"Vic: Welcome back, Alexus" (opens in separate window)

what made the democratic party go crazy?

friday, september 19th, 2025

The answer was not Trump alone.

Indeed, irony abounds when Democrats resonate with the claims of the vestigial Never Trumpers that the MAGA movement “hijacked” the Republican Party.

In characteristic projectionist fashion, the left is simply falsely attributing to their opposition the very hijacking that hit the Democratic Party.

The Democrat Party abandoned the middle class for elites and identity politics — trading broad appeal for globalism, DEI dogma, and political self-destruction.

The Republicans are still the party of conservatism and traditionalism. But in the last decade, it adopted an expansionary middle-class agenda that has led to record party registration, its first popular presidential vote victory since 2004, and control of all three branches of government.

The MAGA emphases also have accomplished what prior “moderate” Republican presidents and presidential candidates had sought but largely failed to achieve: making inroads with minorities and youth and substituting class commonalities for racial chauvinism.

Thus, in 2024, 55 percent of Hispanic men and somewhere around 25 percent of black males voted for Trump—along with a +2 advantage for Trump among young men in general (18-29).

In contrast, Joe Biden left office with below 40 percent popularity in many polls. His replacement, 2024 Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, despite a substantial advantage in funding and overwhelmingly biased, favorable media coverage, lost both the popular and Electoral College vote.

Since the election, a variety of data points show a steady erosion in Democrat Party favorability (24 percent positive polling) and voter registration (for the first time in memory, Republicans are out-registering hemorrhaging Democrats in new voter affiliations).

They are also on the losing end of a 40/60 split among voters on most issues—especially the border, energy, crime, transgenderism, and foreign policy—a truth that even the legacy media cannot disguise.

The Democratic implosion does not necessarily mean they will not win back the House in the next election. Historically, it is difficult for even an unpopular out-party not to pick up lots of House and Senate seats in an administration’s first midterm. But if Democrats capture at least the House, the vote will not be for their party’s policies or politicians as much as a reflection of their ginned-up opposition to Trump, the messenger of a radical and controversial counterrevolutionary message.

The Democratic project is bleeding out because it either does not address what the middle class is worried about, or it offers no solution to popular anger—namely over inflation, the out-of-control DEI commissariat, illegal immigration, crime, high energy prices and tyrannical Green New Deal policies, steep interest rates, unaffordable housing costs, and anemic foreign policies.

Instead of winning on issues, the left resorts to melodramas that no one believes in anymore: the planet is about to boil, requiring net-zero elimination of affordable fossil fuels!

Institutionalized DEI bias is necessary to make up for past and present “toxic” white supremacy/privilege/rage!

Illegal aliens are the oppressed who have a perfect right to enter and reside in the U.S. without legal permission!

The plight of a large and victimized transgender community is the new civil rights cause célèbre!

“Words matter” correctness seeks to coin strange vocabulary and usage—Latinx, “preferred pronouns,” “undocumented migrant,” “trigger warnings,” “safe spaces”—along with toppled statues, changed names, and a rebranded U.S. founded in 1619.

But while the public knows how the left/Democratic agenda is imploding, they are confused over why the Democratic Party is hellbent on such nihilist missions.

Why did Democrats become unrecognizable to the middle class, and who is responsible for their collective self-destruction?

There are four root causes of the wreckage of the Democrat Party.

Globalization

Globalization asymmetrically enriched the bicoastal, liberal elite—in big tech, international corporations, the media, academia, law, government, etc.—with new worldwide markets and audiences.

In contrast, muscular labor and resource extraction involved in assembly, manufacturing, farming, construction, mining, timber, oil, etc., were sometimes offshored, outsourced, or ossified due to “free” but not fair trade.

So Democrats went giddy at the millennium when both billionaires and affluent professionals—often from the new trillions of dollars in market capitalization in Silicon Valley and Wall Street—trended left-wing.

Who then needed the middle class when Democrats now had huge financial and political resources in government, foundations, NGOs, the media, and higher education to affect public opinion, change voting laws, and outspend Republicans?

