I saw Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow speak at his memorial on Sunday. She was magnificent. She promised to keep Charlie’s mission going. I pray that she is able to. But those are some big shoes to fill…
One never knows for sure beforehand, but I think Charlie Kirk’s assassination may be something of a tipping point in American politics and culture, or, at a minimum, an inflection point. Why? Because Charlie wasn’t a radical, he wasn’t a firebrand, he wasn’t a bomb thrower… No, Charlie was—in a relative sense—a lamb. And now, that lamb has been slaughtered.
While Charlie was a brilliant speaker, his true genius was his willingness to engage almost anyone and do so on their terms, using their own words. We’ve all seen videos of Charlie sitting at a table or standing on a podium at some random college, engaging with students or activists. Typically, Charlie would allow the students to ask questions or make an argument and then respond accordingly. Usually quite brilliantly, always politely.
In all honesty, I sometimes felt bad for his interlocutors, who were often young and brainwashed and had to stand and have their arguments dismantled in front of their peers. While it may have done them some good in the long run, for that moment, it almost certainly didn’t feel like it.
Charlie was easily one of the bravest men on America’s political and cultural battlefield. Why? Because he made it his stock in trade regularly to go into the lion’s den, armed only with a microphone and a brilliant mind for defense. And when I say lion’s den, I mean academia, where the left has been minting young communists for half a century.
When I was in college in the ’80s and ’90s, when a sliver of normalcy still remained and the cancer of politics had not infected every element of life, there was no one doing what Charlie was doing. Thirty years later, when the left had transformed every aspect of American life, from sports to media to scouting to Halloween—and, especially, education—into a political minefield, Charlie went in and engaged with students and professors on their home turf. He usually came away the victor. He did so utilizing a combination of facts and the Socratic method that left the person with whom he was engaging wondering what had just happened, and often humbled.
Charlie was extraordinarily effective, both in engaging with the public and also, and perhaps more importantly, motivating young people on campuses across the country to follow his lead, to stand up and engage in debate from a conservative, patriotic, Christian perspective, something that had largely been erased from most universities by the early part of the 21st century.
The vehicle for Charlie’s evangelism of conservative principles was Turning Point USA, an organization he co-founded in 2012 at the age of eighteen. A little over a decade later, TPUSA is one of the most important organizations in the American political landscape, having over 800 college and university chapters across the country and running programs and summit events every year.
Over that time, Charlie and TPUSA have been responsible for inspiring millions of young people to throw off the radical leftist straitjackets that academia sought to keep them in. Indeed, looking at the shift of young people, particularly young men, to the right, it’s clear that he was one of the movement’s most important catalysts in propelling Donald Trump back to the White House in 2024.
Charlie Kirk was attractive, engaging, effective, and brave. And the left killed him for it because violence is all that the left has to offer. As Charlie demonstrated every time he took to a podium to speak or a table to debate, words, eloquently delivered, with passion and supported by facts, can be a powerful weapon in the battle of ideas and policy. The left had no good answer to Charlie. Sure, they have passion, and they sometimes have eloquence, but they rarely have facts or reality on their side, and even less often, common sense.
For the left, because Charlie was such a successful shepherd of young men and women, he had to be eliminated.
Whether it’s rioting and burning down cities across the country, using mob tactics to intimidate speakers and politicians, or literally killing their opponents, the left in America has lost its battle for the mind of the American man…and woman. In the world of ideas, the left has lost the debate and has nothing left to offer but violence, and the killing of Charlie Kirk is the ultimate example of exactly that.
Which is why the left might have finally gone too far. It’s not like they took out some fire-breathing conservative pugilist who used invective and intimidation as his tools of the trade. No, they took out a man who was polite, respectful, and fundamentally decent. And despite the left’s attempts to paint him as a radical purveyor of hate, it is clear to any objective observer that he was anything but.
They say that the margins drive politics, and that the hardcore of both sides are largely unmovable in the short term, leaving the 10%-15% in the middle as the targets of intense political messaging. Most of those people are persuadable, although what persuades them is sometimes unknown. But what is known is that the assassination of a decent family man, who welcomed polite discussions with everyone, gets people’s attention, particularly when it’s in full color video, in gruesome detail. Given that it comes on the heels of another vicious, bloody murder of an innocent at the hands of a man who was a product of a leftist-controlled criminal justice system, it will likely make many of those perennial fence sitters recognize that one side is about violence and the other about ideas.
Most Americans don’t want violence to be the driving force in their politics any more than they want it in their lives. President Trump will never convince people who want to allow murderers to walk among innocents to support stronger penalties for violent offenders—but then he doesn’t have to. Charlie’s murder will likely have a sufficient impact that a significant majority of Americans will recognize that violence cannot be allowed to become the coin of the realm.
When leftist violence is allowed to percolate, everyone loses, everywhere, all the time. That was true in the Soviet Union, in Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, and is true today in Venezuela. Few Americans, other than those associated with Antifa, BLM, and Bluesky, want to see blood in the streets, political or otherwise. The shock of Charlie Kirk’s murder just might be the catalyst that lets America regain her footing on the righteous path that’s been blockaded by the violent thugs on the left.
That would be a fitting legacy for a man who spent most of his life trying to get Americans to recognize, appreciate, and protect the gifts that our Founding Fathers left us.
President Trump blasted the United Nations yesterday — while speaking at the United Nations.
An absolutely beautiful moment. U.N. elites are out of their minds about this, as is the elite American media. However: We should be out of the U.N. The U.N. morally sanctions terrorism and totalitarianism. They do it with American money. PULL THE PLUG on the U.N., President Trump.
I love how President Trump represents America when around other world leaders. He acts and speaks as if America is better than other countries. And he’s RIGHT. America was the only country that ever stood for individual rights, private property and freedom of speech, on principle. America was the first country to put the rights of man above the rights of government; the first country to put the rule of law above the rule of men.
