Rebuild the republic one classroom at a time



The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University puts an exclamation point on the degraded state of reasoned debate in America.

Like many in the last month or so, I’ve found myself doing a deep dive into Kirk’s YouTube channel, watching debate after debate. You learn something from watching them in full: Kirk was willing to talk to anybody, and he always brought liberals to the front of the line.

We must teach our students to be virtuous, both individually and politically.

He was pugnacious at times, but always civil. His interlocutors sometimes resorted to ad hominem attacks, and their arguments often collapsed under a steady stream of his questions and retorts. Time after time, these students lost the debate with Kirk because they simply didn’t know enough.

‘Action civics’

What causes a person to stake out a position with such confidence before mastering the evidence to support it? For many of the students who challenged Kirk, the answer is “action civics.” This pedagogical theory holds that the highest form of civic participation is protest rather than discussion. Its result is thoughtless grandstanding or worse. The antidote to this state of affairs is classical education rightly understood.

When it comes to civics, knowledge is necessary but not sufficient. Civic life requires more than a grasp of American history and government, as important as those things are. It requires us to be people formed by practice in the habit of reasoned deliberation — people who know how to disagree and be disagreed with and who are willing to change their opinions when they learn something.

Political speech — reasoned discussion about the good within a regime — allows us to improve our opinions by sharing them with others and refining them through conversation and disagreement. Civic education divorced from these practical virtues produces either performative activism or feckless intellectualizing.

These virtues can be cultivated within the classroom through classical education. Reading and discussing works from Aristotle to the Federalist allows students to wrestle with enduring questions about justice, rights, and the good life. They learn not only to discern what is right but also to pursue it amid the complexities of a changing world.

Yet the real formation comes in seminars and Socratic discussions, which are laboratories of civic practice.

After years outside of the classroom, this semester I began teaching a course on moral and political philosophy to 11th graders. These students are young, but after years in a classical school, they have some real learning under their belts. The task this year is to develop within them the habits necessary for a real seminar conversation, with Socratic discussion three days a week and a full-blown seminar on the other two.

Running a seminar

In a well-run seminar, teachers merely provide a question about a great work of literature, history, or philosophy, intervening to guide the discussion only rarely. As in life, no authority swoops in to give the right answer and make decisions for everyone else. It’s the students who lead and who learn to find their way together.

A properly run seminar allows students to disagree and be disagreed with. They are forced to humble themselves before an author and a text, to scrutinize their own opinions, and to discard error in favor of knowledge.

But it isn’t a lawless environment. Students in a well-run seminar know that they are to speak about the text and only the text. Every comment must respond to the previous speaker. Non sequiturs are not allowed, and the students don’t interrupt each other (we are still working on that last one).

If we want a citizenry capable of sustaining liberty, we cannot settle for activist training without understanding, nor abstract lectures without practice.

When they do speak, they have to ground their statements in an argument drawn from the text. If they don’t have an interpretation of the text to offer, they can ask a thoughtful question, which is often just as beneficial to the conversation as a well-reasoned argument.

Disagreement in the seminar room is an opportunity to learn that disputing someone’s argument doesn’t mean impugning their character. Most teenagers are terrified to disagree with someone their own age and even more terrified to be disagreed with. But after a few weeks, they develop thicker skin. They learn to think more about the substance of their argument and less about their social standing.

RELATED: How Charlie Kirk’s life shows the power of self-education

skynesher via iStock/Getty Images

When the arbiter of the debate is the text itself, everyone knows that success means advancing the clearest and most correct reading. And when the text is rich and deep, it takes time, conversation, and disagreement to interpret it well.

Disagreement is an opportunity for clarification. In a well-developed seminar, it’s welcomed. What matters is not superficial civility, but the willingness to examine and revise our opinions in light of reason and fact, to argue from truth rather than feeling, and to labor toward a common understanding.