So Democrats became a utopian elite cadre of the very wealthy who would patronize and take care of the subsidized poor, both as psychological penance to assuage their guilt over their own newfound global riches and to solidify poorer voters with expansionary entitlements.

Illegal Immigration

The left knew its issues were not winners, so they began at the millennium redefining “illegal immigration” as “legal immigration” or just “immigration” and even “migrant.” The result was that by 2025, 55 million residents and citizens of various statuses were not American-born—a record 16 percent of the U.S. population.

From 2021 to 2025, 10 to 12 million illegal aliens had been added to the pool of some 20 million existing resident illegal aliens. The left sought to mainstream these immigrants—from mostly poor countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia—into Democratic constituents, either in the first or by the second generation.

The left’s appeal was twofold: both generous welfare and support subsidies, and a DEI message that as the supposed “non-white,” new immigrants became “victims” the second they set foot onto U.S. soil.

As the instantaneously oppressed, new immigrants had concocted grievances of “racism” against the majority culture—to be redressed by progressive-provided DEI/affirmative action in appointments, hiring, and admissions.

New mail-in and early ballot Covid-era rules were designed to end the audit and authentication of ballots and tailored to accommodate those who might vote without the bother of citizenship.

The new immigrants understood that Democrats gave them an instant pathway to the middle class through racial and ethnic preferences, after the Obama-era new concepts of “diversity.” It had redefined the old affirmative action black/white binary of 12/88 percentages into a huge, victimized class of 30 percent of the population, who were now portrayed as oppressed by the 70 percent majority and thus deserving of special treatment. Class and wealth no longer mattered and were thus replaced by superficial appearance and race, and gender.

Ironically, however, the Frankenstein monster of massive illegal immigration and DEI pandering proved fatal to the old liberal Dr. Frankenstein.

The new radical first and second generations—e.g., an AOC, an Ilhan Omar, a Zohran Mamdani—demanded from the party of their condescending fossilized benefactors (a Nancy Pelosi, a Chuck Schumer, the Clintons, etc.) radical redirections on the issues. Suddenly, there were venomous anti-Israeli and unapologetic pro-Hamas protests on campuses, as over 1 million foreign students swarmed into higher education.

DEI took on an overtly and radically racist tone as evidenced most recently by Joy Reid’s vile pseudo-scientific rants about “mediocre white men,” the sick racist prior mutterings of New Yorker writer Doreen St. Feliz about dirty white and plague-ridden people in history, or the past craziness of Sacramento State President Luke Wood and his half-educated agenda of “eliminating whiteness.”

The Rise of the Guilt-Ridden Professional

Globalization did not just launch. the Google creators, Jeff and Mackenzie Bezos, Mike Bloomberg, Reid Hoffman, Lisa Jobs, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg, and a host of other billionaires, but also a secondary class of millions of wealthy and privileged bicoastal professional underlings. From La Jolla to Seattle and from New England to Washington, DC, these credentialed and titled experts saw themselves at the end of history.

As the new degreed aristocracy, no longer was their time and money needed to address adequate housing, fuel, food prices, transportation, or health care. Instead, they were freed to worry globally, especially about whether red-state hoi polloi’s ignorance might endanger their own beatific lives.

Thus were born radical climate change psychodramas, the transmogrification of civil rights into racial bias and prejudice, and radical cosmopolitanism that saw the EU, the UN, Davos, and all their appendages as enlightened models to nullify the global losers in the interior of America, who were now dubbed clingers, irredeemables, deplorables, chumps, dregs, and garbage.

Higher Education

Elite universities have become fabulously rich and globalized. The bicoastal elite prized gilded letters after their names—BA, MA, MBA, JD, MA, PhD, MD—from the ‘right’ places: the Ivy League, Stanford, Berkeley, or the tony four-year colleges like Amherst, Brown, Pomona, Williams, etc. Alumni gave liberally to elite campuses and advocated that others, like-minded but even richer, top their donations.

Over a million foreign students flocked to higher education, paying 110 percent tuition, room, and board premiums—without background audits. Student loans surged to $1.7 trillion, delighting universities that jacked up their charges accordingly. To suggest that even a small percentage of 300,000 Chinese students were actively engaged in espionage, or that 50-60,000 students from illiberal regimes in the Middle East were at the forefront of the new anti-Semitism, was considered “nativist,” “xenophobic,” or “racist.”

