Donald Trump and JD Vance yesterday elevated the hard right of America to a form of state religion by canonising Charlie Kirk at a memorial service that will galvanise the president’s followers but create a sense of dread among those committed to democratic freedom.  

Charlie Kirk was assassinated on September 10, and irrespective of his hard right views and often inflammatory comments, he most certainly did not deserve to die. His killer must face justice (but not the death penalty that more civilised nations have abolished).

However, if his murder was reprehensible so, too, is the way in which Donald Trump and his supporters have used the killing to create a propaganda-fuelled campaign against free speech and political opposition by lionising a flawed character, punishing those who would dare to tarnish his newly burnished reputation, and turning his memorial service into a political rally.

The acts are from an old playbook. Watching the memorial service – attended by what has been variously described as 70,000 or 200,000 people – was not so much witnessing history in the making as sitting through a rerun. Continue reading “Charlie Kirk elevated to sainthood in new state religion” →