Dare to disagree

In a way, these classroom discussions on Plato and Virgil, Swift and Shakespeare, are a crash course in practical civics. Not protest, not theory, but character formation through dialogue, study, and experience — all preparing students not only to understand their country but to participate in it responsibly. In a way, classical education creates more people like Charlie Kirk.

If we want a citizenry capable of sustaining liberty, we cannot settle for activist training without understanding, nor abstract lectures without practice. We must teach our students to be virtuous, both individually and politically. Only then will they be capable of self-government — not as activists or spectators, but as citizens.

Editor’s note: This article was published originally at the American Mind.

They’ve Called for Terrorism Against Jews. Now They’re Teaching NYC Public School Students ‘How To Organize.’

Pro-Hamas activists Abdullah Akl and Mohammad Badawy have called to "strike Tel Aviv" and destroy "the illegitimate Zionist occupiers and all of their supporters." Now they're launching an initiative to form student chapters in dozens of New York City public high schools.

The post They’ve Called for Terrorism Against Jews. Now They’re Teaching NYC Public School Students ‘How To Organize.’ appeared first on .

The left's costume party: Virtue signaling as performance art



Protests are fashion statements.

In the 1960s, the hippie movement urged participants to wear their hair long and adorn themselves in bright colors that could be seen on color television newscasts. Today, the social media era has devolved into a new form of lunacy intended to be eye-catching for the sake of internet virality.

Communism has become the ultimate fashion statement.

The No Kings protests were a perfect example of how protests have become liberal runways.

Many attendees dressed in inflatable costumes while others sported the red cloaks from "A Handmaid's Tale." A quick internet search bears witness to countless other dramatic protest garbs, from Stormtroopers to Uncle Sam to circus clowns. Those who didn't make a stop at a Spirit Halloween store before attending the protest wore their outrage on too-clever T-shirts or by swinging homemade signs.

These recent protests were, relatively speaking, more geriatric than other protests of recent past, but even BLM and Antifa protesters have their own distinct style. They can be easily identified by their piercings, dyed hair, and Pride pins. They stick to dark clothing like ripped jeans and scuffed Doc Martens, much like 1990s high schoolers who just discovered grunge music. They often use satanic imagery, like skulls or pentagrams, pretending that their relationship with demonic symbols is ironic and, therefore, "wholesome."

Another symbol that these protestors cling to is the hammer and sickle. They wear it on T-shirts with a casual attitude. College students have it on their belt buckles, and grad students put stickers of it on their Apple computers.

If you knew nothing about the hammer and sickle, you might think it was a clothing brand. Removed from its context, it has morphed into something completely unrecognizable.

Communism has become the ultimate fashion statement. It's subversive and feigns intelligence, allowing contrarians to morph their love of punk rock into disdain for "the system." Their quirky personalities are not personal discrepancies but are instead indicators that they are victims of a normal, Christian society.

RELATED: ‘No Kings’ is the clown show covering for a coup

KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images

In the 1950s, the outcasts wore leather jackets and slicked their hair. In the 2000s, the outcasts wore choker necklaces and sneakers. In 2025, kids are wearing communism. It's an absurd get-out-of-jail-free card that justifies the behavior of people who feel they don't fit in.

The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, almost 35 years ago. For many young people, the fall of the USSR feels as distant as World War I or Napoleon. They didn't see Mikhail Gorbachev lose control or witness the Berlin Wall fall. Older generations understand that communism is a failed system because they saw its ramifications on television. They knew that tens of millions of Russians were killed by it. They saw Cuba be utterly destroyed by it. They saw their family members deployed to Korea and Vietnam to stop it.

For the modern rebel, communism has no consequences. It's a political theory, a thought experiment discussed in college safe spaces.

The Communist Party, unfortunately, is alive and growing in America.

The Revolutionary Communists of America are slated to host Marxist schools in Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York this year. Membership in the Communist Party USA has jumped from 15,000 in 2023 to 20,000 in 2024. Many of these clubs offer tools and resources to learn about communism on their websites, with one even having a "Marxism IQ" test.

Their cancerous ideology is preying on disenfranchised young people, baiting them with the deadly promises of "equity."