I cringe when I see President Trump around world leaders for only one reason: That we cannot have him forever.
We are the first and the best because we were the first to be right. Our founding principles drove out slavery, socialism and fascism–and for the first time ever, through capitalism, lifted the standard of living for everyone to unprecedented heights. This is not racism or nationalism. It’s the truth.
By the way: If President Trump is really a dictator, why is Jimmy Kimmel back on the air?
And if leftists are NOT barbarians and domestic terrorists, why do they so approve of Jimmy Kimmel?
Just over half of America’s leftist voters and 40% of registered Democrats believe that the assassination of Turning Point USA CEO Charlie Kirk was “understandable,” according to a new poll released Tuesday from Rasmussen Reports.
The survey revealed 54% of leftist voters believe that the conservative leader trafficked in “hateful” rhetoric and therefore viewed his murder as “understandable.” (Source: Newsmax 9-23-25)
Wow. Just wow. And you don’t think the 21st century American equivalent of concentration camps isn’t possible? That it can’t happen here? I believe this poll, because nearly all the leftists and Democrats I have known hate dissenting opinion. They call it “hate speech.” It’s projection. THEY hate, and will not tolerate, anyone who doesn’t think and vote like they do.
And millions of them are fine with someone killing you for it.
Meanwhile, a new poll shows a majority of voters believe it’s appropriate to fire employees who celebrate Charlie Kirk’s murder online.
A week’s vacation from his “comedy” show didn’t make Jimmy Kimmel any funnier, less bitter, or more likeable. In fact, the late-night host returned to Jimmy Kimmel Live! Tuesday — on fewer ABC local affiliate stations — sounding more partisan and petulant than ever.
Kimmel offered no apology for the lies he told about Charlie Kirk’s assassination, comments that earned him an “indefinite,” short-lived suspension from his corporate bosses. The poster-child for Trump Derangement Syndrome thumbed his nose at the president and shook his fist at Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr for hinting that Kimmel’s comments violated long-standing broadcast laws.
Kimmel, whose self-delusion is almost as powerful as his self-importance, spent much of his time back on the air performing the role of free-speech warrior, bent but not broken. It was bad acting, bad theater and bad taste, particularly for those who just paid their last respects to a real freedom fighter who was murdered for his commitment to free speech and his faith.
In short, Kimmel again is the punchline to a bad joke.
“This show is not important: What is important is that we get to live in a country that allows us to have a show like this,” he puffed. His main sponsor for the evening should have been Pepto-Bismol. Kimmel’s schtick was not for the weak of stomach.
He bragged about the uptick in viewers he expected in his triumphant return, mocking Trump for saying Kimmel had no ratings.
“Well, I do tonight,” Kimmel said to raucous applause from his band of liberal audience members, who come for the Trump hate and stay for the leftist echo chamber.
While Kimmel’s defenders — including California Gov. Gavin Newsom — saw Kimmel’s temporary layoff as an attack on the First Amendment, a lot of noncelebrity Americans did not.
Off With Their Jobs
A new poll by RMG Research and the Napolitan News Service found a majority of respondents (51%) believe it’s appropriate for private businesses to fire people who jump online and revel in the assassination of Kirk. While Kimmel insisted Tuesday that he wasn’t celebrating the 31-year-old conservative icon’s murder, he falsely claimed Kirk’s accused killer was part of the “MAGA gang.”
The poll of 1,000 registered voters found just 35 percent of respondents say it is not appropriate for private employers to sack death revelers. Perhaps not surprising, just 27 percent of Democrats agree that employers have a right to fire workers who engage in such loathsome acts, while 80 percent of Republicans say the firings are appropriate.
Leftists from a variety of industries have posted some truly vile things following Kirk’s assassination two weeks ago at a college event in Utah. Many have been shown the door. The terminated include Matthew Dowd. MSNBC’s resident justifier of leftist political assassins suggested Kirk may have invited the bullet through his “divisive” rhetoric. Dowd later complained that MSNBC’s hosts cared more about Kimmel’s suspension than his firing.
The poll found 59 percent of registered voters surveyed think reporters and public officials should be fired for celebrating an assassination.
A poll earlier this month conducted by RMG Research and the Napolitan News Service found a shocking 15 percent of registered voters believe America is better off after Kirk’s murder. A similar poll last year showed 17 percent of respondents said it would have been better if President Donald Trump had been killed by his attempted assassin.
Trump had some thoughts on Kimmel’s return.
“I can’t believe ABC Fake News gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back. The White House was told by ABC that his Show was cancelled! Something happened between then and now because his audience is GONE, and his ‘talent’ was never there,” Trump posted on X. “Why would they want someone back who does so poorly, who’s not funny, and who puts the Network in jeopardy by playing 99% positive Democrat GARBAGE.”
Matt Kittle is a senior elections correspondent for The Federalist. An award-winning investigative reporter and 30-year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
I am deeply saddened by what is happening to our country. America is reaching a boiling point, and it appears that we have entered a new era of civil unrest in which political violence will become the norm. At this moment in our history, we should all be denouncing political violence as loudly as we can. Unfortunately, there are many voices that are loudly calling for more political violence. I have been warning that this time would come for so many years, and now it is here. The “left” deeply hates the “right”, and the “right” deeply hates the “left”. But how is a bitterly divided nation supposed to thrive? How is it even supposed to survive? Those that founded this country shared a common set of core values, but today there are no core values that still unite us, because the core values that our founders believed in so strongly have been abandoned. In fact, in so many ways America is now the complete opposite of what our founders intended.
Decades ago, we would laugh at the pathetic nations that were constantly plagued by political violence.