Universities with new multibillion-dollar endowments opened global campuses abroad, without worry over the anti-American or anti-liberal values of their overseas partners. They sought billions of dollars in foreign contributions.

Endowments soared to 30, 40, and 50 billion in the Ivy League and elite campuses. Administrators and their staff grew exponentially to rival the number of students, all to handle the new all-purpose university (“Center for…[fill in the blanks of the oppressed or climate change brand]) that was therapeutic, left-wing, and indoctrinating.

The goal was no longer impartial education but overt ideological bias. Unquestioned was the campus orthodoxy that the U.S. was hopelessly traditional and conservative, so left-wing higher education was not so much prejudicial but a needed “balance” to a clueless American public.

No longer were crackpot ideas of the faculty lounge—the world would boil over in a decade, biological men could compete against and dress with women, and the most affluent and privileged nonwhite immigrants were victimized and eligible for DEI preferences—just esoteric. Now they were mainstreamed into the policies of the Democratic Party, as well as the administrative state, from the Department of Education and DOJ to the Pentagon, FBI, and CIA.

Add it all up, and there is no more Democratic Party as America once knew it.

The Democrats abandoned the middle class because they saw it as a global loser and themselves as worldwide winners. They now had the institutions and the big money, along with the leverage of millions of high-paid coastal professionals in law, the media, the university, and the administrative state to win elections by outspending, out-broadcasting, and out-regulating their clueless opponents.

Only the Neanderthals worried about how to buy a small house. The real winners worried about what the latest fad was in natural kitchen counters, cabinets, and flooring. Only the deplorables fretted about electricity costs and gas prices rather than their far more important carbon footprint. Only the blinkered thought about crime, because they lacked the intelligence or savvy to live safely and securely in the right zip code.

The elite university became the farm team for the new elite. Its position papers, grant-funded “research,” and the latest “studies” would supposedly provide the expertise, the “authorities,” and the “experts” to provide the necessarily “correct” analysis of climate change, race, crime, immigration, and foreign policy.

Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were the last Democrats to go through the motions of appealing to the middle class. But in retirement, they both cashed in, went global, and became multimillionaires by selling their name and brand—and so joined the madness.

© 8.25.2025 by Victor Davis Hanson, "American Greatness".

A Day In The Life.

Up at 9a on Friday, another beautiful day -- sunny and 65°F -- I made coffee and skipped breakfast, fired-up the Win-7 Pentium HP Desktop to let 32 million lines of code load, had a couple smokes in the garage and checked the leftover errands list. I scanned the news and weather, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", from 9-12. Big news: the assassin of Charlie Kirk was caught.

Once again, we live in a very dangerous time for America: the demonKKKrats (ignore the music; listen to the lyrics) -- leftists, Marxists, communists, socialists, anarchists -- have poisoned our Nation pot with a bitter, evil liquid called HATE, and the batch will have to be discarded and our way-of-life, restarted, to restore the goodness and morality to our wounded and troubled Nation. If anyone can lead us thru this national nightmare, it is Trump. Though I have a very uneasy feeling that he'll be the next to be assassinated, after two previous attempts. If CWII happens as a result, only our Lord and Savior can mitigate what'll happen next. Pray for America.

Can we ever get back to "NORMAL"?

I had a late breakfast, did paperwork from the growing "pile", went thru hundreds of emails on the computer, did a couple errands, and took a short 1hr's nap on the LR couch. I watched the news at 6p, had some dinner and switched to History's "Ancient Aliens" and "Mysteries From Above", until 1:30a, and finally bagged it.

Awake at 7a, I rolled over and went back to sleep until 8:30, on Saturday. yet another beautiful day. Sunny and 64°. I scanned the weather eadar maps, the forecast and several sites' news headlines, checked the day's to-do list, and although an Rx was ready at Weis Pharmacy, but since it wasn't 'mission critical', put it off until Monday's errand trip. After making coffee, I made Eggs, Biscuits & Sausage Gravy, and some smokes on the back patio.