Wearing a hammer and sickle pin or reading Lenin in public is a way for people to show just how much they care about the 'oppressed classes.'

At one No Kings protest, the "Denver Communists" had a tent with a sign that read, "Charlie Kirk had it coming." Workers at the tent posed beside it with thumbs-up, smiling and encouraging people to take photos. A slogan so utterly debauched is intended to get social media recognition. The Denver Communists are actively trying to be noticed for their inflammatory behavior.

It's the violent progression of a teenager swearing to make his parents angry.

There is a maturity problem in America. Young people are trying to extend their youth in a desperate attempt to circumvent responsibility. The length of time that Gen Z will hold onto one job has sharply declined. Marriage rates have been in a free fall for years. Less than 20% of young people are saving for retirement. College attendance has become the normalized experience of young adulthood, extending the length of schooling while sacrificing years meant for maturity.

This generation has been convinced that their success doesn't depend on their own work, but on the work of others. To them, communism is the solution they've been looking for.

Being a communist is the cool, empathetic thing for young people to support. Wearing a hammer and sickle pin or reading Lenin in public is a way for people to show just how much they care about the "oppressed classes." It's a new depth of virtue signaling.

No longer is it enough for radical leftists to support gay marriage or abortion — they must now object to the entire constitutional republic. It's all for the sake of being rebellious and relevant.

Some people buy expensive handbags. Some people buy rare watches. And today, some people join the Communist Party. After all, it's just about having the right look.

Scott Jennings Says ‘No Kings’ Protesters Could Have Used Their Time Better

'That's how they chose to use their time'

‘No Kings’ Isn’t Protecting Democracy, But Suppressing It

'No Kings' isn’t a defense of democracy at all. Instead, it’s a defense of the entrenched power of the Democratic Party.

‘No Kings’ is the clown show covering for a coup



In June, the left launched its “No Kings” protest to denounce the horrific “authoritarian dictatorship” of Donald Trump. Deporting illegal alien gang members, preventing the mutilation of children, and punishing criminals all became proof of Trump’s incipient “fascism.”

Now that Trump has deployed National Guard troops to stop violent leftist mobs from attacking ICE officers, Democrats and the left have decided to stage a sequel on Saturday. The whole thing will look like farce — clever signs, bad folk music, and stale slogans — but behind the clown show, the left is radicalizing shock troops preparing to do real violence.

The ‘No Kings’ spectacle will fill news segments and late-night monologues, but it’s just camouflage.

No myth runs deeper in American life than the idea that peaceful protest drives reform. Boomers grew up believing that singing folk songs, waving witty signs, and smoking pot were powerful tools of change. The media sanctified the calm resolve of civil rights marches and the flower-child theatrics of the anti-war movement as the true engines of progress. As usual, Hollywood left out the ugly parts.

Those movements also produced riots, rapes, arson, bombings, and murders. The violence was so widespread that Richard Nixon’s 1968 campaign ran one of the most famous ads in political history promising to restore law and order. The peaceful demonstrators made for good television, but it was the violence that moved the needle. No one likes to say it aloud, but the violence worked.

The first round of “No Kings” protests had respectable turnout but achieved nothing. Leftists filled the streets to mock Trump and chant about freedom, but no policies changed, and no momentum followed. Trump’s approval may have slipped to the mid-40s, but Democrats still wallow in the low-30s. Americans may be weary, but the protests haven’t persuaded them that the Democrats can govern.

Violence has been far more effective. The assassination of Charlie Kirk has made conservative campus events nearly impossible. Universities now demand absurd security fees or simply cancel appearances outright, citing “safety concerns.” The threat doesn’t come from the speaker — it comes from the activists university officials refuse to restrain. Several conservative commentators are stepping in to finish Kirk’s tour, but the assassin’s veto has reshaped the landscape.