A ponytailed New Hampshire man has been arrested after allegedly plotting to assassinate the state’s Republican governor with a ‘weapon of mass destruction.’
Tristan Anderson, 22, is accused of threatening to kill Governor Kelly Ayotte with homemade pipe bombs.
According to investigators, Anderson made the chilling threats to his roommate on Snapchat, bragging about his plans and showing off the materials he intended to use.
Hopefully authorities will lock up that nut for a long time, but the truth is that there are millions of others just like him.
A radical leftist student at Oberlin College casually called for political assassinations to continue in the wake of the targeted killing of political activist Charlie Kirk last week, according to an online post she made.
“We need to bring back political assassinations,” said Julia Xu in a social media post, where her handle is @bringbacktheguillotine.
“I don’t feel bad and I don’t think that everyone deserves the right to free speech. Some people should be afraid to express their opinion in public.
That is sick.
If you have not seen the footage of her making these comments yet, you can find it on YouTube.
So where did she get such horrifying ideas?
Well, it turns out that her thinking has been greatly influenced by Chairman Mao…
Xu is on the advisory board of campus group the Gender, Sexuality and Attraction Initiatives, an office that supports queer, trans and women’s programming at the school. Xu, who uses they/them pronouns, is also a member of Students for a Free Palestine.
Xu said she made the comments about Kirk, who was assassinated during a student debate at Utah Valley University in Orem last week, after being given five minutes for “hot takes” during her “Revolution, Socialism and Reform in China” class.
She said her statement was influenced by her learnings about Chairman Mao, then went on to misguidedly (and perhaps inadvertently) praise the Chinese leader’s authoritarianism.
There are many on the left that would be thrilled if the United States was transformed into another version of communist China.
And a lot of them are openly admitting that blood must be spilled to accomplish that goal. In fact, a tax collector in Pennsylvania has openly admitted that she is “so tired of being told” that violence isn’t the answer…
Ambler, PA tax collector and local Democratic Party leader calls for MORE ass*ssinations and violence
“I’m so tired of being told that violence isn’t into the answer. History is filled with blood. Let’s make some more myrtys.”
SHE NEEDS TO RESIGN.
All over social media, there are people that are talking about a violent uprising.
That should chill you to the core.
In response, the Trump administration plans to crack down on left-wing organizations.
In fact, President Trump just announced that Antifa will be officially designated as a terrorist organization…
President Trump announced Wednesday that he will designate antifa as a terrorist organization, and is recommending investigations into people who allegedly fund it.
It’s unclear when the designation will take place, or what legal implications it will have. Antifa — short for anti-fascist — is a loose affiliation of mostly left-leaning activists, and generally is not considered to be a highly organized group.
I don’t think that people understand what this means.
During previous administrations, terrorists have been shipped off to Guantanamo Bay to be tortured and hunted down by predator drones.
In his post announcing this change on Truth Social, President Trump explained that Antifa will now be deemed to be “A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION”…
I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Of course Antifa does not hand out membership cards.
So how will it be determined whether leftist protesters are part of Antifa or not?
There are so many unanswered questions.
But what we do know is that the temperature is rising in this country, and it got even hotter when Jimmy Kimmel was suddenly pulled off the air…
After ABC’s suspension of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” over the comedian’s comments on Charlie Kirk, reactions have been swift, and many question remain.
The Walt Disney-owned network confirmed on Wednesday, Sept. 17, that it has indefinitely pulled Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show following comments he made on a Sept. 15 episode regarding the fatal shooting of the conservative commentator.
don’t understand why he was still on the air.
He was supposed to be a comedian, but he simply was not funny.
Maybe that is why so few people were still watching him.
ABC decided to make this move because Kimmel suggested that Charlie Kirk’s shooter was part of “the MAGA gang”…
“We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it,” he said.
Jimmy Kimmel should have known better than to say something like that, because everyone knows that it isn’t true.
So his employer held him accountable.
But all over BlueSky, liberals are freaking out as if some major turning point in our history has just happened. Here is one example…
First, Stephen Colbert. Now Jimmy Kimmel. Is it sinking in now? Do you all get it now? We now live in an authoritarian dictatorship. The United States of America as we know it is OVER for everyone.
There are a lot of things that are going on in this country that are worth getting tremendously upset about.
The cancellation of Jimmy Kimmel is not one of them.
But Rosie O’Donnell believes that this nation “is no more” now that Jimmy Kimmel is off the air…
O’Donnell lamented on Instagram: “this is unacceptable – f— this fascist administration and corrupt corporate executives – bowing to the orange monster – america is no more .”
She is not rational.
Unfortunately, we have reached a point where vast segments of the U.S. population are not rational.
And when people are not thinking rationally, violence can erupt.
‘Well, it’s troubling to say the least,’ the A-list star said. ‘And we all have to really take a moment and figure how we feel about this type of thing.
‘Especially, people doing what you do.
‘I’m sure there’s going to be some sort of collective move to respond to this, but I’m not smart enough or powerful enough to be the one to do it but I imagine there’s plenty of conversations going on to do something, because you just can’t stand by and let stuff like that go on.’
Exactly what did he mean when he said that “you just can’t stand by and let stuff like that go on”?
If he suggesting what it sounds like he is suggesting?
Everyone needs to take a step back and cool down for a while.
But of course that isn’t going to happen, is it?
2025 is the moment when our national boiling point is being reached, and things are only going to get crazier from here.
To argue that schools of education have gone bonkers is akin to penning an op-ed that the Titanic sank. The fact is given. Does anyone dispute it?
The most-assigned books and essays for prospective teachers are a heady mixture of race essentialism, gender theory, and outright Marxist kookery. Trainees learn much of critical-consciousness raising, Marxist praxis, and gender as a performative act but little of classroom management, curricular sequencing, or instructional practice. Unsurprisingly, research into the impact of these programs finds that teachers who attend them are no more effective than alternatively trained or even untrained career transitioners.
