America’s Path to Revival in the Wake of Evil
On September 10, 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk was fatally shot during a midday speaking event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. The event, part of his “American Comeback” tour organized by Turning Point USA, drew about 3,000 attendees to an outdoor courtyard when a sniper’s bullet struck Kirk in the neck from approximately 150 yards away. Vigils now light up across the country, with leaders like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox properly calling it a “political assassination” demanding a national turning point, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) condemned it as a “horrendous act” with “zero place” in America. This assassination, following the August 22 stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, joins a grim tally of injustice and violence shaking the nation’s core.
The aftermath exposes deep fractures: the Left’s ghoulish celebration of Kirk’s death, House Democrats shouting over a moment of silence, and inflammatory rhetoric from Democrat leaders like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) eroding the norms of Civil Society. Josh Hammer’s tribute framed his friend as a “martyr for free speech,” while former Marine-turned financier Robert Sterling’s viral post warned of “normies” radicalizing against the left’s perceived role in enabling chaos.
(Warning: long rant)
— Robert Sterling (@RobertMSterling) September 13, 2025
My liberal friends are completely oblivious about how radicalizing the last week has been for tens of millions of normal Americans. Zero clue.
I’m not talking about people who are “online”; I mean regular, everyday Americans. “Normies.” People who scroll… pic.twitter.com/NeCxHqrFXi
The post is merits quoting in its entirety.
People who scroll through Facebook posts and Instagram reels from the Dutch Bros drive thru line. Political moderates who have water cooler chats about Mahomes touchdowns and Bon Jovi concerts, not Twitter threads or Rachel Maddow monologues.
Millions of them. Tens of millions. They’re logging on, they’re engaging, and they’re furious.
And I’ll be candid: They blame you guys. They blame the left.
Regardless of whether you believe it to be justified, they think you’re the bad guys here. And they are reacting accordingly.
I can already hear some of you racing toward the comments to start screeching in moral indignation, so I’m going to be blunt: Shut up and listen to what I’m telling you. Your movement will lose any semblance of relevance if you don’t develop some small measure of self-awareness, and-absent someone force-feeding you bitter medicine-you guys collectively lack the humility to do this on your own.
Here are the facts:
Fact 1. Tens of millions of Americans started the week seeing a 23-year-old blonde woman-a young woman in whom virtually every parent watching pictured their own daughter-stabbed in the neck by a career criminal. These people then found out the murderer had been released from jail 14 times over.
Fact 2. Two days later, tens of millions of Americans watched a video of Charlie Kirk get murdered speaking to college students. Millions of these people knew who Charlie was; millions of them didn’t. Upon seeing the video, however, these normal Americans from across the land and across the political spectrum agreed that he was the victim of a terrible, fundamentally unjustifiable crime, and their hearts broke in sympathy for his family. Good people who had never even heard the name Charlie Kirk before wept.
Fact 3. Immediately after seeing the footage of a peaceful young man get shot in the neck, these same people logged onto Facebook and Instagram (remember, we are talking about regular Americans, not perpetually online Twitter or Bluesky users) and saw some of their local nurses, school teachers, college administrators, and retail workers celebrating this horrific crime. Not just defending it, but cheering it.
These are all facts. You may not like the implications of these facts, and we can certainly debate the underlying causes thereof, but, indisputably, they are nevertheless factual statements.
Here’s what it means for you, the Democrats reading this:
These normal, middle-of-the-road, non-political citizens just become politically active. They realized that politics cares about them, even if they don’t particularly care about politics. After watching Iryna Zarutska and Charlie Kirk both bleed out from the neck, they think their lives and the physical safety of their families-the bedrock of human society, the foundation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs-depend on political activation, whether they desire it or not.
These people are now sprinting-not jogging, not walking, but racing-to the right. Because they blame you guys for everything that just happened.
When they see footage of Decarlos Brown stabbing a Ukrainian refugee to death, they don’t see just one demon-possessed man. They picture every university administrator, HR bureaucrat, and DEI apparatchik that ever lectured them about systemic racism, the “carceral state,” or the need to release violent crime suspects without bail in the name of social justice.
They then think back to conversations they’ve had with their cop friends-their buddy from high school who quit the force after getting tired of being called a racist, their friend at the local YMCA who vents about having to release career criminals because Soros-funded prosecutors aren’t willing to file charges-and they realize everything the left has told them over the last five years has been utter bullshit.
And they blame you. Because, even if you count yourself as a moderate Democrat, your party supported the district attorneys, city council members, and mayors that let fictitious concerns about mental health and racial justice supersede very real concerns for their family’s safety.