Violence also brought Jimmy Kimmel back to late-night television. After he lied about Kirk’s assassination, sponsors complained, and two major affiliates refused to run his show. Sinclair Broadcasting even planned to air a Kirk tribute in his slot. Then came bomb threats, followed by gunfire targeting an ABC station in California. Sinclair folded, scrapped the tribute, and restored Kimmel to the lineup. Terrorism works. It succeeds where boycotts fail.

RELATED: Evil unchecked always spreads — and Democrats are proof

Blaze Media Illustration

Mob action has disrupted immigration enforcement too. Leftists have assaulted ICE officers, blocked arrests, surrounded vehicles, and tried to plant explosives. One would-be assassin aimed for agents but only killed detainees. Trump’s Justice Department has begun cracking down, but the left keeps escalating. They’ve learned that violence yields results.

It’s hard to take Democrats seriously when they wail about “authoritarianism.” They jailed Trump officials, abortion protesters, meme-makers, and even the president himself. They don’t fear power — they crave it. What they hate is losing it.

Organizers claim that more than 2,000 “No Kings” protests are set for the weekend. The biggest ones will draw crowds, mostly aging Boomers reliving their youth. They’ll march, sing, and pretend to matter. But the real movement isn’t in the drum circles. It’s with people like Jay Jones, the Virginia attorney general candidate who still enjoys Democratic support despite texting fantasies about murdering the children of conservatives. That’s the true face of the modern left. They’re not waving signs — they’re plotting.

The “No Kings” spectacle will fill news segments and late-night monologues, but it’s just camouflage. Behind it stands an organized, violent movement convinced that terror is legitimate politics. These people don’t want debate. They want obedience — and they’re willing to bleed us for it.

The city that chose crime and chaos over courage



Under Joe Biden’s presidency, America’s once-great cities began to rot from the inside out. New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, all followed the same script: defund police, excuse crime, and watch civic life collapse.

Portland, once a model of Pacific Northwest prosperity, has become the most vivid cautionary tale.

Trump’s push to restore order in Portland isn’t about partisanship. It’s about survival.

It started with the “defund the police” crusade that gutted local departments and drained morale. As funding vanished, crime surged. Car thefts and larceny skyrocketed. Homeless encampments spread through downtown streets. Affordable housing disappeared while drug addiction and lawlessness filled the gap.

Now, as the Trump administration reasserts control over immigration enforcement, Portland faces a new test — and its leaders are failing again.

Portland refuses to defend itself

President Donald Trump, working with border czar Tom Homan and ICE agents, has ordered the National Guard to assist in deporting violent illegal immigrants. Local officials should welcome the help. Instead, Portland’s leadership is digging in, treating federal officers as enemies rather than partners.

The result: chaos. Criminals have grown bolder, even trying to disarm police during encounters. Antifa radicals now stage nightly protests outside ICE facilities, and Portland police — undermanned and demoralized — stand by under orders not to arrest anyone.

It would almost be comical if it weren’t dangerous.

When ICE erected police tape around one facility to control the crowd, Portland Mayor Keith Wilson personally ordered it removed. His reasoning? It obstructed “public access.”

The message to violent agitators couldn’t be clearer: The city won’t stop you.

A hollowed-out police force

A recent video from the Portland Police Association confirmed what most residents already suspected. Staffing levels have cratered. Officers are stretched thin and forced to obey political directives instead of enforcing the law.

It raises a grim question: Are city leaders keeping arrest numbers low on purpose to make the situation look better than it is? If the statistics show fewer arrests, they can claim the city doesn’t need federal help — no matter how bad things actually get.

This charade mirrors what we’ve seen in other Democratic Party strongholds like Chicago: leaders protecting their image while citizens fend for themselves.

RELATED: Inside the Portland ICE facility under siege by Antifa extremists

Julio Rosas/Blaze Media

The lesson they refuse to learn

Trump’s push to restore order in Portland isn’t about partisanship. It’s about survival. Cities that refuse to defend their own citizens eventually lose them — to fear, flight, or despair.

