Civility over escalation

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Up first remembering Charlie Kirk. This one hits hard. Charlie Kirk went to elementary school with my kids, and I remember meeting him when he was just eight years old in the third grade, even then he stood out years ago when he was just building turning point. I was teaching at College of the Ozarks, and a student wanted to interview him. So I asked Charlie, and he said, of course, things like that. Charlie Kirk was a giant of his generation, and he was only 31 years old, how to even begin to process this loss? Well, I can't even begin to. So let's bring in someone to help. Here is conservative commentator Eric Erickson.

Eric, thanks for joining us.

ERICK ERICKSON: Thanks for having me.

REICHARD: Well before we got on here, you brought up September 10, 2001 the day before the world changed. How about September 10, 2025?

ERICKSON: I started my radio program today talking about how events change things, and you don't see the events coming until you're in them, and this feels like a turning point. And no pun intended, there it just it does—the political violence escalating in this country. We went through Floyd Lee Corkins attacking the Family Research Council about a decade ago, and then James Hodgkinson mass assassination attempt on Republican members of Congress and instill the violence and the rhetoric becomes more and more shrill. People wish to both sides it, and yes, there's crazy on both sides, but I'm looking at, unfortunately, people wanting to do a body count, where we should just all of us say this is unacceptable, vilifying your opponents who just have a different idea of how to guide the country is wrong, and when we have this much despair and emotion and antagonism in the country, maybe now is the time to tamp down the rhetoric.

REICHARD: Maybe past time, Eric, when did you meet Charlie Kirk and how did your first impressions grow over the years about him?

ERICKSON: He's very tall. That was my very first impression, very tall. He was young when I met him, I forget. It was at a conference in Texas. I did not know him well, and we were actually competitors in radio, we had the same time slot. But he did a remarkable thing with Turning Point USA. My kids knew Charlie, I think, better than me, just from social media interactions and Tiktok and things like that, advocating for conservatism and advocating for Christ.

REICHARD: You know, he has defied all the statistics on Gen Z. Can you talk about how he got this new generation politically engaged for the first time in a long time?

ERICKSON: He went on college campuses, and he had a very heterodox message that was contrary to what you heard on a lot of college campuses. And it was more you don't have to be ashamed of getting married, you can get married, you can have kids, you can devote yourself to Christ. And it was a contradictory message. And he just loved engaging with people who disagreed with him on those simple ideas. He was much more of an advocate, I think, for Donald Trump and his policies than I am, but he wanted college kids to be engaged both in the political process, and he made a compelling case for conservatism and for the right.

REICHARD: And he did it civilly. I mean, when he first started out, he was a little bit more combative, but as the years went on and he was maturing, he learned to listen well and he learned to give dignity to people that he disagreed with.

ERICKSON: Yeah, you know, that's a key point there. He did not just listen well, but giving dignity to the other side. He could mock where mocking was warranted, but typically, he treated their points as valid and disagreed with them and challenged them and debated them, and we should in this country settle our disputes over conversation. In fact, just yesterday, he said on television that we've got to be able to continue to disagree and have conversation in this country.

REICHARD: What would you say his legacy is going to be?

ERICKSON: Getting people engaged, being an advocate for the Lord, and also being willing to have conversations. And I think it's incumbent on the right to, I mean, remember Ephesians: “Be angry, but do not sin.” Do what Charlie Kirk did. Engage in conversation.

REICHARD: Eric, how important do you think it is in covering this event, to use the term assassination as opposed to just a shooting?

ERICKSON: I think it has to be because he was a larger than life figure within conservative politics, and he was specifically targeted for violence because of his political views. That is an assassination.

REICHARD: Anything else that you're watching for?

ERICKSON: I'm worried about where we head as a country. We've had these instances where the CEO of United Healthcare gunned down, and we saw people on the left treated as vigilante justice, the lady from Blackstone and the corporate building in Wall Street. People on the left treated it as some sort of vigilante justice. Donald Trump nearly assassinated twice, and people said he brought it on himself. I'm worried about where the left goes. Do they have any internal monolog to say maybe we should tone it down while always lecturing the right? And it's this is no longer a both side situation. We can't have a body count on both sides of who is more to blame. There has to be a unanimous call from left and right to say we can agree to disagree civilly in this country. And if we can't have that, we have bad things. This is now our choice. Do we keep the country or do we go somewhere that none of us should want to go?

REICHARD: So much more to say. Erik Erikson is a conservative commentator and columnist for WORLD Opinions. Eric, thank you so much.

ERICKSON: Thank you.

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