Since at least the 1960s, schools of education have housed some of our most radical thinkers.Since at least the 1960s, schools of education have housed some of our most radical thinkers. Many leaders of the terroristic Weather Underground found refuge in them, for example. And, since then, along with a handful of law schools, education schools have introduced into public consciousness many of conservatives’ bugaboos, from critical race theory to microaggressions and white fragility.
The scholarship that such schools produce often reads like the sweaty rantings of a schizophrenic.The scholarship—a gracious thing to call it—that such schools produce often reads like the sweaty rantings of a schizophrenic. Skim any education-school publication list, and you’ll find a mess of auto-ethnographies, case studies, and glorified op-eds championing the latest progressive classroom intervention. Notably absent are randomized-controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, or meta-analyses proving the theories actually work.
Education schools are indeed, as a former Harvard president once called them, a “kitten that ought to be drowned.” Such disdain is typically how conservatives discuss them: Schools of education delenda est. Or they follow Milton Friedman’s recommendation to abolish licensure policies and let the market sort it out.
A former classical-school administrator turned education columnist, I come to you, dear reader of the Martin Center, with a different request. The K-12 education system in America has a personnel problem. Were education schools reformed instead of razed, they could very well help. As the mill that produces America’s corps of teachers, the university could—dare I say must—assist in the reformation of elementary and secondary schools.
Imagine for a moment that we had an auto-pass button for legislation and made school choice universal across the nation tomorrow. Who would staff these classrooms? Who would fill administrative roles? Who would write the curricula, run the professional organizations, and make the local policy? The exact same left-leaning corps of school personnel who presently run the system.
Moreover, ask any classical-school administrator or even standard district principal who wants a returned focus to academics, and he’ll tell you that staffing is one of his greatest difficulties. All prospective teachers have gone through university teacher prep, and it’s difficult to deprogram them. Well-intentioned administrators must choose between untrained, unvetted career transitioners (a gamble) or teachers who are credentialed but education-schooled (also a gamble).
What if, instead of dismantling schools of education or undoing any licensure requirements—both politically unlikely and with their own tradeoffs—we instead reform them? We can (and should) use the rightful power of state governments over public university systems to form education schools into a better mold.
There are two avenues for reformation: correct the existing institutions or build separate ones. Look down each, and, as Robert Frost’s narrator observes, both roads for reform are just as fair.
The first avenue is to force the existing institutions into a more classical, or at least a more practical, mold. Purify the source, and the stream will run clear. Florida has already begun setting the framework to make such a policy play. Last year, Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 1291, which prohibits teacher-prep programs from grounding themselves in “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
The first avenue is to force existing education schools into a more classical, or at least a more practical, mold.A report from the Claremont Institute found that those radical theories are precisely what the University of Florida was teaching future educators. Critical race theorists and other radical authors litter the syllabi. Practical manuals of instruction are few.
Other red states could follow Florida’s example. Instead of prohibiting instruction on controversial issues at the K-12 classroom level, which is difficult to prevent, target education schools. In Wisconsin, there are 13 public education schools and 421 public schools. Which is easier to surveil?
Practical training resources grounded in serious research and proven theory would set young teachers up for success in the classroom.The left happily leverages public policy to force their worldview into schools of education. Illinois’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards, for example, instruct teachers to provide their students with opportunities for “student advocacy,” to use activities with the aim of “raising consciousness,” and to always center their “social justice work.” Why not instead mandate that teachers learn about the best research into classroom management, study the basics of cognitive science, and read celebrated thinkers of the liberal-arts tradition?
There are plenty of practical training resources grounded in serious research and proven theory that would set young teachers up for success in the classroom.
A more popular approach, and one that policymakers are likely to pursue, is the creation of new institutions. Several already exist. Most notably, Hillsdale College and the University of Dallas both provide master’s degrees in classical education, and their graduates staff the rapidly growing classical-education movement. But because these are small programs at private, Christian institutions, their impact is inherently limited.
Menu
Element5 Digital, Unsplash
How to Reform Schools of Education
What progressives have seized, conservatives can seize back.
To argue that schools of education have gone bonkers is akin to penning an op-ed that the Titanic sank. The fact is given. Does anyone dispute it?
The most-assigned books and essays for prospective teachers are a heady mixture of race essentialism, gender theory, and outright Marxist kookery. Trainees learn much of critical-consciousness raising, Marxist praxis, and gender as a performative act but little of classroom management, curricular sequencing, or instructional practice. Unsurprisingly, research into the impact of these programs finds that teachers who attend them are no more effective than alternatively trained or even untrained career transitioners.
Since at least the 1960s, schools of education have housed some of our most radical thinkers.Since at least the 1960s, schools of education have housed some of our most radical thinkers. Many leaders of the terroristic Weather Underground found refuge in them, for example. And, since then, along with a handful of law schools, education schools have introduced into public consciousness many of conservatives’ bugaboos, from critical race theory to microaggressions and white fragility.
The scholarship that such schools produce often reads like the sweaty rantings of a schizophrenic.The scholarship—a gracious thing to call it—that such schools produce often reads like the sweaty rantings of a schizophrenic. Skim any education-school publication list, and you’ll find a mess of auto-ethnographies, case studies, and glorified op-eds championing the latest progressive classroom intervention. Notably absent are randomized-controlled trials, quasi-experimental studies, or meta-analyses proving the theories actually work.
Education schools are indeed, as a former Harvard president once called them, a “kitten that ought to be drowned.” Such disdain is typically how conservatives discuss them: Schools of education delenda est. Or they follow Milton Friedman’s recommendation to abolish licensure policies and let the market sort it out.
