Every time I think Charlie Kirk’s rudderless hackery could sink no lower, he finds within him yet another depth of inane sycophancy to prove me wrong. Indeed, in his Sisyphean quest to carry water for the Trump administration, it seems Kirk is determined to become the human embodiment of a Ben Garrison cartoon.
Over at Breitbart, the Turning Point USA founder and self-proclaimed “Best Selling Author” (citation needed) has written a truly incredible piece of obsequious garbage urging President Trump to “tell Americans how to help him” in his State of the Union address tonight.
In between superlatives praising the president’s many great qualities and historic brilliance, Kirk channels his best Jerry Maguire to ask the president to pretty please “help me help you.” “Many supporters,” Kirk laments, “find themselves wanting to defend the President but not knowing how to do so because they can’t really articulate the purpose of his actions or the plan within which they are undertaken.”
According to Kirk, however, this not the fault of a capricious, intemperate president, but rather that the public are just too dumb to understand Trump’s multidimensional chess game. “On more substantive issues, like the border wall, the President needs to understand that the typical American citizen is … not necessarily able to follow or understand what he might be trying to do. Shifts in positions or rapid advances or retreats on his part can seem random and inexplicable to the average person.” Therefore, Kirk writes, Trump should use the State of the Union address to help explain just what, exactly, it is he’s doing.
Now, setting aside the obvious implication that Trump’s actions may seem random and inexplicable because they are, this isn’t an altogether ridiculous suggestion. On the contrary, clear explication of a particular agenda and why it’s necessary is a crucial component to political success. Indeed, in several instances, messaging from Trump played a major role in determining whether a bill passed Congress or failed to gain sufficient support, such as criminal justice reform and the Obamacare replacement, respectively.
However, Kirk’s argument is not that the president should use more clarity in order to sell the public on his agenda. Instead, Kirk argues it is the people’s job to sell the Trump agenda; the president should simply provide his employees better talking points with which to do it:
This is hogwash. America is not a business. America is not a monarchy. The president swears an oath to serve the people, not the other way around. A government by the people and for the people is incompatible with this idea of an employed citizenry. Not only does it fly in the face of the limited-government conservatism Kirk purports to believe in, it is a fundamental inversion of the American project and anathema to the very idea of freedom.
As I have written previously and at length, Kirk is a grifter, a fundamentally unserious performer whose only grasp of conservative ideology consists of the fortune-cookie platitudes he slaps on shirts and sells to college freshmen. He hopped on the “Trump Train” to grow his brand, which has obviously proven fruitful enough that he will say anything to stay in the president’s orbit.
Now, apparently, that involves penning monarchical fantasies that would be more apropos in a North Korean hymn to “Dear Leader.” “On Tuesday,” Kirk’s paean concludes, “the President needs to place his hand on the shoulder of the nation, look into its eyes, and say ‘Don’t worry. We’re going to get through this together. I will lead you. Let me tell you what to do.’”
All Turning Point USA members and donors, CPAC sponsors and attendees, and Kirk fans who count themselves as conservatives should read these words and take stock of whom they’ve aligned themselves with.
Support Trump or no, approve of the wall or no, begging elected officials “tell us what to do” is not a conservative sentiment. It’s not even an American one.
