pulse of how so many college-age Americans really felt, how frustrated they really were. He was a happy warrior, who engaged those with whom he disagreed in good faith and decency.

Just as Donald Trump's rallies would come to be a few years later, Kirk's TPUSA events were a high-energy party for people who had so long felt ostracized, silenced, and cowed. The kid from Chicago put a swagger in their step.

To the Left, and let's be honest here, for much of the Democrat Party and much of the mainstream media, Charlie's success was unforgivable. They spent over a decade painting him as a racist, a bigot, and finally as an actual, real-life fascist.

This is why Charlie Kirk is dead today.

How many times, over and over, have rational people pleaded with the Left to stop with their dehumanizing rhetoric about conservatives? Promises were made to tone it down after Trump was shot in Butler, Penn., but it's only gotten worse.

Just this week, The New York Times ran a column with blood-red imagery blaring, "Stop Acting Like This Is Normal," regarding the Trump administration. In other words, telling their readers that we are on the verge of fascism, if we aren't already there, thanks to the likes of Trump and Kirk.

What do these people expect to happen when they use their megaphone to tell their audience that people like Kirk are literally destroying the United States? 

The crazed and evil lunatic who committed this crime no doubt thought he was saving America, because that's what the lying, leftist news has fed him for a decade.

Now, you can get ready for yet another round of Democrats and their feckless allies calling this a terrible tragedy and decrying political violence. But they seem unable to stop the vile rhetoric to which they seem addicted.

The Left also knows this horrible murder will have a chilling effect. I have friends and loved ones who regularly appear at TPUSA events. Is it safe for them to do so going forward? Would I want them to, after this?

Make no mistake, the strong conservative movement that Kirk founded is brave. It always has been, and they will stand up and speak the truth, even if they know that they too may have a target on them.

But it shouldn't have to be this way.

At this point, it is not sufficient for the liberal media to just change its ways or tone down the rhetoric. No, they must fully repent from the years they have spent demonizing half of the country and getting conservatives shot at.

They must acknowledge that by painting those who simply disagree with them on political policy as inhuman monsters, they are tearing apart the fabric of the nation they claim to be protecting.

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If they can't, then Americans need to shut them out, because, like a bully in an abusive relationship, the liberal media cannot be trusted.

The first martyr of the Christian faith was St. Stephen, who was killed because he would not renounce the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, Charlie Kirk can be spoken of in the same breath, not just as an American martyr, but as a Christian one.

We will never know how many troubled kids, who felt abandoned in the world of materialism and phones and never-ending genders, found their way to Jesus through Charlie KirK. But God knows, and it was truly Him at work, through his servant.

If there is any solace for Kirk's family, his friends, his movement, and his country, it is that he is now commended to the hands of the supreme Disposer of all events, for whom Charlie was a precious agent of good.

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