A former classical-school administrator turned education columnist, I come to you, dear reader of the Martin Center, with a different request. The K-12 education system in America has a personnel problem. Were education schools reformed instead of razed, they could very well help. As the mill that produces America’s corps of teachers, the university could—dare I say must—assist in the reformation of elementary and secondary schools.
Imagine for a moment that we had an auto-pass button for legislation and made school choice universal across the nation tomorrow. Who would staff these classrooms? Who would fill administrative roles? Who would write the curricula, run the professional organizations, and make the local policy? The exact same left-leaning corps of school personnel who presently run the system.
Moreover, ask any classical-school administrator or even standard district principal who wants a returned focus to academics, and he’ll tell you that staffing is one of his greatest difficulties. All prospective teachers have gone through university teacher prep, and it’s difficult to deprogram them. Well-intentioned administrators must choose between untrained, unvetted career transitioners (a gamble) or teachers who are credentialed but education-schooled (also a gamble).
What if, instead of dismantling schools of education or undoing any licensure requirements—both politically unlikely and with their own tradeoffs—we instead reform them? We can (and should) use the rightful power of state governments over public university systems to form education schools into a better mold.
There are two avenues for reformation: correct the existing institutions or build separate ones. Look down each, and, as Robert Frost’s narrator observes, both roads for reform are just as fair.
The first avenue is to force the existing institutions into a more classical, or at least a more practical, mold. Purify the source, and the stream will run clear. Florida has already begun setting the framework to make such a policy play. Last year, Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 1291, which prohibits teacher-prep programs from grounding themselves in “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
The first avenue is to force existing education schools into a more classical, or at least a more practical, mold.A report from the Claremont Institute found that those radical theories are precisely what the University of Florida was teaching future educators. Critical race theorists and other radical authors litter the syllabi. Practical manuals of instruction are few.
Other red states could follow Florida’s example. Instead of prohibiting instruction on controversial issues at the K-12 classroom level, which is difficult to prevent, target education schools. In Wisconsin, there are 13 public education schools and 421 public schools. Which is easier to surveil?
Practical training resources grounded in serious research and proven theory would set young teachers up for success in the classroom.The left happily leverages public policy to force their worldview into schools of education. Illinois’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards, for example, instruct teachers to provide their students with opportunities for “student advocacy,” to use activities with the aim of “raising consciousness,” and to always center their “social justice work.” Why not instead mandate that teachers learn about the best research into classroom management, study the basics of cognitive science, and read celebrated thinkers of the liberal-arts tradition?
There are plenty of practical training resources grounded in serious research and proven theory that would set young teachers up for success in the classroom.
A more popular approach, and one that policymakers are likely to pursue, is the creation of new institutions. Several already exist. Most notably, Hillsdale College and the University of Dallas both provide master’s degrees in classical education, and their graduates staff the rapidly growing classical-education movement. But because these are small programs at private, Christian institutions, their impact is inherently limited.
There are two avenues for reformation: correct the existing institutions or build separate ones. Look down each, and, as Robert Frost’s narrator observes, both roads for reform are just as fair.
The first avenue is to force the existing institutions into a more classical, or at least a more practical, mold. Purify the source, and the stream will run clear. Florida has already begun setting the framework to make such a policy play. Last year, Governor DeSantis signed House Bill 1291, which prohibits teacher-prep programs from grounding themselves in “theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression, and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States.”
Other red states could follow Florida’s example. Instead of prohibiting instruction on controversial issues at the K-12 classroom level, which is difficult to prevent, target education schools. In Wisconsin, there are 13 public education schools and 421 public schools. Which is easier to surveil?
Practical training resources grounded in serious research and proven theory would set young teachers up for success in the classroom.The left happily leverages public policy to force their worldview into schools of education. Illinois’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and Leading Standards, for example, instruct teachers to provide their students with opportunities for “student advocacy,” to use activities with the aim of “raising consciousness,” and to always center their “social justice work.” Why not instead mandate that teachers learn about the best research into classroom management, study the basics of cognitive science, and read celebrated thinkers of the liberal-arts tradition?
There are plenty of practical training resources grounded in serious research and proven theory that would set young teachers up for success in the classroom.
A more popular approach, and one that policymakers are likely to pursue, is the creation of new institutions. Several already exist. Most notably, Hillsdale College and the University of Dallas both provide master’s degrees in classical education, and their graduates staff the rapidly growing classical-education movement. But because these are small programs at private, Christian institutions, their impact is inherently limited.
More recently, the Goldwater Institute created a civics fellowship for teachers at Arizona State University to attend and learn more about America’s founding, fundamental ideals, and mechanics of government. A quickly replicable program, it’s a useful model but still limited in scope.
Among the most promising institutions are those such as the storied James Madison program at Princeton University and the upstart Hamilton Center at the University of Florida. A handful of these programs at larger institutions with a greater cultural footprint would quickly have a noticeable impact.
If each red state were to create similar institutions—especially if they included an education track focusing on training classical or liberal-arts teachers—a robust network would quickly form. Existing schools would have a larger pool from which to pull employees. More would move into administrative roles in large public-school systems or found their own schools, bolstering the supply side of school choice. Each could produce scholarship, host conferences, and establish publications to offset the noxious ideologies leaking out of schools of education.
A network of such institutions would essentially foster a Gramscian counter-march through the institutions, creating a critical mass of classically trained, or at least practically minded, leaders at all levels of American education.
Along both paths of reform, it’s worth briefly addressing what alternative teacher prep ought to include. Research shows that only content knowledge and experience correlate with teacher efficacy. You can talk pedagogy and “best practices” all day, but they have little impact if teachers lack both subject knowledge and real classroom experience.