Portland’s officials could start fixing this mess tomorrow. Hire more officers. Restore funding. Support police with proper gear and mental health resources (a must, in my eyes). Enforce the law equally and unapologetically.

But that would require courage — and courage is one thing the city’s leadership no longer has.

The bottom line is simple: Portland’s citizens and police deserve better than this political theater. The first duty of government is protection. The people of Portland are still waiting for their elected leaders to remember that.

‘To whom shall I apologize?’ Freedom Convoy defendants accept house arrest without ‘remorse’



After a trial lasting two years and one month, Ontario Justice Heather Perkins-McVey on Tuesday handed down conditional sentences to Freedom Convoy organizers Chris Barber and Tamara Lich.

Barber received 12 months of house arrest followed by a six-month curfew.

'I told Lawrence that day that I’ll serve 100 years in prison before I will ever apologize.'

Lich was sentenced to twelve months of house arrest and an additional three and a half months of curfew — reduced from six months because she has already spent 74 days in custody. Both must complete 100 hours of community service.

The judge granted exceptions allowing Barber to continue his trucking work.

'Absence of remorse'

Perkins-McVey rejected an absolute discharge for either defendant, citing “an absence" of remorse. At the same time, she averred that the years-long prison sentences sought by prosecutors — eight for Barber and seven for Lich — would be “unfit." The pair had been found guilty April 3 of mischief charges.

In a video posted to X, Barber thanked supporters:

We're still here, and I just wanted to reach out to everybody and say thank you very much for all the support.

I've officially lost control of the inboxes on all accounts. I cannot keep up with the messages of support, but I will do my best on the way home to respond to each and every one of you. I just had to come on here and say thanks.

I'm going to sum up what my mother said to me yesterday after court:

"Son, I would rather have you home safe for 18 months than have you sit in a jail cell for six."

I agree with her. I can still work. I can still do the farm duties. I mean, there's worse places to be than on the farm, where I have property and I can get some work done and I can still truck.

So again, thank you very much everyone for the support out there. We really appreciate it. It's been quite the ordeal, and I think we've woke a lot of people up around the country, and we continue to wake these people up to … exactly what happened and how the government acted and is still acting.”

No regrets

Lich later posted on X:

Lawrence and I discussed remorse in a meeting at his office prior to our sentencing hearing in July. I told him I would not, and could not, express remorse as it would be dishonest and disingenuous.

To whom shall I apologize? The thousands of Canadians who stopped planning to take their own lives when the convoy started? To the thousands … who were able to return to their jobs? Or should I apologize to all the Canadians who can kiss their dying loved ones or have their families over for Thanksgiving?

I told Lawrence that day that I’ll serve 100 years in prison before I will ever apologize.

RELATED: Canada still bent on seizing Freedom Convoy symbol ‘Big Red’

Chris Barber

'Lawful protest'?

Official opposition leader Pierre Poilievre took to X to comment on the verdict:

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber peacefully protested the imposition of emergency measures that the Federal Court found to be unlawful and unconstitutional. Instead of pursuing rapists, drug dealers and other monsters, the Crown sought lengthy prison sentences. Justice Perkins-McVey rightly rejected the Crown's request, and sent Tamara and Chris home to their families. We must get to a justice system that ensures the security and freedom of all Canadians.

Perkins-McVey said she relied heavily on victim-impact statements to determine the extent of the convoy's disruption of business and day-to-day life in downtown Ottawa. She was careful to stress the nonviolent and accommodating nature of the protest.

Make ‘Protesters’ Paid By Foreign Groups Register Like Foreign Agents

Foreign nationals and foreign governments don’t have the right to participate in our political process.

Violence gave Jimmy Kimmel his job back



Last week, ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel told a big lie on national television. He claimed Charlie Kirk had been assassinated by a conservative MAGA supporter. This wasn’t a bad joke — it was a deliberate attempt to cover for left-wing violence and deceive millions of people.

After a campaign pressuring advertisers and affiliates, ABC suspended Kimmel, saying he wouldn’t immediately return to the air. Progressives screamed about “cancel culture” and circulated petitions, apparently more concerned about a millionaire losing his low-rated show than about a murdered father.

