Dwain Northey (Gen X)

Today in Glendale, Arizona, the spectacle at State Farm Stadium wasn’t so much a memorial as it was a coronation — or perhaps a canonization. Charlie Kirk, the right-wing provocateur turned Republican martyr, was sent off with a ceremony more fitting for a head of state than a man who made a career out of stoking division and amplifying hate. The scene was drenched in overblown theatrics: giant screens, choreographed tributes, and speakers who spoke of Kirk not as a man, but as a “savior” of the movement, a Republican messiah sent to rescue America from reality itself.

Of course, the president and vice president were in attendance, not so much to mourn as to bask in the glow of a carefully crafted martyrdom. Their arrival alone snarled traffic for hours, creating chaos for thousands of ordinary Arizonans who had the audacity to need to go about their daily lives. Yet, in the twisted logic of our current political circus, this disruption was billed as an act of reverence. After all, what better way to show “respect” for a man who thrived on chaos than by literally shutting down a city?

What should truly disturb us, however, is not the pageantry but the precedent. Flags were lowered to half-staff in Kirk’s honor, a gesture traditionally reserved for presidents, statesmen, and genuine national tragedies. That this honor was extended to someone whose life was dedicated to venomous rhetoric is an insult to every veteran, teacher, activist, or public servant who actually worked to bring people together rather than tear them apart. And let’s not forget the hypocrisy: Trump, now in his imperial role as arbiter of symbolic patriotism, once mandated that flags be raised during his own inauguration even as the nation mourned the death of President Jimmy Carter — because lowered flags “didn’t look good” on his big day. The message could not be clearer: mourning is optional, respect is conditional, but worship of their chosen icons is mandatory.

So we say goodbye to Charlie Kirk, not with reverence, but with the unease of watching history distort itself in real time. He has been elevated far beyond what his life and work merited, a testament not to his greatness but to the GOP’s desperation to manufacture saints where there are only opportunists. The true disgrace isn’t Kirk himself — it’s the nation’s willingness to play along.