A revamped education program would spend far more time filling the minds of future teachers with math, science, literature, and history.A revamped education program would spend far more time filling the minds of future teachers with math, science, literature, and history—the best that has been thought and said—and less time discussing classroom practice in the abstract. When future teachers do learn pedagogical practices, the work must be unapologetically practical. How do you write a good quiz? What do you do if a student throws a book at another student? How do you command respect in a room of 25 thirteen-year-olds?
The personnel problem may be the single greatest source of American educational woes. The natural corollary to that assertion is that reforming education schools may be the most consequential solution. Simultaneously a source of opportunity and pessimism, the state of teacher prep in America is already so abysmal that even modest changes could cause significant improvements for students. Schools of education have already hit the iceberg. The question now is whether lawmakers, regents, and university administrators send for lifeboats.
Daniel Buck is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network, and a former teacher and school administrator.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution: Democracy’s Enemy Within
A court pushback against the German agency’s overreach offers a symbolic win—but leaves the core threat of its existence untouched.
The Silent Majority Will Be Silent No Longer
Last Saturday’s Unite the Kingdom rally in London follows an encouraging pattern from across Europe—left-behind voters, sick to death of uncontrolled mass migration, are finding their voice.
Gladwell’s Confession on Trans Sports and Intellectual Dishonesty
The sociologist hasn’t changed his mind about trans people; he has simply acknowledged that he hid his true opinion out of cowardice.
The assassination of Charlie Kirk in the United States could well incite further acts of violence. In France, for several weeks now, prominent figures on the Right have been explicitly targeted by the far Left and subjected to death threats. Despite growing awareness that an attack could happen at any moment, the judicial authorities remain wilfully indifferent. Lacking any sense of responsibility, they are allowing these individuals to live in fear.
By coincidence, on the very day that we learned with horror and astonishment of the murder of Charlie Kirk on the Utah Valley campus, French essayists Dora Moutot and Marguerite Stern, known for their fight against the transgender lobby, announced the release of a video intended to alert their supporters to the dangers they have been facing for many months and the inaction of the authorities.
Since the publication of their essay Transmania, which exposes the delusions of transgender ideology and the deadly strategy of its supporters, the two women have been the target of repeated death threats and have found the slogan “a TERF (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist), a bullet” posted, tagged and shouted everywhere they go.
The death of Charlie Kirk—and moreover, the murky links between his murderer and the transgender community—deeply resonated with them. They denounce the transgender terrorism, which has proven its existence through several sordid killings.
Just today, someone announced that we would be targeted with bullets on September 10th. But on the other side of the Atlantic, it was Charlie who took the bullets, shot down like a rabbit in front of the crowd during his conference by a mentally ill person whose brain was probably eaten away by wokeism. Charlie will never come back.
This news traumatises me. Really. I’m afraid that tomorrow it will be Marguerite or me.
For both women, it’s obvious: the same thing could happen in France. And it could happen all the more so because the authorities are in denial.
On September 11th, the day after Charlie Kirk’s death, Moutot and Stern published a video denouncing the Paris public prosecutor’s decision to dismiss a complaint they had filed against an ‘anti-fascist’ website that had explicitly threatened them with death. “In the open letter published by an anti-fascist website, these people admit to attempted murder. They claim to have burned down a building where Marguerite Stern was supposed to give a lecture, and they say they are coming armed to our rallies,” Dora Moutot told Le Figaro. However, the courts dismissed their complaint on the grounds that “the investigation did not identify the person who committed the offence.” The open letter is still online. They protested, but the prosecutor upheld the decision not to proceed—raising serious suspicions of political hostility in the decision.
Their lawyer, Louis Cailliez, decided to publicise this judicial scandal. The entire procedure was botched, not to say sabotaged. The names and numbers of the suspects given to the investigators contained altered letters or numbers, preventing any identification or prosecution. Cailliez pointed out no fewer than eleven glaring errors. He reported them to the public prosecutor’s office, which nevertheless refused to reverse its decision and closed the case.
Moutot and Stern are not the only ones affected. On X, calls for violence targeting French right-wing influencers have multiplied. They are explicit and unequivocal but do not seem to alarm the authorities.
Erik Tegnér, editor-in-chief of the conservative investigative magazine Frontières, has personally experienced this. Physically attacked while on holiday in Brittany with his fiancée during the summer, he now lives under repeated threats from a Moroccan Islamist who has been prosecuted and convicted but released. Interviewed on CNews in the days following Charlie Kirk’s death, he spoke with painfully restrained emotion about the constant danger he faces: “I’ve had to completely change my life, my habits, etc. I find myself in a situation where even my fiancée wants to move away, she’s completely paralysed,” he explained. The police themselves say they are concerned because the Moroccan is only required to report to the authorities once a week. The rest of the time, he is out of their control—ready to stab his target at any moment. At the beginning of October, Tegnér is preparing to publish an explosive, well-documented report on French mayors who are promoting Islamism, which is likely to cause him further trouble.
In the face of this distressing reality, the authorities remain in denial. In an attempt to bring about change, several conservative MPs, members of Identité Libertés (IdL), Marion Maréchal’s party, called on Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau to take action and protect these men and women who are risking their lives because they defend opinions considered heterodox and, as such, punishable by death in the eyes of the Left.
“Damien Rieu [a right-wing commentator] has requested protection from the Home Office, Dora Moutot and Marguerite Stern are under threat, and Erik Tegnér is being threatened by an Islamist who is still at large!” thundered MP Eddy Castermann, spokesman for IdL, on the conservative radio station Radio Courtoisie a few days ago.
To ensure their protection, Eddy Casterman and the two other Identité-Libertés MPs who co-signed the text, Thibaut Monnier and Anne Sicard, are calling for emergency measures. First and foremost: a reassessment of the threat by the Anti-Terrorism Coordination Unit (UCLAT). “Some of the individuals mentioned have already requested protection from the UCLAT. To date, despite being particularly exposed to a risk to their lives, none of them are receiving protection from the sub-directorate for the protection of persons,” the MPs explain.
