There was a brief moment, amidst the grief, where it felt the assassination of Charlie Kirk might spark something special. Charlie fought valiantly to help President Trump win re-election in 2024. His organization, TPUSA (and its subsidiaries), had become the largest and most influential political action group in the world. Despite the death of its leader, there was glimmer of hope. Elon Musk and Donald Trump reconciled, Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson contacted each other to make amends. 

In the real world, many shared their own anecdotal experience of reconnecting with friends or loved ones whom they had been distanced by politics. Church attendance appeared to spike in the days and weeks following September 10th. 

As a Christian pastor, father, and young conservative (I’m 28 years old), I was devastated by Charlie’s assassination. And yet, for a few weeks, it looked as though the death of Charlie Kirk, as tragic as it was (and remains), might have been the event which catalyzed real change. His funeral was the largest single gospel proclamation in human history, reaching hundreds of millions of people across the world. We called it “America’s Turning Point.”

One year later, it’s not clear at all that the turn was for the better. On September 13, TPUSA revealed that Charlie’s memorial outside of their headquarters had been vandalized. This was after days of thousands of celebrations from the Left about the “Kirkaversary,” their demonic term they used to dub the one year commemoration of his murder.

There is no question that the Left is a bloodthirsty death cult. The Left is the biggest threat to our American way of life. But they were never on our side, on Charlie’s side, to begin with.

The hope we had for a better nation, sprouted from the seed of Charlie’s death, was always going to have to run through the Right. Sadly, it has not materialized – yet.

Yes, anecdotal evidence remains. Some have become emboldened in their political action or Christian faith. Some have come back to church, and kept coming. Some have been saved from their sins because of Charlie’s life and death. But, as far as I can tell, the movement which Charlie fought for is in worse shape as of September 2026. The coalition is splitting. The discourse is crumbling. And a great man, leader, husband, and father is no longer with us. 

In a post-Charlie Kirk world, the Right is not alright. 

The Collapse of the Conservative Coalition

Do you remember that Trump 2024 was, sort-of, a unity ticket? RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and the popular vote all coalesced to make the 2024 election a rare moment of unity. Going into the second year post-election, in the fall of 2025, we were poised to be led by the President and podcast-class toward a continued unified movement. That shattered with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. 

What had begun as a few dissenting questions erupted into what has been dubbed the “podcast wars.” “Trump betrayed us” became one side’s battle cry, while, “MAGA” echoed out from the other. It is hard to truly capture just how fractured the right wing coalition became in the mere moments after Charlie Kirk was killed. 

To be clear, I think TPUSA is still doing good work. Nothing I say here should be interpreted as blaming them. They have done the best they can to be good soldiers, advancing the mission after the loss of an irreplaceable general. They continue to do what Charlie did. But the rest of the coalition has not.

What we lost in the murder of Charlie Kirk was the unifying figure. We no longer have a voice assembling disagreeing members of the right on the same stage for civil and serious discussion. Just a few months after Charlie’s death, TPUSA’s premier conference, America Fest, became more notorious for speakers taking shots at one another rather than linking arms and taking up the cause in unity. 

Charlie had become the leader of the right wing podcast-class. He unified and humbled what, left to its own devices, is a class of folks motivated by self and ego.

One year later, if we are serious about honoring the legacy of Charlie Kirk, we need to find a way to reunite the Right. That’s what he would be fighting for. One of the things that has made the last year especially difficult is everyone has their own interpretation of Charlie Kirk and how he would view the present times. Would he be against the Iran conflict? Would he be rallying behind Vance 2028? 

The way to honor Charlie’s legacy is not to interpret things for him. Rather, we should do what he would have done — stand for what’s right, for America, and on the side of robust dialogue. 

The TikTok-ification of the Discourse

The irony should not be lost on us. The man who stood for debate, dialogue, and discussion was murdered for doing just that — talking about the issues. The ironic knife has been twisted in the wake of his assassination. The discourse surrounding his death and the various conspiracy theories has been TikTok-ified. 

Rather than long form robust dialogue, the discourse has become short form, instantly gratifying, click-motivated, and truth-adjacent. Candace Owens is a perfect example of this as she has moved from insane theories about Egyptian planes stalking Erika Kirk to accusing Charlie’s friends of having something to do with his death. The theories have traversed underground tunnels, second shooters, Israeli intelligence, and exploding microphones. While any major event will come with unanswered questions, sometimes “just asking questions” is anything but.

This problem on the Right extends well beyond the theories of his death. The movement that fractured in the absence of a unifying figure is further fracturing because the TikTok-ification of the discourse motivates one side in particular. Look at the Lindsay Clancy case. The discourse surrounding that case has also been TikTok-ified. Wine-moms and conspiracy-bros have flooded the case with theories of hearing voices, over-medication, perhaps the father actually did it, and “there’s something more going on here.” 

To honor Charlie’s legacy one year later, we should engage in robust discussion and resist the carnal urge for clicks. Charlie wanted to talk with those he disagreed with in a compelling and edifying way. He died doing just that. We should keep living it and modeling it where we can.

The Absence of a Great Man

They say that “hard times create strong men; strong men create easy times; easy times create weak men; weak men create hard times.” Cultures and societies appear to oscillate between great men who make life better and weaker men who allow that better life to falter. Charlie Kirk was a great man. He was given to our country to create better times for us all. He did just that. I shudder to think about what our country would look like now, in 2026, if the Biden-Harris agenda has been re-elected. Anti-Christian persecution, open borders (not an exaggeration), DEI and anti-white rhetoric, and America-last policies would have dominated our country.  Trump 2.0 has been a good thing for our country. Birthed out of hard times, strong men, led by Charlie Kirk on the media wing, have made better times for our country. 

Now, in the absence of the great man, we are diving into harder times. 

Charlie was a great man for the political discourse, but he was perhaps an even better man for other men, something our country sorely needed and still needs. Charlie was married. He married young. He had two children. He loved being a husband and a father. He advocated for men to get married and have children. He was a good Christian, as well. Charlie was a man for men to learn from. Men are and will continue to be worse off without that great man. 

We lost a great man and an outspoken Christian. More than that, a husband and father was taken from his family. A friend was taken from those who loved him. As Charlie said in a tweet from 2013, “Good men must die, but death cannot kill their names.” Indeed, that is true for Charlie. In the absence of that great man, let us men take up the causes of men he stood for so valiantly: get married, have children, go to church, and fight for the country. 

Conclusion

“What you meant for evil, God meant for good” (Genesis 50:20, paraphrased). Allow me not to conclude without stating that good has and will come out of Charlie’s death. If some men have begun going to church in his wake, that is good. Good can still come from this. We can take up the cause.

We can fight for unity on the Right, to rebuild the coalition, for a better American future, to improve the discourse, speak bold Christian truths to a sinful and lost society, and be great men. Indeed we must, for Charlie.