When these Americans see blood erupt from the side of Charlie Kirk’s neck, they don’t see just a martyred political activist. They think of every extreme leftist they’ve ever met who (1) calls anyone to the right of Hillary Clinton a fascist and (2) constantly jokes-“jokes”-about punching Nazis and “bashing the fash.”
They realize that there really do exist people who wish to see them dead for their moderately conservative political beliefs, their Christian faith, and even the color of their skin. They ask themselves if the violence visited upon Charlie might one day show up on their own doorstep.
And they blame you. Because, even if you’re just a center-of-the-road liberal, you lacked the courage to police your own ranks. You let modern-day Maoist red guards run loose across every facet of society, and what started with social-media struggle sessions has now turned to 30-06 bullet holes.
When these Americans log onto social media and see their neighbors justifying, celebrating, glorifying murder, they realize that some who walk among them are soulless ghouls at best, literally demon-possessed at worst. These people-whether they faithfully attend church every Sunday or only attend with relatives once a year, on Christmas Eve-start talking about things like spiritual warfare. They implicitly understand that no normal human casually celebrates the mortal demise of a peaceful person.
And they blame you. Because, even if you condemned Charlie Kirk’s murder, they probably haven’t seen you condemn those in your own movement who cheered it on. They view you as complicit in allowing heartless fellow travelers to celebrate death, and it repulses them.
For all of these situations, what has your response been? Nothing but bullshit.
In response to Iryna Zarutska bleeding out on the floor of a train, you post bullshit statistics about reductions in reported crime, when everyone who’s ever been to a major urban center in the last decade knows that actual crime has skyrocketed, only for victims not to waste their time reporting it to cops that don’t have the manpower to respond and prosecutors that seek to downgrade as many felonies as possible to misdemeanor citations.
In response to a 31-year-old man taking a bullet to the neck in front of his family, you post nothing but bullshit whataboutism.
> “What about January 6th?” (Honest answer: After you let Liz Cheney spend two years operating a star chamber in the House, combined with countless other failed attempts at “lawfare” against Trump, no one cares anymore.)
> “What about Mike Lee making a dumb joke on Twitter about some guy in a mask in Minnesota?” (No one outside of Utah, DC, or Twitter knows who Mike Lee even is.)
> “What about Paul Pelosi?” (That’s not comparable to Charlie Kirk getting shot, and we all know it. And, again, Paul who?)
> “What about regulations on assault rifles?” (That’s not going to get you very far when one of these killers used a knife and the other one used a common hunting rifle.)
In response to teachers, healthcare workers, and thousands of other liberals cheering on Charlie’s murder, it’s nothing but more bullshit and misdirection.
> “It’s not THAT many people celebrating!” (Yes, it is. Everyone has seen it on their Facebook and Instagram feeds.)
> “I thought you guys didn’t support cancel culture.” (We don’t cancel people over their opinions; we’re more than happy to see people lose their jobs-especially their taxpayer-funded jobs-for actively cheering on murder, though. If you can’t see the difference, that’s your own shortcoming.)
All bullshit. Not even smart bullshit, but stale, mid-grade, low-IQ bullshit. Ordinary Americans see right through it, and they don’t like how it smells.
You probably don’t like hearing this. But you need to hear it.
Because I’m right, and, as you reflect on this, you know I’m right. The ranks of my political movement gained millions of righteously angry new members this week. We have a mandate to ensure these crimes never happen again, and that’s exactly what we are now going to do.
If you want to keep a seat at the table as we do so, you’d better clean house and start policing your own.
Jonathan Turley has highlighted the hypocrisy: Pelosi’s past claim that “words matter” now yields to deflection, and Kaine equates God-given rights with theocratic extremism. To heal, America needs a triune revival-political, cultural, and spiritual-interwoven like the Trinity: distinct yet unified. Politically, revive John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier call to service; culturally, pursue a “New Reconstruction” rooted in Abraham Lincoln’s mercy; spiritually, proclaim the Gospel and First Principles of divine order. These pillars bind wounds swiftly, preventing the poison of lingering resentment. As social media petitions for a “Charlie Kirk Act” to curb political violence compare Kirk to JFK and MLK, and Martin Luther King III calls for rejecting violence, the urgency is clear: revive now, or fracture further.
Political Revival: JFK’s New Frontier as a Mandate for Active Service
In his 1960 Democratic National Convention speech, John F. Kennedy declared, “We stand today on the edge of a New Frontier-the frontier of the 1960s, a frontier of unknown opportunities and perils.” This mobilized Americans through the Peace Corps, civil rights activism, and the space race, rooted in his inaugural call: “Ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country.”