At a time when the government is looking to make budget savings and is considering removing the police protection still enjoyed by certain ministers who left their official posts long ago, this would be an easy way to reallocate public funds. But for the moment, there is no indication that the threat is being taken seriously. Will someone have to die in France before anything is done?
In response to the heartbreaking assassination of Charlie Kirk, millions of Americans have been inspired to take action to save our country and return to their faith. In his short lifespan of 31 years, he had a monumental impact on our country, and it was on display during his memorial service, which attracted over 200,000 supporters and featured speakers such as President Donald Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, commentator Tucker Carlson, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and several other cabinet members.
It was an incredible tribute to a life well lived, to a man who had the right priorities of God, family, and country. Unfortunately, his passing has exposed tremendous hate and unmistakable evil within the Democratic Party.
This animosity was on display in the U.S. House of Representatives in the aftermath of his assassination. A call for prayer by the U.S. Representative Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was opposed by Democrats who vocally denounced her wonderful idea.
Eventually, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution to honor Charlie Kirk with the support of 215 Republicans and 98 Democrats. It offered sympathy to his family, denounced his assassination and honored Kirk as a “courageous American patriot” who “lived out his faith with conviction, courage, and compassion.”
Sadly, 60 Democrats either voted “present” or did not vote for the resolution. Even worse, 58 Democrats voted against this worthwhile resolution, including U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).
disgusting speech to her colleagues, she said Kirk’s “rhetoric and beliefs were ignorant, uneducated and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans.” Ocasio-Cortez claimed that the resolution would “bring great pain” to African Americans who experienced “segregation, Jim Crow and the legacy of bigotry.”
In response to her comments, the Executive Producer of “The Charlie Kirk Show,” Andrew Kolvet said, “Her words were disgraceful. Congress couldn’t even unite to condemn the assassination of Charlie Kirk, an American hero. That’s shameful.”
Of course, Kolvet is right, Ocasio-Cortez lied about Charlie Kirk. He was not a racist, and, as the resolution noted, he worked “tirelessly to promote unity.”
This is why Kirk offered progressives an opportunity to debate him on college campuses throughout the country. He treated all of them with respect and dignity, giving them the biggest platform he could offer.
His proposal of debate and wholesome discussion was met by violence and a bullet from a deranged leftist. It ended his life, but not his life’s work, which will now soar to new heights and have even greater influence.
Currently, his organization, Turning Point USA, has 3,500 high school and college chapters, but, as of September 18, 2025, Turning Point had received 62,000 requests for new chapters.
In the aftermath of his assassination, Turning Point USA will become an even more powerful organization. This is distressing to the hateful Democrats, who will continue to demonize Charlie Kirk.
For example, U.S. Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said she voted against the Kirk resolution because he was a racist. She compared the resolution to the Confederacy. In a CNN interview, she said, “Just like we made sure those Confederate relics were taken down…the idea of a new age relic being propped up is something I could not subscribe to.”
Crockett’s comments were both defamatory and reprehensible. If Crockett cared about the truth she could have asked CNN analyst Van Jones, a diehard Democrat, who was feuding with Charlie Kirk in the days before his assassination.
On CNN, Jones revealed that he received a text from Kirk one day before his murder. In the text, Kirk offered him “a respectful conversation about crime and race” on his program. Kirk also promised that he “would be a gentleman as I know you would be as well…We can disagree about the issues agreeably.”
Jones was incredibly impressed by the offer, noting that “Charlie Kirk and I were not friends. At all.” He said, “In the past week and a half, just watching people talk about civil wars and censorship and all this stuff coming out of his death, I just thought it was important to let people know. Don’t put that on Charlie Kirk.”
Jones remarked, that on “The last day of his life, he was reaching out to have not more censorship, (but) more conversation, more dialogue, with somebody who, honestly, was one of his adversaries, me.”
Fortunately, Jones came to understand the greatness of Charlie Kirk. He should educate the ignorant U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), who has been making vile statements about Charlie Kirk ever since his assassination.
Omar called Kirk “hateful,” and shared a video that “Kirk was Dr. Frankenstein, and his monster shot him through the neck.” This behavior is disgraceful, but not surprising for a politician who advocates more for radical Islam and her home country of Somalia than for the United States of America.
Omar declared that Kirk’s legacy should be relegated to “the dustbin of history,” and wished the nation would “hopefully move on and forget the hate that he spewed every single day.”
Well, sorry to disappoint you, Representative Omar, but his legacy will continue to expand in the years ahead. As Stephen Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff, said in his comments at Charlie Kirk’s memorial, his enemies “have no idea the dragon you have unleashed.”
As Miller said, the left has “nothing to offer, but bitterness.” He encouraged those who will continue his legacy to be “worthy” of his “sacrifice” and to defeat the “forces of darkness and evil.”
Ultimately, the effort to silence Charlie Kirk and demonize his legacy will fail miserably. As Vice President J.D. Vance noted, the memorial for Charlie Kirk was not a “funeral, but a celebration and a revival.”
Kirk’s impact on our country will extend beyond politics into religion and culture. It will lead to not only more Republicans, but more Christians, more traditional families, and more love of the United States of America. Well done, Charlie Kirk.
Einstein advocated socialism, a system that crushes innovation and mandates conformity. Clearly, brilliance is contextual. But assuming he said it, it’s a great quote on blind obedience.
*******
The claim that either you must forgive an unrepentant monster OR be consumed by hatred is an illogical false alternative. It’s entirely possible to refuse mercy to the guilty while remaining a peaceful and serene person. In fact, it fosters inner peace and serenity to name evil for what it is, treat it as such, refusing to pretend otherwise–and then move on.
