Exactly right - they need to never hold power again.
https://x.com/johnkonrad/status/1966482060064723292
John Ʌ Konrad V
@johnkonrad
Yesterday, for the first time, I turned my back on a liberal neighbor and walked away. For Charlie.
I get asked daily by conservatives how I can possibly live in the most liberal town of the most liberal state.
Truth is, I’ve always been fascinated by how they think. I usually just laugh at the irrational takes.
But a single gunshot drained all curiosity and humor out of me.
He simply asked how I was. I said I was sad. He asked why.
“It’s 9/11. My dad was FDNY. And yesterday I lost a friend.”
His face softened. “I’m so sorry.”
I didn’t want to cry, so I backpedaled. “It’s ok, we weren’t close. Just spoke a few times but he felt like a good friend.”
“Who was it?” he asked.
“Charlie Kirk.”
Empathy turned to anger. Like I’d tricked him.
“Well, I don’t know him, and I don’t care what happens to him.”
“But he was my friend. I’m your friend. Isn’t that enough to care?”
He pivoted to politics. Gun violence. Assault weapon bans. “You people.”
I said it was a bolt-action rifle. He didn’t care. He said he didn’t care about Charlie.
Even though Charlie was a father? A friend? A believer?
“No,” he said. But his body language betrayed him. He did care.
Then: “I don’t want to talk politics.”
“I’m not,” I said. “I lost a friend. A friend with a wife and two beautiful daughters.”
Again: “I don’t care.”
So I turned and walked away.
He could have changed the subject, asked me about my Dad and 9/11 instead. But he was fixated on political drama not true empathy.
Some Republicans will say I should’ve stood my ground, yelled, fought back, told him off.
Some Democrat friends will say I should’ve leaned in harder with empathy and spent time getting him to understand my point of view.
But here’s the truth: I’m done.
Done debating. Done convincing. Done trying to “win” them over.
Charlie lived that. He spoke truth with compassion, even behind “enemy lines.” He never saw Democrats as the enemy. He saw Americans missing key pieces of the truth. He gave empathy and respect coupled with hard truths until his last dying breath.
He was a better man than me. Better than most of us.
And now he’s gone.
I’m not a great men Charlie, I’m a Captain in the U.S. Merchant Marine. We don’t talk, or seek glory & fame, don’t ask for thanks or forgiveness. We just move cargo. LOTS of cargo.
Our motto is simple: Acta Non Verba.
Actions, not words.
So why don’t I fight harder in my own neighborhood? Why do I let it go when a neighbors took down my flag on “no kings day”? Why do I remove the Trump magnet on my tesla when I get home.
Because the consequences are real. They don’t just punish me my kids will suffer for the sins of the father. But as the man said, he doesn’t care. That’s the line I won’t let them cross.
And because I do not have the courage of Charlie.
But gratitude for Charlie demands something more. Something bigger than my town which isn’t going to change. Debate is over. Tears are over. The time for action is here.
Not violence. Not riots. Not theatrics.
Political action.
Votes. Campaign cash. Pink slips across DC. Crowds of conservatives in every GOP office in congress demanding they stop doing TV appearances and start playing hardball.
Laws flipped at local, state & federal levels.
A dozen Scott Preslers in every California & Vermont farm town & every NYC church, rising Christians to vote out Sanders, Newsom, AOC & Mamdani.
An army of white hats exposing criminal NGOs, with Mike Benz, Data Republican, and a phalanx of lawyers volunteering for Will Chamberlain to get convictions.
Mass action against every Marxist policy.
We will not out-scream them. We will out-organize them. You can literally debate them until your last dying breath and nothing will change.
They don’t care and there is no way to change the mind of an apathetic man.
The time for debate is over.
We must speak softly and start carrying a big stick.
Acta non verba.
For Charlie.
