Pay Attention

Who is fearless in the face of this latest Kirk-fueled fascist onslaught?

Jamelle Bouie. Karen Attiah. Ta-Nehisi Coates. Tressie McMillan Cottom. Many other Black writers and social media commentators.

Who has folded like a house of cards?

Ezra Klein. Gavin Newsom. Adam Jentleson and his newly funded sell-out group. Chuck Schumer (of course).

Am I the only one who sees a pattern?

Of course it's not completely consistent, so yes, I'm overstating it. There is the usual cadre of properly paid Black apologists, and there definitely are white fighters (Lyz Lenz! Rachel Maddow on her one day a week and Chris Hayes until MSNBC is crushed. And so many former Republicans, it's embarrassing that they're better than supposed "liberals").

But pay attention to those Black writers who lay it out, to their own peril. Because they are in peril.

Coates: My favorite quote, which I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere: "Words are not violence, nor are they powerless."

Bouie: "...Kirk was not just putting on a show. He was a dedicated proponent of a specific political program. He was a champion for an authoritarian politics that backed the repression of opponents and made light of violence against them. And you can see Kirk’s influence everywhere in the Trump administration...."

Lyz Lenz wrote about meeting Kirk in 2019 and included this about talking after the meeting to Bill Montgomery, who cofounded Talking Points USA with Kirk, and was its early funder. She asked him why he founded it:

Montgomery told me about his daughter, who had gone to college and come back questioning everything that he believed in. These colleges were turning children against their parents and their country, he told me. His daughter barely spoke to him. He blamed her professors. “But isn’t she an adult?” I asked. “Isn’t she capable of thinking for herself?”

I recently chatted with the newspaper photographer who was there that night, following me around. He remembered me talking to Montgomery, and he also remembered that at one point, I asked Montgomery a question, and he turned to the photographer and said something to the effect of, “Can you believe these women?” But the exact question was lost to time. I do remember him thinking the photographer was my boss and saying they should get better reporters.

I don’t remember being mad at Montgomery. He seemed a little broken. He’d seen a world he didn’t like, and he was going to fix it, and fix it, until the next child of some other lost man went to college, but this time they wouldn’t come back with uncomfortable questions that demanded answers. This time, they’d fall in line.

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Coates: Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause

Bouie: Charlie Kirk Didn't Shy Away from Who He Was. You Shouldn't Either