The humidity returned noticeably, and made being outside uncomfortable, so I closed the condo, put the AC on at 72°, and listened to one of last week's "CP Show PODCAST" episodes on local WSBA-AM 93.9, from 12-3p. No F-1 or IndyCar races this weekend; both seasons are closing out for 2025, soon. I took a short 1hr nap, called Sherry, and had dinner, before the pathetic FNC 'news' at 6p. I switched to History's "Ancient Aliens" and TWC's "Weather Gone Viral" series until 1a. Lights out.

Up at 8a on Sunday, a 65°, sunny, humid Summer-like mnorning, made coffee, scanned the news and weather and went thru the email's inbox queue. LOTS, from the past 2-3 days. No F1 race today; it's next Sunday. I got ready for the day, with the usual condo chores. After lunch, I took a drive to nearby Royal Farms, to refuel the Jeep HEMI V8 with Ethanol Free Premium 90oct, and drove around East York, with very sparse traffic. Back home by 2p, I had some minor condo chores to do, plus 2 loads of laundry.

After watching The Weather Channel's docuseries, "Highway Thru Hell" and "Rocky Mountain Wreckers", I bagged it early at 11:30p, since I have a busy day, tomorrow.

Up at 8a on Monday, a high overcast, but sunny and already warm and humid 67° morning, I made coffee, scanned the news headlines and weather radar maps, had breakfast and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE" until 12noon. I finally got on the road by 12:30. Despite heavy traffic and key roads choked by construction projects, I I made the trip in 2hrs. After unloading, I had some lunch and took a 2hr snooze on the LR couch.

I watched the evening news, and switched to MotorTrend's "Iron Resurrection" until 12;30a, and bagged it at 12:30a. Cleaning lady's in at 8:30a tomorrow.

Up at 6a, at 0-DARK-THIRTY on Tuesday, I made coffee, scanned the online news headlines and weather, and JoAnne arrived at 8:30. I did some work on the computer, tyuned into the "CP Show LIVE", with a sub-host, from 9-12, and with less than 5hrs sleep, hit the LR couch until almost noon. I had some lunch, ran a couple errands, and was back and unloaded by 2p. After a late lunch, I attacked the stack of paperwork on my office-sunroom desk, and got it cleared-off, The rain arried around 5p and continued all evening and night.

After dinner, the 6p evening news still had the Kirk Assassination story still dominating everything, and I switched to The Weather Channel's docuseries, "Highway Thru Hell" and "Rocky Mountain Wreckers", then to History's "unXplained Mysteries" until 11:30, and bagged it for the night.

Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and no one to do it with.

Up at 8a on Wednesday, a cloudy, drizzly, cool 63° morning. I made a new brand of non-Kona coffee: Fool's Co Blue Batavia. Very good. I always buy an assortment -- especially the single-origin, rare and pricey Jamaican Blue Mountain, when available. I had a major start-up problem with WIN-7 Pro x64, but got it figured out after 10mins, and finally got the computer tuned into the usual "CP Show LIVE" (CP's back from jury duty), had breakfast, and got ready for the day, and Sherry, at around 1p.

Sad day for York County, PA

I scanned the news headlines, weather radar maps and forecast, and Sherry arrived at 1. We talked for a while, and decided to go to nearby Flinchbaugh's Orchard & Farm Market, around 2p, and then maybe stop at Saubel's Market on the way back to my condo. We got some great produce and other goodies, but skipped Saubel's , as we had enough stuff. After unloading, we were sitting in my office-sunroom, when we heard the news alert at 4p, was posted: 5 police officers shot, 3 dead and 2 in critical condition, and a suicidal dead gunman, just 17 miles west of York. Here's the video on YT. It made the 6p Fox News national broadcast w/ Brett Baier; very sad. More video here, and on R/S of YT screen. May the Lord rest their souls.

Sherry left for home around 6p, I made some dinner, watched the evening news, switched to Discovery's "Expedition X" and then to "Ghost Adventures: House Calls", and York shooting updates, until 2a. Lights out.

