My fears for the dangerous future of American politics
BY: BRINN SMITH
News Editor
On Sept. 10, 2025, political commentator Charlie Kirk was killed at an event at Utah Valley University. On Sept. 21, 2025, a memorial was held at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. During this memorial, the president of our country said that he “hated his enemies,” something that was prefaced with his statement that “Charlie didn’t hate his enemies.” While I don’t have any direct quote that states that Charlie did hate his enemies, I do know that the actions that he took and the rhetoric that he spouted lead to direct, systematic harm to the people that were ideologically opposed to him.
Take, for instance, his statements about transgender people. There are numerous times that Kirk made statements regarding trans people, seeing that we are a large political talking point as of late. In a video posted to his Instagram on March 10, 2025, from one of his pop-up debate tents, likely on a college campus, Kirk was asked if he would support any of his children if they came out as gay or trans and in response Kirk said:
“I don’t affirm delusions. You do not affirm what is harmful or what is not true, and you must find the underlying issue as to why this is happening… Young women have always been more prone to social contagions, and transgenderism is a social contagion.”
This message that Kirk spouted many times is a message that is directly harmful to people that would be considered his enemies.
While this is one of many ideas that Kirk spouted without actual backing, this is representative of the words that he used, and the harm that he caused because of them. Kirk was able to amass a sizable audience of people that believed his every word and he was able to get in the ear of the president.
That is what I’m scared of. I’m scared that a person who did so much harm with their words is somehow able to be looked upon so fondly by a sizable amount of people. Even people who should have been opposed to him, like the democrats that he was so opposed to, seem to hold him in such high regard, despite the hatred that he spewed.
I’m scared that a man that was so spiteful and hurtful, is now being used by the president of what is regularly the strongest country in the world to launch assaults on political opponents and cities that voted against him. Did Kirk deserve to die? No. But this has grown into something so much greater than his death.
