Was Kirk ‘Divisive’—or Did He Simply Say What Millions Believe? › American Greatness
Roger Kimball
9–11 minutes
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is exercised that Charlie Kirk once said that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was “a mistake.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson sees AOC’s charge and raises it: “The fact is,” he said in an official statement, “Charlie Kirk’s rhetoric was divisive, disparaging, and too often rooted in grievance. The beliefs he evangelized normalized fringe views on race, sex, and immigration. Unfortunately, his rhetoric resurrected dangerous prejudices of a dark past.”
Gosh. Here’s a question, Congressman. What sort of grievance would someone have to entertain in order to be moved to describe someone who simply sought to engage young people in conversation as “divisive” and “disparaging?” Follow-up question: Did Charlie Kirk try to “normalize” fringe ideas about “race, sex, and immigration?” Or were the ideas he espoused, in fact (you see that two people can deploy the “in fact” gambit), perfectly normal ideas that reflected the beliefs of millions of Americans, even if those ideas departed from the Washington consensus?
As for the Civil Rights Act, Charlie Kirk did say its expansion was “a huge mistake.” Here’s the context. A student asked Charlie whether he wanted to get rid of the Civil Rights Act. He replied that he thought we should have a one-page bill that outlawed racial discrimination and left it at that. Most Americans, he went on to note, don’t support forcing women’s sports teams to allow men pretending to be women to compete. But the Civil Rights Act has been interpreted to say just that.
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https://amgreatness.com/2025/09/21/348053/
