OCT 2025. Blues Vol 41 No.10

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S DESKVictor Davis HansonWhat a difference in how Americans reacted tothe deaths of Charlie Kirk vs. George FloydJust days after the assassinationof Charlie Kirk, the left is workingovertime to hide the truth and createfantasies about his death.Specifically, leftists allegedthat conservatives were going to“pounce” on the death to wageprotests and boost radical agendasin the manner of what followedGeorge Floyd’s death.Here are some of the lies thatsuch a ridiculous narrative entail:One, Charlie Kirk was an honest-law abiding citizen and GeorgeFloyd was a crook. There were nomass riots after his death of thesort that followed Floyd’s demise.Floyd’s death was used by theleft to justify five months of rioting,arson, murder, looting and attackingpolice officers.The postmortem respect for Kirk’ssingular life was not characterizedby billion in property damage,the torching of a police precinct, afederal courthouse and an iconicchurch, 35 deaths and 1,500 injuredlaw-enforcement officers.Instead, thousands of peoplepeacefully joined his Turning PointUSA organization and promised toredirect their lives toward peacefulpolitical engagement.Two, after Kirk’s death, no prominentRepublican or conservative isencouraging ongoing mass (and oftenviolent) protests in the mannerof high-profile leftists like formerVice President Kamala Harris.She blurted out on national televisionin June 2020, “They’re notgonna stop, and this is a movement. . . They’re not gonna stop before16 The BLUES OCTOBER ‘25Election Day in November, andthey’re not gonna stop after ElectionDay. . . . And they should not.”Gov. Tim Walz’s spouse declaredof the 2020 arsons, “I could smellthe burning tires, and that was avery real thing. I kept the windowsopen as long as I could because Ifelt like that was such a touchstoneof what was happening.”In contrast, Kirk’s supporters arecalling on everyone to express theiranger peacefully at the ballot boxby registering to vote and showingup for the 2026 midterms.Three, Kirk was not George Floyd.He was a law-abiding, religiouslydevout, political organizer, happilymarried with two children.Kirk was a media figure and headof a huge 501(c)(3) nonprofit whosebrand was calmly debating studentswho disagreed with him.Floyd should not have died whilein police custody. But Floyd’s comorbiditieswere many.When arrested, he was under theinfluence of fentanyl and methamphetamine,with a heart conditionand recent COVID infection.He was a career felon with eightprevious criminal convictions whohad staged a violent home-invasionrobbery and pointed a knife atthe abdomen of one of the femaleoccupants.When Kirk was killed, he was noton drugs.He was not resisting police officers.And he was not trying to passcounterfeit currency.Instead, he eschewed violenceand tried to engage in polite dialoguewith students of differentviews.Four, Kirk was not, as alleged bythe left, murdered by a right-wingshooter.His death was not an example ofright-on-right violence. Just theopposite was true.The shooter, Tyler Robinson, wason record with his family expressinghatred for the conservative Kirk.Robinson engraved his bulletswith both Antifa-like “anti-fascist”messaging and transgender references.He lived with his transgenderpartner, who was a leftist.Robinson’s aim was to end Kirk’speaceful conservative career becausehe hated his politics and popularityand feared his influence.Five, the left used the death ofFloyd to promote its hard-left andotherwise unpopular agenda —defunding the police, cashless bail,decriminalization of theft and DEImandates.It manipulated outrage, chaosand months-long violence to ramthrough radical cultural and topdownlegal changes that otherwisehad little popular support.Conservatives upset over Kirk’smurder will bolster Turning PointUSA.They are determined throughpeaceful means to persuade moreyouth about the poverty and dangersof progressive thought.Why is the left fabricating thecircumstances surrounding and followingKirk’s murder?

Millions of people around world came together to celebrate the life of Charlie Kirk. There were:No Riots, No Cars were Burned, No Buildings were touched, and No one was Killed or Injured.In its signature projective style,the left is terrified that the rightmight follow its own example —by manipulating facts, ginning upstreet violence and issuing non-negotiabledemands to achieve itsagenda.But the chief difference betweenthe Kirk assassination and the deathof Floyd is that the post-Floydagenda had no majority supportand so had to be rammed throughin hysterical times by impliedthreats of unending violence beyondfive months of continued mayhem.The post-Kirk agenda eschewedviolence because it was both morallywrong and politically counterproductive— since most Americansnaturally favored most of what Kirkchampioned.ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Victor DavisHanson is a distinguished fellow ofthe Center for American Greatness.In the months following George Floyd's death, rioters caused billion in property damage, torched a police station, aniconic church. 35 people died and over 1,500 were injured.The BLUES - OCTOBER ‘25 17