When a Murder Fails to Unite Us

After Charlie Kirk was assassinated, a disturbing number of progressives mocked, justified, or even celebrated his death on social media. A since-deleted database logged more than 60,000 posts cheering the murder, and reports emerged of people in the “helping professions”—such as nursing, therapy, social work—excusing or delighting in Kirk’s death.

Christina Buttons argues that these barbaric responses relied on a caricature of Kirk’s views, created by left-wing activists and amplified on social media. They also reflect a shift in norms. “The assassination of a public figure should draw universal condemnation,” she writes. “The fact that Charlie Kirk’s death did not—and that a nontrivial minority even viewed it as comeuppance—indicates a shift in norms, from condemning violence categorically to excusing it when the ‘right’ target is hit.”

Read her article on the factors that led some progressives to celebrate a man’s murder.

With New York City’s mayoral election right around the corner, voters watched the candidates—Democratic frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, former governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican Curtis Sliwa—trade barbs on stage last week in the first of two televised debates. None of the candidates played it safe, but none scored a knockout, either, John Ketcham observes. “By the end of the two-hour session of vitriol and quirks, the three personalities had dramatized the race as a referendum on New York’s identity,” he writes. “Cuomo and Sliwa represent old New York, grounded in an earthy managerialism and decades-old anecdotes. Mamdani embodies a generation intent on governing by moral conviction rather than pragmatic experience.”

Read more about the debate, which Ketcham calls “a clash of eras as much as a contest of ideas.”

Americans with low incomes have been able to sign up for free Obamacare plans thanks to expanded federal subsidies since Covid. Enrollment has increased nationwide, but especially in Florida’s Miami-Dade County.

Why? Fraud.

“Some insurance brokers have systematically misreported enrollees’ incomes, bribed homeless people to sign up, or enrolled others without their knowledge or consent,” Chris Pope explains. “In Miami-Dade, more supposedly low-income residents are now enrolled in free Obamacare plans than actually live there—despite most already having other health insurance or being ineligible due to their immigration status.”

Read more about the issue.

America became a superpower during the Industrial Age thanks to the men and women who tarred roofs, shoveled coal, and welded steel. They defined what it meant to be a blue-collar worker: finishing the job, rain or shine; striving to be useful but staying humble.

As the nation urbanized, blue-collar jobs did, too. But the values have stayed the same, despite a culture that seems to have forgotten them. “Too often, politics treats blue-collar workers as a demographic to be managed,” David Volodzko writes. “But their labor still makes prosperity possible, and civic life should reflect that truth.”

Read his take.

Why are so many young people struggling with mental health? Abigail Shrier, Rob Henderson, and Brian Anderson explore the roots of the crisis and examine the roles played by mental health professionals, shifting parenting styles, the influence of schools, and social media. Their conversation underscores the value of authoritative parenting, the importance of setting high expectations, and the need for parents to take a more active role in their children’s development within a culture increasingly shaped by therapeutic narratives.

“‘The Church [of England] being now more interested in modernity than eternity.’

What a fitting epitaph for the Church of England.”

Photo credit: Nordin Catic / Contributor / Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images