America has long been known as an “experiment” in self-government. Writing to Catharine Sawbridge Macaulay in 1790, George Washington reflected on the meaning of the new Constitution: “The establishment of our new Government seemed to be the last great experiment, for promoting human happiness, by reasonable compact, in civil Society” (emphasis added).
Note he said America was not just an experiment but the last great one. If that was his conclusion after watching our ally France’s Reign of Terror in the name of “liberté, éqalité and fraternité,” how much more would he be convinced today to watch us trade American founding principles for those same Marxist values, now called “diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Kirk’s assassination is a tragic emblem—not merely proof that the American experiment in self-government has failed, though it has, but that it has failed so catastrophically it resembles a human-subjects trial so harmful that ethicists are forced to shut it down.
We must put aside the researchers’ hopes in this experiment, however noble they may be, because the subjects cannot tolerate the substance thought to be salutary.
Of course, in a different people they would be nourishing. But not the one we have become.
We do not want civility or virtue, we want force.
For years we’ve been chastised by the Left that Americans are too cowardly to have a “conversation” about things like race, abortion, and so on. But Charlie Kirk had that conversation, exhibiting the patience of a saint as he let his opponents speak for themselves. And they killed him for it. They don’t want a conversation; they want lockstep unanimity. They don’t want debate; they want conformity.
We hope his death will be a “turning point,” but it won’t be. Nothing will change.
Who among us will change it?
Not the millions who stood by while their unvaccinated neighbors were fired and banned from public life. Not the large numbers of Democrats who wanted to fine, fire, and even take away the children of the unvaccinated. Not the parents who still mask their toddlers, or line their teen up for another mRNA booster.
These prize the promise of safety above all.
Just three generations ago, the president was shot and killed in broad daylight, and the government trotted out the magic bullet theory to explain its “lone gunman” theory. Now it has been over a year since President Trump was shot, and we know nothing of what really happened. Most find nothing odd about the fact that the only Trump campaign rally the networks covered live just so happened to be the one where he was shot. Not those who cry “conspiracy theorist” when told the same photographer caught George Bush learning the twin towers were hit. Not those to whom it never occurs: they wanted his head to explode on live TV…while they share the video of Charlie Kirk’s murder.
Not those who believe steel buildings, the Pentagon, and Pennsylvania fields swallow 747s whole.
Who can’t be bothered to read sound bites in context, who even now believe the “fine people on both sides” hoax.
And not even those who think the attempted assassination of President Trump that killed an innocent bystander was staged. They will barely notice when Kirk’s murder disappears from the headlines.
These don’t seek understanding; they can only bear the media’s official story. They do not want justice; they want to be told what to think.
Certainly not the fathers who let mentally ill boys take their daughters’ trophies. Least of all the fathers who let mentally ill boys into their daughters’ locker rooms. They are not going to stand up for him or for justice.
Why would any father who won’t even fight for his own daughter fight for Charlie Kirk?
Of course, instead of halting the experiment, many will cry out, “Give us the placebo instead!”
We’ve been laboring under the delusion that we live in a free and virtuous society and that our leaders are accountable to the people.
We’ve been laboring under the delusion that we live in a free and virtuous society and that our leaders are accountable to the people.Tweet ThisThe only thing that can overcome where we are now is a manly response by our bishops, priests, and fathers.
This self-government drug and its attendant “freedoms”—freedom of speech and press (at least as those are understood today), freedom of religion, freedom to bear arms—all of these are harming us. We are not fit to exercise any of these rights.
Some say they support free expression while calling for their opponents to be charged with “hate speech.” Some say they support gun rights, but they disarm adults around our precious children. Others say they want guns banned, as though criminals obey laws.
I suppose even I can’t help trying to bring some sort of optimistic view to what lies ahead. I know if there is to be any change, the only ones who can do it are our men: our bishops and priests, of course, but most of all our fathers.
The family is the first society.
Fathers, get your house in order.
Washington and his fellow founders knew, but we tend to forget America is an experiment. The conditions for it were clear: numerous framers of the Constitution insisted our federal system based on self-government was fit only for a religious and moral people.
In that sense, the American Experiment has proven their hypothesis correct. We are no longer a religious or moral people, and look where we are.
And let’s face it, to paraphrase a 19th-century American author, either the Constitution authorizes what we have become, or it has been powerless to stop it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
Rest in peace, Charlie.
Unfortunately, about 50% of fathers have been systematically removed from their homes and separated from their children for more than 50 years. Yet the vast majority of Catholics—even orthodox ones—treat divorce as just another lifestyle choice. The Church only reinforces this dynamic with its 90% annulment grant rates. If you want fathers to lead, you must oppose no-fault divorce and rubber-stamp annulments. A father cannot lead when he has been driven from his home and separated from his children. Most married fathers know exactly what awaits them if they dare to say “no.”