Up at 8:45a on Thursday, a clear, blue sky, slightly humid, 65° morning, I made coffee, tried to wake-up, and tuned into the "CP Show LIVE", and scanned the news headlines and weather radar maps. No real updates on the nearby 5 police officers' shooting and murder, here in Codorus Twp, in York County. Weis Pharmacy called with 1 of 4 Rxs ready, but I opted to wait until all were filled before doing the drive for p/u.

I spent the afternoon doing slow work of the last of the paperwork pile on my desk, relaxing on the back patio, and by the 6p evening news, made some dinner and watched History's "Ancient Aliens", until 11p, and bagged it. I need sleep.

Tomorrow starts a new week here in the "Journal", and I've got another clear week, except for a late morning, mid-week haircut, so I'll work around Sherry's schedule. She's got a lot more on her plate than I do, right now.

Is Burning Man Demonic?

It’s Burning Man week again. The “Man” will burn this Saturday, as it does every Saturday before Labor Day.

I used to be a devoted “Burner,” having attended faithfully every year from 2014 through 2022 (minus one year due to COVID). “Is Burning Man demonic?” is a question I see floating around several Christian circles, and as a newly baptized Christian, I’ve been asking myself the same question.

To even begin unpacking that question, several prerequisites for theological understanding are necessary. And please excuse me, as I am a new Christian, currently devouring large amounts of Christian literature and trying to educate myself. So bear with me as I navigate and unpack the overlay of theology on my personal experience of Burning Man.

The hidden, darker side of Burning Man, which prioritizes expression and freedom before safety and virtue, is a trade that everyone must make if they wish to attend the event, and it is rarely well informed.

On the nature of “demons,” “Satan,” and “evil,” I’ve found C.S. Lewis’ “The Screwtape Letters” and its companion essay, “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” to be helpful illustrations of Satan at work. I recognize that Lewis was, at the end of the day, just a man and a novelist. Yet his gift lies in the way he translates spiritual truths into language that the everyday person can grasp. His ability to frame the unseen in terms we can see and feel is nothing short of remarkable.

Lewis portrays demons as subtle, manipulative beings who exploit human weaknesses rather than overtly monstrous entities. In “The Screwtape Letters,” hell is an organization with established hierarchies, laws, and menus for the consumption of souls. And the work of demons is not always loud or obvious, but often quiet, patient, and calculated, aimed always at one thing: the slow devouring of our God-given souls.

On the quality of souls: “The great (and toothsome) sinners are made out of the very same material as those horrible phenomena the great Saints.” This suggests that the most delectable souls for devils are those with strong, passionate qualities, whether for good or evil, as they provide more “substance” to feast on.

On the satisfaction of consuming robust sinners: “It was the souls of such as these, when we got them, that tasted so rich, so spicy, so full-bodied.” Screwtape laments the decline in quality of modern souls, reminiscing about the flavorful essence of historical figures like Farinata or Hitler, whose intense personalities made them a feast.

On the disappointment with modern souls: “The sort of soul I grew up on we got from a tragedy: something with some real guts to it, something that would make your mouth water.” Here, Screwtape contrasts the bland, petty souls of modern times with the more robust, hate-filled souls of the past that were more satisfying to consume.

Now, let me return to how Burning Man works. It is often described as more than a mere festival — many view it as a spiritual experience and call it “home.” I remember my own first arrival in Black Rock City: A volunteer crew of Burners greeted me, inviting me to ring a great bell, roll in the dusty sand, and declare, “I am not a virgin any more!” In that moment, I was welcomed “home.”

One of my first experiences there was boarding an art car, a double-decker bus dressed up as a dragon. It carried me to my camp, and I can still feel the warmth of the sun on my skin, the soft flutter of the fabric in the desert wind, and the strange, almost living spirit of that dragon-bus.

Everyone was so friendly on the bus. Perfect strangers smiling, talking as if they had known one another for years. Beautiful men and women, radiant in their freedom, sharing drinks, snacks, and little “playa gifts.” The artwork is otherworldly, and the structures emerge seemingly out of the dust. I had never experienced anything close to this before.

