Kirk’s murder and the cancel culture

Over the last century in the United States what has become known as cancel culture has moved from the political right to the political left.

The Red scares of the 1920s and 1950s were a conservative phenomenon that blacklisted, deported, and even imprisoned people for real or suspected leftist political views that were equated, often wrongly, with treason and disloyalty.

Today cancel culture is a leftist phenomenon that contrives no pretense about treason and disloyalty. It seeks to silence conservatives simply because they are politically objectionable. The shooter who assassinated Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, the conservative advocate of free speech and sincere dialogue with the other side, was the exemplar of cancel culture, illuminating where it will take the country.

Being allied with cancel culture, most Democratic officials don’t want to examine the Kirk assassination too closely. Democrats, including Connecticut’s U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy and U.S. Reps. John B. Larson and Jahana Hayes, seem to prefer to attribute the assassination to the country’s gun problem, so as to put Republicans, defenders of Second Amendment rights, on the defensive. During an angry confrontation on the floor of the House of Representatives on Sept. 10, Hayes objected to a call for prayers for Kirk and his family, shrieking, “Pass some gun laws!”

There may be room for more gun laws on the federal level, but the assassination of Kirk is not an argument for them. Kirk appears to have been killed by an ordinary bolt-action hunting rifle, not the sort of semi-automatic rifles Democrats delight in mislabeling as “assault weapons” as they seek to outlaw them. Is the country now to outlaw even rudimentary rifles while nearly all gun crime is committed with handguns?

Connecticut’s gun laws already are nearly the most restrictive in the country and the state’s problem is not that it lacks laws but enforcement.

Connecticut’s gun laws already are nearly the most restrictive in the country and the state’s problem is not that it lacks laws but enforcement. Two years ago the state Office of Legislative Research reported that nearly two-thirds of criminal charges involving guns in Connecticut were routinely dropped in plea bargaining to get convictions on related charges considered more serious, like robbery.

If Connecticut ever took gun crime seriously it would make the gun charges the most serious and upon conviction impose mandatory sentences of life without parole. But then most new imprisonments would involve impoverished members of racial minorities, and legislators might be asked where all the poverty keeps coming from despite all the money they spend in the name of reducing it.

While from the beginning American political rhetoric often has been venomous, it never has been as venomous as it is today.

President Trump is a major perpetrator of it but he is far outnumbered by its perpetrators among the Democratic Party’s looney left in government and academia, and at least Trump hasn’t turned his office into an agency of cancel culture. His many firings of executive branch Democrats are matters of political patronage, explained by the great insight of Kentucky Sen. Alben Barkley, a Democrat, during the 1948 presidential campaign: “What is a ‘bureaucrat’? A ‘bureaucrat’ is a Democrat who holds an office some Republican wants.”

What can stop cancel culture from getting even more murderous and totalitarian? Only a return to what Judge Learned Hand called the spirit of liberty:

“The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias. The spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded. The spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near 2,000 years ago, taught mankind the lesson it has never learned but never quite forgotten: that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest.”

Charlie Kirk pursued the spirit of liberty. May others still dare to follow him.

Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years.

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

Rhys V. Bowen

LAKEVILLE — Rhys V. Bowen, 65, of Foxboro, Massachusetts, died unexpectedly in his sleep on Sept. 15, 2025. Rhys was born in Sharon, Connecticut, on April 9, 1960 to Anne H. Bowen and the late John G. Bowen. His brother, David, died in 1979.

Rhys grew up at The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, where his father taught English. Attending Hotchkiss, Rhys excelled in academics and played soccer, basketball, and baseball. During these years, he also learned the challenges and joys of running, and continued to run at least 50 miles a week, until the day he died.

Keep ReadingShow less
Kelsey K. Horton

LAKEVILLE — Kelsey K. Horton, 43, a lifelong area resident, died peacefully on Saturday, Sept. 27, 2025, at Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Connecticut, following a courageous battle with cancer. Kelsey worked as a certified nursing assistant and administrative assistant at Noble Horizons in Salisbury, from 1999 until 2024, where she was a very respected and loved member of their nursing and administrative staff.

Born Oct. 4, 1981, in Sharon, she was the daughter of W. Craig Kellogg of Southern Pines, North Carolina, and JoAnne (Lukens) Tuncy and her husband Donald of Millerton, New York. Kelsey graduated with the class of 1999 from Webutuck High School in Amenia and from BOCES in 1999 with a certificate from the CNA program as well. She was a longtime member of the Lakeville United Methodist Church in Lakeville. On Oct. 11, 2003, in Poughkeepsie, New York, she married James Horton. Jimmy survives at home in Lakeville. Kelsey loved camping every summer at Waubeeka Family Campground in Copake, and she volunteered as a cheer coach for A.R.C. Cheerleading for many years. Kelsey also enjoyed hiking and gardening in her spare time and spending time with her loving family and many dear friends.

Keep ReadingShow less
Eliot Warren Brown

SHARON — On Sept. 27, Eliot Warren Brown was shot and killed at age 47 at his home in New Orleans, Louisiana, in a random act of violence by a young man in need of mental health services. Eliot was born and raised in Sharon, Connecticut, and attended Indian Mountain School and Concord Academy in Massachusetts. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He and his wife Brooke moved to New Orleans to answer the call for help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and fell in love with the city.

In addition to his wife Brooke, Eliot leaves behind his parents Malcolm and Louise Brown, his sisters Lucia (Thaddeus) and Carla (Ruairi), three nephews, and extended family and friends spread far and wide.

Keep ReadingShow less
Randall Osolin

SHARON — Randall “Randy” Osolin passed away on Sept. 25, 2025, at the age of 74. He was born on Feb. 6, 1951, in Sharon, Connecticut to the late Ramon (Sonny) and Barbara (Sandmeyer) Osolin.

He was a dedicated social worker, a natural athlete, a gentle friend of animals, an abiding parish verger, an inveterate reader, and an estimable friend and neighbor. He was a kind-hearted person whose greatest joy was in helping someone in need and sharing his time with his family and good friends.

Keep ReadingShow less