Laura Z Powell

Islamist ideology is at fundamental odds with the tenets of Western civilization. Herein lies a tension: If our commitment to an Open Society cannot prevent the undoing of, and harm to the Open Society, by those who would use the principles of freedom to eventually sunset those same principles, perhaps aspects of those principles—namely, the extent to which they are exercisable—need revisiting. In other words, a reasonable pluralism can only succeed if there is, at some point, an identifiable line that is crossed that erodes the plausibility of pluralism to start with. Tragically, the ambient relativism of liberalism makes the boundaries of reasonableness nearly impossible for the modern mind to discern, as we have already embraced, by cultural habit and custom, the irrational elsewhere. The only way to return Western order to sanity is to re-Christianize the West. Secularism is uncomfortable with this. The question is: Will secularists be more comfortable with a Christian order or less comfortable with an Islamic order? Regardless, secularism will not survive, so it needs to choose its conqueror.

Remember: Political violence is the refuge of a losing political movement that cannot make good arguments or persuade naturally, so they resort to raw power to “win.” But their manner of “victory” is actually an admission of defeat—that the ideas themselves can’t win. Charlie Kirk was the antithesis of this loser mentality: A happy warrior, persuasive, daring, and fearless.

Today we heard overtures about a return to common sense. On day one, the Trump administration shutdown a government abortion website, rejected DEI, reaffirmed free speech, and gave a wholesale rejection of gender ideology. There was no glorification of sexual perversion. Even the bare minimum amount of sanity is a welcome reprieve.