Living in the Bay Area at the time, the only opportunity I would get to see this many people in motion was during commute hours. Yet here, movement was different. Not sullen, not weighed down. Thousands of people moved about with smiles, intoxicated by freedom and joy and navigating the city of Black Rock with an ephemeral air.

As a sensory experience, Burning Man hits all of them in a very short fraction of time. Especially if you’re from Silicon Valley, where so much of life unfolds indoors and in front of screens, it feels like a sudden immersion back into the elements. Out there, under the desert sun, people often receive more vitamin D in a single week than they might otherwise get in months back home. I know that was true for my first year, when I became “hooked” on the experience.

Most people who come to Burning Man are, in some way, searching. For some, it’s a search for identity or self-expression; for others, it may be healing from loss, or simply a desire to break free and let loose. Burning Man is a compressed version of the most exciting EDM concert you’ve ever been to: ecstatic dance classes, yoga lessons, group therapy sessions, expressive art installations, visits to the red-light district, and alcohol- and drug-fueled nights out with friends.

And when I say “compressed,” I don’t just mean within the span of a week. What unfolds on the playa (the name given to the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man is held) feels like an entire lifetime distilled into mere hours. A single “playa hour” can carry the weight of countless parties, one-night stands, profound conversations, and fleeting moments of human connection. This is why, after Burning Man ends, long-term Burners usually will attend “decompression parties,” which continue the communal living, partying, sex, massages, deep and longing connections, unabridged confessions to one another, and feigning affection. These can go on for several days or, in some cases, even weeks.

It all sounds intoxicating, doesn’t it? Unbridled ecstasy, shared communally, offered as the pinnacle of human experience. A sensory feast, a kind of temporary utopia. But here’s the catch: What feels like transcendence in the moment is, in truth, the flesh at its fullest — raw desire, fleeting connection, indulgence without anchor. It dazzles, it overwhelms, but it does not last. And it never will. When the dust settles, the hunger always returns.

For several years, I camped at “Founder’s Camp” or “First Camp,” located at Esplanade and 5 o’clock. (Black Rock City is mapped out as a precise grid: concentric half-circles marked by letters, crossed by roads laid out like the hours of a clock.) First Camp is more than just a location; it is the nerve center of Burning Man, the administrative and business hub that quietly runs the entire event.

Staying at First Camp afforded me a unique opportunity to spend time with leadership. I camped alongside Larry Harvey, the co-founder of Burning Man, and Marian Goodell, the current CEO. I would often find myself in personal conversations with them over meals in the dining tent or lounging in the common spaces. Yet over time, it became clear that First Camp was not only about logistics. It was also a place of access, where celebrities and dignitaries — tech founders, movie stars, diplomats, and even royalty — were hosted.

The day-to-day operators at Burning Man all carried walkie-talkies and communicated issues affecting the event, such as arrests, injuries, deaths, accidents, missing-person complaints, and other concerns. It was always bustling and hectic. The old guard of Burning Man now includes several people in their 60s and 70s, and they continually welcome new leadership. Most young people burn out due to the weight of responsibility. It isn’t all fun and games; hosting such a massive and detailed event is a year-round commitment for several dozen people.

The old guard is treated in an almost mythical fashion by newcomers, who love hearing about the founding stories and all the “crazy” years when things were “really wild.”

True Burners cloak themselves in their “playa names,” part of a chosen family forged in the desert. Sometimes I never even knew the real names of people I camped beside. “Crimson,” for example, the woman who has overseen pyrotechnics since the 1990s, wore long white braids and radiated a maternal presence. She once hand-knit a baby blanket for my daughter. And yet after all these years, I still do not know her name beyond “Crimson.””

© 8.28.2025 by Nicole Shanahan, "X.com". (H/T Pastor Tom)

After Charlie Kirk, What Next – Riots? Exactly!

I want to go out on a limb and predict that the tragic death of Charlie Kirk will lead to protests and riots and chaos in the street. 

However, it will not be led by Republicans outraged by the assassination of that great and good man. 

It will – as it almost always has been – the work of Democrats, Democratic Socialists and those even farther out on the left wing of America’s political spectrum. 