The right, paralyzed by fear of bad press, has given the left a free pass. That timidity has only encouraged more bloodshed.

Then came the threats. Violent warnings poured into ABC affiliates, culminating in a leftist shooting up a station in Sacramento. Shortly afterward, ABC announced that Kimmel would return to the air. The lesson for the left was simple: Violence and terrorism work.

The Trump moment

When Donald Trump was shot on stage in Butler, Pennsylvania, last year, the entire world held its breath. His supporters didn’t flee; they froze, waiting to see if their leader had been killed. If a leftist assassin had succeeded, civil war was on the table. Then Trump stood and raised a defiant fist, and the nation exhaled. Not only because he had survived, but because the darkest path had been narrowly avoided.

That moment should have been a turning point. Trump entered office with energy, issuing a flurry of executive orders. But he never confronted the left-wing groups and the institutions that had normalized violence. He wanted a stable economy and secure borders, but left-wing radicals continued to act as if they had a special right to political violence. By letting them get away with assassination attempts and street terror, Trump ensured that another wave was inevitable.

Excuses and celebrations

After Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, some progressives mouthed words about lowering the temperature. Almost all of them hedged by smearing the victim or blaming “both sides.” Meanwhile, a disturbingly large faction openly celebrated the murder. Their message was clear: They would never abandon violence as long as it kept paying dividends.

Even Kimmel’s brief firing — for telling a malicious lie that threatened ABC’s broadcast license — was more than they could tolerate. For perspective: When an unknown addict overdosed while in police custody, the left torched American cities for months. In contrast, a prominent conservative was assassinated, and the only cost extracted from the left was one failing talk show host and some TikTok blabbermouths losing their jobs. Even that tiny price triggered outrage.

Violence pays

When FCC Chair Brendan Carr flagged Kimmel’s violation, progressives shrieked about “fascism” and “the end of free speech.” The irony was grotesque: Kirk had just been killed for exercising his free speech.

Meanwhile, major Democrats piled on. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) smeared Kirk’s character before he was buried. Keith Olbermann threatened to kill CNN commentator Scott Jennings before issuing a flimsy apology. Left-wing influencers rushed to declare allegiance to Antifa, a group with a long record of violence. Whatever pretense of unity had existed collapsed in less than 24 hours.

Soon threats flooded ABC affiliates. One man — a former teachers’ union lawyer! — even sprayed bullets into a station window. That was enough for Sinclair Media, ABC’s largest affiliate group, to pull a planned Kirk tribute and restore late-night programming. ABC then confirmed that Kimmel himself would return in that slot. The terrorists had won.

A partial retreat

Credit where due: After another wave of pressure, Sinclair and Nexstar, another major affiliate group, refused to air Kimmel until he apologized. Together they represent about 70 of ABC’s 250 affiliates, including major markets such as Washington, Seattle, and Portland. That is significant — but still insufficient.

Reports indicate that Kimmel could have resolved the issue early simply by apologizing. He refused. He bet that his Hollywood allies and violent extremists would clear a path for his return. He was right.

RELATED: I experienced Jimmy Kimmel’s lies firsthand. His suspension is justice.

Photo by Randy Holmes/Disney via Getty Images

Incentives matter

Every parent knows what happens if you don’t punish bad behavior: It repeats and often escalates. The same holds true in politics. When the left sees it can assault conservative speakers, burn cities, threaten opponents, shoot presidents, assassinate leaders, and face no serious consequences, it learns the obvious lesson: Violence works.

The right, paralyzed by fear of bad press, has given the left a free pass. That timidity has only encouraged more bloodshed.

Now Trump has signed an executive order declaring Antifa a terrorist organization. JD Vance and Stephen Miller have pledged to dismantle the networks funding leftist extremism. That is overdue but necessary. If justice is not swift and severe, the killings will continue — because the killers believe they are entitled to keep winning.