Kirk’s assassination during a question-and-answer session, followed by a manhunt for suspect Tyler Robinson, arrested after a family tip, underscores disengagement’s cost. Fetterman’s X post, “I condemn this in the strongest terms. There is ZERO place in our great country for these horrendous acts of political violence,” joins Cox’s plea.
A New Frontier revival demands participation: volunteer for election oversight, advocate for justice against crime, reject incitements like Democrat “fight in the streets” rhetoric Turley critiques. Erika Kirk’s vow to continue Turning Point USA events models this service, aligning with Sterling’s rightward surge of “normies” furious over unchecked violence. Without it, Hammer’s feared “chaos and anarchy” prevails.
Cultural Revival: The New Reconstruction – Lincoln’s Mercy to Heal Without Delay
Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address on March 4, 1865, offered a blueprint: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” His 10% Plan for swift Southern reintegration via amnesty was derailed post-assassination, leading to punitive Reconstruction and lasting resentment. Today, Kirk’s murder revives this call.
A “New Reconstruction” fosters reasoned dialogue-Isaiah 1:18’s “let us reason together”-through forums like Braver Angels. Swiftness is critical: accountability for celebratory hate and bipartisan pleas, like Fetterman’s and MLK III’s urging to “reject violence and embrace unity,” show urgency, but prolonged half measures risk bitterness akin to Jim Crow’s legacy. Hammer’s warning of a society “indistinguishable from animals” without civil exchange demands immediate action: civics education, public accountability for inflammatory rhetoric, and a rejection of Jacobin hate. Lincoln’s mercy heals; apply it now to bind wounds.
Spiritual Revival: The Gospel and First Principles – Order from Chaos, Rights from the Creator
Spiritual renewal centers on sharing Christ’s salvific invitation (John 3:16) and First Principles: God’s creation of order from chaos (Genesis 1) endows unalienable rights of the Declaration of Independence. Carman’s Revival in the Land (1989) captures this: believers’ prayers cause “hemorrhaging in the realms of darkness,” sparking a global outpouring.
Kirk, a vocal Christian, embodied this; tributes from RFK Jr. and faith leaders urge faith-driven responses. MLK III’s statement, “Charlie Kirk’s assassination is a tragic reminder that violence is never the answer,” ties to a potential revival, as social media links Kirk’s death to MLK’s. Kaine’s dismissal of Creator-endowed rights as “troubling” ignores their logic: government-granted rights are revocable; divine ones eternal. Revive through Bible studies, outreaches, and teachings on natural law, countering “spiritual warfare” in murder glorification. Hammer’s Psalms for Kirk’s family-“Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death”-grounds hope in action.
A Unified Imperative: Triune Revival for a Fractured Republic
This triune revival-John F. Kennedy’s call to civic service, Abraham Lincoln’s mercy-driven healing, and the Gospel’s proclamation of divine order-forms an interlocking framework to rescue America from the brink of collapse. Each pillar reinforces the others: Kennedy’s service falters without Lincoln’s charity to temper partisan rage; both lack direction without the eternal anchor of God-given rights and Christ’s salvific hope. As Josh Hammer warned, without civil discourse, society risks becoming “indistinguishable from animals,” a prophecy unfolding in the vile celebrations of Kirk’s death and the unchecked violence of Zarutska’s stabbing. Robert Sterling’s “normies,” enraged by such betrayals, demand accountability, while Jonathan Turley exposes the left’s hypocrisy-Pelosi’s selective outrage and Kaine’s constitutional blasphemy-fueling this chaos.
Yet, voices like Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, calling for a “turning point,” Sen. John Fetterman, denouncing “horrendous” violence, and Martin Luther King III, urging rejection of violence, signal a path forward. The FBI’s $100,000 reward for leads reflects urgency, matched by social media calls for a “Charlie Kirk Act” to crush political violence, drawing parallels to JFK and MLK. Carman’s 1989 anthem Revival in the Land echoes here: believers “kicking down the gates of hell” mirror today’s call to storm division with action. Erika Kirk’s resolve to continue Turning Point USA, backed by President Trump’s Medal of Freedom for her husband, embodies this fight. For Kirk’s children, Zarutska’s memory, and our Republic’s survival: serve actively through civic engagement; heal mercifully with reasoned dialogue and swift reconciliation; proclaim truthfully the Gospel and unalienable rights. Delay invites the whirlwind-bind the nation’s wounds today, or lose the Republic tomorrow.
