To get a sense of how insane this Democratic folding to the far right is, try imagining the political response we would see if, God forbid, a high-profile leftist like Hasan Piker—who, unlike Kirk, has not worked to actively incite political violence or trafficked in blatant bigotry—were murdered. I find it difficult to imagine Governors Shapiro or Polis engaging in any sort of public mourning for Piker; the idea that any GOP governor would fly their state’s flags at half-staff for him is beyond laughable. It’s similarly impossible to imagine the Trumpist right enforcing a period of public mourning for a murdered liberal figure—which we saw clearly with their response to the assassination of Minnesota Speaker of the House Melissa Hortman by a Trump-supporting anti-abortion extremist in June.
The affirmation of MAGA’s false narratives by high-profile Democrats and liberals greatly reifies the far right’s goal of severing our nation’s grasp on the existence of an objective reality. Because let’s be clear: That is their project. As Winston’s torturer in 1984 put it, “Whatever the Party holds to be the truth, is truth. It is impossible to see reality except by looking through the eyes of the Party. That is the fact that you have got to relearn, Winston.” By mobilizing the power of the state to force the nation to see Kirk through the eyes of the Republican Party, the right is using his killing to escalate its war on truth. George Orwell understood the radical dangerousness of such efforts: “The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future, but the past.… This prospect frightens me much more than bombs.”
We cannot allow ourselves, like Klein, Shapiro, and Polis did, to help construct that nightmare world. We must fight to hold onto an understanding of reality that exists outside of MAGA’s dictates. As Winston insisted to himself in a moment of clarity, “The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall towards the earth’s centre.” Two plus two do not make five. Two plus two make four, and—regardless of the costs—it’s never been more important for the enemies of totalitarianism to stand up and say so.