Forgiveness of the unforgivable isn’t something that will enhance your inner peace; self-delusion is never the road to mental health.
Some people reply that you cannot move on with your life if you don’t forgive.
Why do you have to pretend that a monster isn’t a monster in order to move on with your life?
It’s a tribute to your lost or murdered loved one to call a spade a spade, in defense of the victim.
*******
A meme says: “The left hated Charlie Kirk because they say he was transphobic and homophobic. The left love Palestinians who are openly transphobic and homophobic.”
Good points. You have to understand: Leftists in power care nothing for gays, trannies, blacks, women or anyone else they elevate to a victim status. Leftists and “Democrats” elevate demoralized, vulnerable or downtrodden people in order to advance their own money and power, something they could never acquire without exploiting others via the coercion and manipulation of government. And the poor saps who cheer these 21st century Communists on simply do it to virtue-signal, to gain approval from others who are as clueless and misinformed as they are.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris falsely stated during a Tuesday appearance on “The View” that the 2024 presidential election was the “closest” of the 21st century.
The closest election in the 21st election was the Election of 2000, when former President George W. Bush won the Electoral College 271-266 electoral votes against former Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore. During her appearance on “The View,” Harris insisted that she hardly lost to President Donald Trump despite not winning a single swing state and becoming the first Democrat in two decades to lose the popular vote.
“This is unprecedented, think about this. There’s a race for president of the United States, the current sitting president is running for reelection. Three-and-a-half months from the election, he decides not to run,” Harris said. “The sitting vice president then takes the mantle, running against a former president of the United States who had been running for ten years with 107 days before the election. And by the way, another piece of what is unprecedented and a bit historical about that race, it is the closest presidential race in the 21st century in terms of the outcome.”
Aside from the 2000 election, the 2020 presidential election also had a narrower margin than 2024. During the 2020 election, former President Joe Biden won 74 more electoral votes than Trump, while Trump attained 86 more electoral votes than Harris in 2024.
Harris credited her loss with only having 107 days to launch her presidential race against Trump after Biden dropped out on July 21, 2024. She wrote in her new book, “107 Days,” that she grew frustrated with Biden and his staff for allegedly under-appreciating her.
The former vice president also wrote that while former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was her first choice to be her running mate, she did not pick him because she did not think voters would support a gay man.
DAILY CALLER NEWS FOUNDATION—Billionaire megadonor George Soros has funneled more than $80 million to organizations that praised terrorists or urged protest violence in America, according to a new report by the Capital Research Center.
The Capital Research Center report said Soros— through his Open Society Foundation—has distributed tens of millions to groups that engage in or endorse actions that meet the FBI’s definition of domestic terrorism. The revelations come as authorities investigate left-wing organizations for a possible connection to the Sept. 10 murder of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University.
Since 2020, the Open Society Foundation has given $400,000 to the Center for Third World Organizing, which boasts it “threw down with people in the streets” during the George Floyd riots, Capital Research Center noted. Center for Third World Organizing has consolidated radical groups into its hub, including the Ruckus Society, whose founders and training materials endorse tactics that “may be outside of the law,” Capital Research Center says. The network also includes the BlackOUT Collective, which co-authored a pro-Hamas guide that glorifies the Oct. 7 attacks and references a Ruckus Society manual promoting tactics like property destruction and blockades.
The Open Society Foundations also provided $1,850,000 to Dream Defenders and $18 million to Movement for Black Lives, which collaborated with BlackOut Collective to create the pro-Hamas guide, according to Capital Research Center’s report.
Soros’ foundations have given $200,000 to Dissenters, another co-author of the alleged pro-Hamas guide. Dissenters is listed as an endorser of the Shut It Down for Palestine coalition, which praises shutting down highways, bridges and targeting Israeli arms producers, according to Capital Research Center, and partners with the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee to promote illegal avoidance of taxes tied to U.S. defense activities.
A spokesperson for the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee told the Daily Caller News Foundation that it “generally agrees” with the statement that the group “advise[s] activists on how to illegally avoid paying some of their taxes to the IRS so as not to fund U.S. national security activities,” but said they do not have any specific comments regarding the report.
The Sunrise Movement has received at least $2 million from Open Society and promoted the Stop Cop City/Defend the Atlanta Forest coalition, linked to Antifa-associated anarchist terrorism, according to the report. Dozens of coalition members have faced domestic terrorism and racketeering charges for actions such as arson, property destruction, and assaults on law enforcement. Sunrise encouraged donations to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, which prosecutors allege provided bail, legal defense, and materials like ammunition, drones, and surveillance equipment, Capital Research Center wrote.
Center for Third World Organizing, Ruckus Society, BlackOUT Collective, Dream Defenders, Movement for Black Lives, Dissenters, the Sunrise Movement, and Stop Cop City/Defend the Atlanta Forest coalition did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Shut It Down for Palestine could not be reached for comment.
“The Open Society Foundations does not fund terrorism. Our activities are peaceful and lawful, and our grantees are expected to abide by human rights principles and be in compliance with the law,” a spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our work is solely dedicated to strengthening American democracy and upholding the fundamental freedoms enshrined in the US Constitution.”
President Donald Trump has stated that Soros and his son, Alex, should face federal racketeering charges or be put in jail.
“George Soros, and his wonderful Radical Left son, should be charged with RICO because of their support of Violent Protests, and much more, all throughout the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in August. “Soros, and his group of psychopaths, have caused great damage to our Country!”
Following the assassination of Kirk—which investigators are probing as a politically motivated attack—dozens of House Republicans called for the formation of a select committee on “The money, influence, and power behind the radical Left’s assault on America and the rule of law.”
The president also announced on Wednesday that he is designating Antifa a “major terrorist organization,” calling the far-left group a “sick, dangerous, radical Left disaster” and urging investigations into its financial backers.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 