Please mark my words here. Charlie Kirk’s assassination will trigger violence, as it so often does, on college campuses. Maybe this weekend, almost certainly next week. There will be many – paralleling George Floyd, for instance, or the Ferguson riots in St. Louis – that started around an individual or a specific and narrow location. 

Friday – yesterday as I write this – I saw the first inklings of the progressive left’s actions.

Don’t take my word for it. 

Here’s what NBC, one of the vanguard far-left “mainstream media” has to say about this:

Following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk this week, educators across the country have found themselves facing swift termination or potential discipline after allegedly sharing opinions on social media about the killing.

The more biased “industry media,” such as edweek.com, had this to say in an article’s headline:

          Teachers Across the U.S. Get Suspended or Fired Over Posts Linked to Charlie Kirk

The article is biased – considering its advocacy role in the “teacher vs. administrator” battle, that’s understandable.

It’s a short article and well worth reading.  Here’s how they make teachers the victims:

Teachers have been among those who are alleged to have posted controversial and inflammatory comments about Kirk—prompting widespread doxxing, disciplinary actions in several states, and warnings from state officials to educators about inappropriate online statements.

The resulting firestorm has raised questions of teachers’ online speech rights and responsibilities during emotionally charged and politically divisive events.

More involved in political “free speech” issues – supporting colleges and universities that support free speech only for designated groups – none of them conservative – are publications like Rolling Stone:

People are losing their jobs for criticizing slain ‘free speech’ advocate Charlie Kirk.  Journalists, publicists, and college faculty have been fired after calling the right-wing influencer a divisive figure and making light of his assassination.

The conversation around the assassination of right-wing activist and Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk on Wednesday during a campus event at Utah Valley University has been fiery, to say the least.

Graphic footage of 31-year-old Kirk, being fatally shot in the neck has gone mega-viral, inflaming passions on all sides. The public has imagined a full spectrum of deranged political motives for the killing. Prominent members of the MAGA movement are using Kirk’s death to call for a “civil war” with leftists they accuse of inciting violence.

These were the increasing outpouring of statements and public comments by the news media, as well as academics, who are writing and making provocative statements about the failings of Charlie Kirk. Especially triggering are comments about how much Kirk deserved execution because of his bold statements in favor of:

Looking back over recent violence-in-the-streets issues, there is a pattern that affects our society.

If it holds true, and I think it will, we’ll see violent rioting, on campus, especially colleges that stand up in favor of civil discourse – the last thing the far left desires.   

We can expect suspended or terminated faculty members to become martyrs – around whom the rallying cry will trigger tens of thousands – or more – college students to march, violently, against any person or college who stands up against the vitriol and hatred already being spewed out against Charlie Kirk, and against anyone who dares mourn him.

The pattern will follow that set by the “four dead in Ohio” riots based on a tragic shooting of protesters at Kent State University in the spring of 1970, or the Black Lives Matter riots much more recently.

Almost inevitably, the right will do something that is, in terms of society, “right,”  but which outrages the Left.  Using anti-hate speech policies and laws, faculty members who speak out without a care for the consequences will be sanctioned for what will be, accurately, hate speech.

Then the Left will go crazy – again almost always beginning on campus – with violent rioting justified as “protesting.”  The media will inevitably call the bloody, fire-breathing riots “almost always peaceful,” and … we’re off to the races.

© 9.13.2025 by Ned Barnett, "American Thinker".

He May Have Pulled The Trigger, But Charlie Kirk’s Suspected Killer Didn’t ‘Act Alone’

After an intensive, multi-day manhunt, law enforcement officials on Friday said they had taken into custody conservative icon Charlie Kirk’s killer. Police assert 22-year-old Tyler Robinson “acted alone” in assassinating the Turning Point USA founder. 

But did he? 

Authorities said Robinson’s roommate shared with investigators the alleged cold-blooded killer’s communications on messaging app Discord. In them, the suspect discusses “a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel.”

The alleged ‘radicalized’ assassin did not get to this moment on his own. Investigation details show a young man steeped in leftist dogma.

At a press conference Friday morning, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said investigators found a Mauser Model 98 .30-06 caliber, bolt-action rifle with a mounted scope in a wooded area on the Utah university campus where Kirk was fatally shot. Cox said the inscription on the fired casing read, “Notices bulges OwO What’s This?” That is apparently a reference to online memes tied to animated videos and “furry culture,” a fetish.

