I Figured Out Who Charley Kirk Was in the Trump/Maga Universe

 

                                                Horst Wessel, the beau ideal ideal of a young Nazi. 

I figured out just who Charley Kirk was to Donald Trump and his enthralled followers.  It may seem like a stretch at first, but bear with me.   He was their very own Horst Wessel.

So who was Horst Wessel?  He was a 22 year old member of the Sturmabteilung (SA).  Those guys were the original Brown Shirt Storm Troopers of the Nazi Party in 1930 Germany.  They looked like senior Boy Scouts, marched like soldiers, and specialized as street brawler attacking the Party’s enemies.  They raided other organization meetings, attacked street meetings and marches, and targeted traditional liberals, Social Democrats, academics, Jews, and especially Communists whose prestige and influence grew after the Great War.  Of all of their targets only the Reds went toe to toe with them fighting them in the beer halls, campuses, and streets.

 

             Storm Troopers on the March.

He rose to command several SA squads and districts. On  January 14, 1930 he was shot in the head by two Communists. Albrecht "Ali" Höhler was arrested and charged with his murder. Höhler was initially sentenced to six years in prison but was forcibly removed from jail and killed by the SA after the Nazis came to power in September 1933.

 

The Horst Wessel Song suitable for framing in any good Nazi home. 

Wessel's funeral was given wide attention in Berlin, with many of the Nazi elite in attendance. After his death Nazi chief propagandist Joseph Goebbels him a propaganda symbol.   A march for which he had written the lyrics was renamed the Horst-Wessel-Lied (Horst Wessel Song) and became the official anthem of the Nazi Party. After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, the song became the co-national anthem of Germany, along with the first verse of the previous Deutschland, Deutschland über alles.

 

                Honoring the Martyr.

Even as Wessel was lying seriously wounded in hospital, Goebbels was already releasing reports asserting that those who had carried out the attack were “degenerate Communist subhumans”.  Wessel received medical attention and recovered somewhat but eventually died in hospital on February 23 from sepsis contracted in hospital.  Over the next years he became a martyr to the cause and a recruiting asset especially among students and disgruntled young men.  Those who refused to mourn him were vilified and isolated socially.  In other words his carefully maintained image was a critical part of the Nazi rise to power.

 

 Charley Kirk, a glib and charismatic brand spokesman for young adults--White men--for Donald Trump's fascism.2.

As for Charlie Kirk, he didn’t have to wear a uniform.  Instead he was clean cut dressed in blazers and slacks when hobnobbing with grownups and in casual t-shirts and caps at the campus events for which he was best known.  While Horst Wessell was notorious in Berlin and Prussia, Kirk was already a recognized rising figure on the hard Right its first influencer for young White men in Social media.  He was Trump’s MAGA connection to the young.  He was also a particular pet of the Orange menace who credited him for mobilizing previously apolitical incels and gamers for the 2022 election.

Kirk’s many White nationalist, Christian Denominist, anti-abortion and anti-women’s rights, racist, xenophobic anti-labor-antifa-Democrat-progressive-socialist-take-your-pick statements were all over the internet, his youthful charm, photogenic young family, and claim to desire “open dialogue” were enough to get much of mainstream media to take him at face value as simply a passionate conservative and ironically as a Free Speech  advocate.

 

                 The image shown repeatedly--the photo shot seconds before the gun shot.

When Kirk was cut down on a Utah campus by a confused young man with contradictory beliefs and murky motives Trump and his minions wasted no time all pinning the blame rabid Democrats, evil liberals, and Trans folks without a shred of evidence.  National mourning with flags at half-staff was speedily declared and enforced.  Anyone who dared out Kirk as a neo-fascist  using his own words was attacked by orchestrated virtual lynch mob howling for heads to roll, or at least Tar and Feathers.  Trump personally coerced ABC to “suspend” Jimmie Kimmel and threatened NBC if they do not sack Jimmie Fallon and Seth Myers

 

The coercion of Disney/ABC/affiliates took Jimmie Kimmel off the air weeks after CBS canceled Steven Colbert.  Attacks and targets have spread to every level of government and society.

It has all rolled downhill from there.  

Complaints and charges have been filed against members of Congress and Senators for quoting Kirk’s own record.  Moves have been made to recall or censure Democratic Governors and Mayors.  Academics are under attack,  and there are nationwide demands to remove school board members and teachers.  Journalists have been singled out and nervous employers demand “restraint” or detach themselves from risky voices.

Sunday Kirk’s funeral in Arizona was live streamed nationally  and excerpts dominated news casts.  Trump, J.D. Vance, and host of ambitious sycophants  repeated calls for vengeance.    No body has written a song for Charlie yet–that I’ve heard of—but wait one is surely coming.  

       

                    The canonization of Charley Kirk. 

If this dog and pony show succeeds in rallying new supporters and shoring up support from the wavering, Charlie Kirk’s involuntary sacrifice may be even more important than Horst  Wessel’s.

What do you think?