Grifters Gonna Grift
There’s apparently a lot of money to be made these days in offering opinions and trying to influence folks.
I say “apparently” because I haven’t seen any of it. But given how many folks are throwing hard elbows and jostling for position inside the Republican hierarchy, it appears that’s the case at another level.
I did not watch any of last week’s Turning Point USA AmericaFest event in Arizona. But apparently it included well-known names bashing other well-known names. All, of course, jockeyed to be the one who was closest to the late Charlie Kirk, or was the most devastated by his assassination.
Some have a more direct and honest claim to that than others. Some of those others sense an opening, a lucrative void to be filled.
Open and honest political discourse, and difference of opinion, is a good thing—even within the same political party or movement. But taking someone’s words and using them for your own purposes seems a little off.
I’ve never been a fan of folks who claim to know how Ronald Reagan would act in a contemporary situation; most of them didn’t know Reagan and are shallow on what he stood for—but they know enough to invoke his name at the right times.
Seems like that’s where we are now, only 100 days after Charlie Kirk’s murder…lots of folks invoking his name and what they claim he represented. And, it appears, all for their own enrichment.
Commercialization is a necessary evil to support a message or a business…you have to monetize the effort somehow. But sometimes it’s more shameless than others; and yes, certain national hosts heard on KXEL are pretty shameless in getting you to financially support their new venture.
Whether what Mr. Kirk created can be sustained as a political movement depends on a lot of things; I’m not sure wanna-be influencers who came late to the party are the ones to help shape that future.