Two unfired casings found next to the rifle wrapped in a dark towel included separate inscriptions, Cox said: “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,” and “Hey fascist! Catch!” next to arrows pointing up, right, down, down, and down. According to multiple reports, the arrows represent an input code for an airstrike in a multi-person violent video game known as “Helldivers 2.” The code, too, has been used in memes “to signify a devastating reaction to something that should be destroyed,” USA Today reported. 

Bella Ciao” is an Italian antifascist song.

‘Radicalized’

As The Blaze’s Auron Macintyre put it, the shooter appears to have been “radicalized by a leftist terrorist network, and it seems like he may have also coordinated with them for the attack.”

“The FBI should be going scorched earth on them as we speak,” Macintyre wrote on X. “Lists, names, raids, arrests, action, no excuses.” 

Even if the alleged assassin “acted alone,” he surely did not get to this moment on his own. We know so far from the early details of the investigation that the suspect appears steeped in Marxist Antifa-style indoctrination.

The Federalist’s Editor-in-Chief Mollie Hemingway said the stunning murder of the 31-year-old conservative leader needs to be a “wake-up call” to Congress.

“We’ve seen a lot of weakness and impotence on the right, so Republican leaders need to not just stand up there and say, ‘Oh, we must condemn—both sides do these things,’ Hemingway told Fox Business Network’s Stuart Varney this week. “They need to actually take the threat from left-wing activists very seriously. They need to investigate how they’re funded—Antifa, other terrorist groups. They’re going to war against ICE. You know, they tried to kill Donald Trump. They’ve successfully killed Charlie Kirk.”

President Trump earlier this week said his administration planned to investigate funding sources of violent far-left campaigns, noting leftist billionaire George Soros and his “nonprofits.”  

“We’re going to look into Soros because I think it’s a RICO [racketeering] case against him and other people, because this is more than protests. This is real agitation. This is riots on the street — and we’re going to look into that,” Trump told Fox News.

Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., a member of the House Oversight Committee, told The Federalist he believes it is long past time for Congress to take a closer look at the activities and funding sources of leftist extremist organizations. Kirk’s assassination has made that effort all the more urgent.

‘Follow the Money’

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, wants the House to form a select committee on “The money, influence, and power behind the radical left’s assault on America and the rule of law.”

“In the wake of numerous attacks on our way of life, the destruction of the rule of law, and the murder of innocent Americans, prominent and unknown alike, we must take every step to follow the money and uncover the force behind the NGOs, donors, media, public officials, and all entities driving this coordinated attack,” Roy said Thursday in a press release

“The patterns are undeniable: we are witnessing a sustained breakdown of law and order, fueled not by chance, but by anti-American ideology,” Roy wrote in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. “Of course, we witnessed the 2024 assassination attempt on President Trump as well as the 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers at baseball practice, but it goes well beyond politicians and to the people themselves.”

He noted the “targets” placed on Kirk and the Family Research Council by the Southern Poverty Law Center after SPLC, an influential leftist hate group, added the two to their “Hate Map.” He also noted Marxist networks such as Antifa have organized, funded, and deployed “sophisticated terror campaigns attacking law enforcement and destroying American cities.”

The lawmaker said the best option is a stand-alone committee with full authority to investigate. Its members should have prosecutorial and law enforcement backgrounds, and the committee should be granted full subpoena powers, Roy wrote. 

“We can no longer pretend to be bound together by shared ideals when a well-funded, vitriolic cadre of our fellow Americans and foreign interests are at war with the very values of faith in God, fidelity to our Constitution, and respect for the principles of liberty and Western Civilization that define us as Americans – including, notably, the free speech practiced and exemplified by Charlie Kirk,” the congressman added. 

Those leftist networks, at least at some level, include the U.S. institutions of higher education that have become dens of radical leftism — “safe spaces” for Marxist, America-hating ideology at taxpayers’ expense.

© 9.01.2025 by M.D. KITTLE, "".

Valid CSS!

Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict