The Decline of Turning Point USA

The guy who killed Charlie Kirk was not exactly a well-hinged sort of fellow. But there was a reason why the fascists reacted with such fury over Kirk’s assassination. That’s because they knew they had lost someone who REALLY MATTERED and that they could not replicate. No one could speak to younger people about far-right politics like Kirk. He had that rare ability–an ability that Donald Trump shares–of a certain kind of exceptional charisma that simply can’t be replicated. Even if you didn’t see it–and the number of people around these parts who deny that Trump has charisma makes me think they lack a functional definition of the word–Kirk had an amazing ability to motivate people to organize and act. Like Trump, he had a masterful understanding of how to use the media. He was smart enough to meet liberals on their own ground and take advantage of them to turn the narrative how he wanted it to be. He was a very dangerous man.

See, someone could kill a Sam Alito. It wouldn’t matter one bit. He’s eminently replaceable. So is JD Vance. So is Marco Rubio or nearly anyone else in the government. Not sure about Stephen Miller per se, he certainly has overtly negative charisma, but he has a Roy Cohn like commitment to pure evil that can overcome this to be a top adviser to the worst humans for many decades. Other than Trump himself, there probably wasn’t a single person in the far-right universe with more ability to win power and converts than Charlie Kirk and given his cohort, he was the prophet for the future of extremist American politics.

The aftermath of his death on Turning Point USA, his organization, which is in complete collapse is a good demonstration of the point and a reminder that once Trump is off the scene, the fascists don’t go away, but they also won’t be organized anymore in a useful way.

Shortly after the assassination of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, hundreds of students at the University of Arkansas gathered in the school’s amphitheater to pay their respects and support the campus chapter of Turning Point USA, the student group he co-founded.

Six months later, there was a surprising announcement. The campus chapter would no longer be affiliated with Turning Point USA, Dino Fantegrossi, the chapter president, said in a statement. The national group, he added, had “lost sight” of “conservative policy, principles and values” in the post-Kirk era.

The campus group, he said, would now be known as Young American Revival.

Turning Point has seen a surge of national interest and expansion after Mr. Kirk’s killing. The organization says it now has more than 1,400 college chapters and 3,200 high school clubs.

Though the change at Arkansas’s flagship university is a minor setback for Turning Point — and it is unclear what many of the chapter’s hundreds of members will do now — the local turmoil highlights some of the national group’s most pressing long-term challenges. Chief among them is whether it can cement its place at the center of American conservatism now that the charismatic Mr. Kirk is gone.

The challenges became visible on Tuesday, when Vice President JD Vance headlined a Turning Point event in Athens, Ga., home of the University of Georgia and a large contingent of young conservatives. In an arena that accommodates 6,500 people, roughly 1,300 attended, according to city officials. Photos of the sparse stands circulated online, along with biting criticism. Charlie Sykes, the conservative, Never-Trump commentator, referred to it as the “empty-hall embarrassment.”

Sure, you can always claim that someone is going to rise to be that charismatic individual to replace the person off the scene. But like Ralph Abernathy trying to replace Martin Luther King, Jr. as the voice of the civil rights movement, for example, it just doesn’t work that way. These are real, rare skills. Trump has them. Kirk had them. It was a truly devastating blow for the future of American fascism to lose Kirk. You know who doesn’t have any of these skills? His wife, Erika Kirk, who is presently presiding over TP’s collapse.