Charlie Kirk Quotes

I am writing this book as a young man who quite deliberately has chosen to commit my still early life to fighting to restore, perhaps finish building, an America that was envisioned by our Founding Fathers.

The simplest explanation is that the protestors, like Soviet teens listening to rock and roll on the sly decades earlier, recognize symbols of Western-style freedom when they see them. And they should: Hong Kong was by some measures freer than the West when it was populated by refugees from the mainland’s communist rule for decades but not yet governed by the mainland (the United Kingdom handed it over to Beijing in 1997 after a century and a half of colonial rule). Let’s hope its freedom and love of the free market endure any crackdowns from Beijing. Trump isn’t up against domestic foes as totalitarian as the Communists in Beijing, a few extremists notwithstanding, but, like the Hong Kong protestors, he faces the daunting task of transforming a stubborn, inflexible, corrupt, big-government system.

If the left sometimes show their hypocrisy and indifference to the masses on the energy and climate issue by doing things like flying private jets all the time or living right next to oceans they claim will rise to kill us all any minute, we should not become complacent about hypocrisy on the right, either.

The Obamas don’t seem too worried about the problem now that they’re out of the White House and in mid-2019 bought a $15 million mansion right on the edge of a very flat stretch of Martha’s Vineyard beachfront.

The smallest units of society — the individual, the family, the small business, the little towns, the local church and PTA — need to be protected with everything we’ve got.

But the two parties were never quite literally opposites in their philosophies. The old Democrat formula, ideally stated, was something like: a big welfare and regulatory state combined with an American military subordinated to big international alliances and treaty organizations. The old Republican formula, ideally stated, was something like: free trade, big business, opposition to welfare, legislation defending traditional morality (such as pushing for pro-life measures when possible), plus never-ending military engagements overseas, with every dictator around the world due to become our fighting foe eventually.

Donald Trump has always been a builder, from hotels to casinos to golf courses — Barack Obama was a community organizer who gave impressive speeches. However, one of the least eloquent points that President Obama made during a speech was his infamous line “You didn’t build that.” It’s no surprise that President Trump understands that businesses and growth are good for the economy and create jobs, while President Obama focused on the government as the solution.

It’s not that those of us on Team Trump long to be rude. It’s not that we look down on any subsets of American society. All individuals are created equal — but not all cultures and ideas are equal, and we need to be able to compare and contrast intelligently.

It is unconscionable that for decades we’ve expected heroes maimed by American involvement in unresolved conflicts overseas, and the families of those killed in those fights, to accept “We tried” as the best assessment of what was achieved by the fighting. Surveys now show most American soldiers think our recent wars have been unproductive. Maybe they, away from the spin machines of the Washington policy establishment, know what they’re talking about.

If he often sounds dismissive or impatient, it is not because he can brook no opposition but because, just like many of us, he is tired of seeing American ideals torn down. Unlike so many of his foes on the left, he’s very grateful to this country for making possible all of his success. He’s not a barbarian at the gates, to be fended off by the New York Times or the Ivy League. Trump is a man already comfortably at home in America, at home with its people and its institutions. And the people sense that. They know he is one of them, not just another Washingtonian like all the ones he defeated and defied to become president.

Protecting individual liberty from the tyrannical forces of government is the idea our nation was built upon. It is the only way to protect the individual’s rights, the family, local churches and schools, and other groups who can’t fight back themselves. Be skeptical of everything, especially your government. Ask questions, fight for your rights, and never surrender.

When Trump resists constant calls for more military intervention around the world — when he says no to putting more troops in Syria and publicly contemplates pulling troops out of Afghanistan — he is not only pointing the way to peace but implicitly taking on a system of defense contractors and sometimes-opportunistic allies that has reshaped American thinking in a profoundly unhealthy way.

Two hundred years ago, 84% of the world lived in extreme poverty. Today, 90% don’t. 83% didn’t have a basic education. Today, 86% do. 1% lived in a democracy. Today just 44% don’t. The child mortality rate was 43%. Today, it’s 4%.

No More Accepting Decline Trump’s critics may not see in the MAGA Doctrine principles that span beyond Trump’s own lifetime and beyond our own shores — but some people overseas do. Just as the United States was an inspiration to people resisting monarchies around the world at the time of the American Revolution and an inspiration to people resisting communist tyranny during the Cold War, the distinctive red Make America Great Again hats of Trump supporters have found their way to Hong Kong, during the 2019 protests there against some of the ways Beijing, back on the Chinese mainland, rules its less-communist “special administrative region.” Brave protestors wear Make Hong Kong Great Again hats — and borrow other American symbols, including the American flag.

I can’t stand the word empathy, actually. I think empathy is a made-up, New Age term that — it does a lot of damage. But it is very effective when it comes to politics. When Bill Clinton said, 'I feel your pain,' that was a brilliant political move. It was total nonsense, but it worked. I prefer sympathy. Sympathy is a much better word. Sympathy is saying, 'I’m sorry for what you’re going through, I’m going to try to help you.' Empathy is like, 'I’m going to become you, I’m going to feel exactly what you’re feeling.' It’s impossible, it’s narcissistic, and it’s destructive.