Charlie Kirk and American Democracy

Before Charlie Kirk’s assassination, I heard the name and watched two or three YouTube videos. His understanding of politics, economics, philosophy, and the Bible was surprisingly good, and he was a good Christian. However, I did not feel the need to know him more, such as subscribing to his podcast or watching more of his videos. I was already busy. God called me to do certain things (mainly academic) that are not directly related to his work. When the last US election was called, I learned that Charlie played a crucial role in drawing young people to politics and Christ. He caused a ten-point change in American young voters; his impact was impressive. In retrospect, I probably should have thought deeper about Charlie and the Turning Point USA movement. I do now.  

Charlie might represent the vanguard of religious awakening that the US desperately needs. For a better understanding, let us turn to Niall Ferguson’s book: Civilization: The West and the Rest (2012) [1]. Niall Ferguson is a renowned historian and public intellectual. As a side note, Ferguson was not a Christian when he wrote the book. For five hundred years, the West has dominated the world. Ferguson wanted to know why this had happened and whether this trend would continue. As you might imagine, there are several factors. The book lists six killer apps (institutions or advances the West introduced) corresponding to six chapters of the book. Here we consider only Chapter 6, which is entitled Work. It really means the work ethic. German scholar Max Weber wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism [2]. It argued that Protestantism was key to America’s prosperity. The first half of Chapter 6 [1] is a good and balanced reflection on Weber’s thesis. 

Fast forward to when the book was written. Although both belong to the Western civilization, Ferguson noticed a divergence between Europe and America on both religiosity and work ethic. After noting that Christianity in Europe is fast declining, Ferguson wrote (p.273):

The trouble with all the theories about the death of Protestantism in Europe is that, whatever they may explain about Europe’s de-Christianization, they explain nothing whatsoever about America’s continued Christian faith. … On the contrary, God is in some ways as big in America today as He was forty years ago. 

A key is that American Christianity had undergone several awakenings in history. After watching (partial) Charlie Kirk Memorial Service, I realized that this movement could be another spiritual awakening in America. Christianity has also declined recently in America, although not as pronounced as in Europe. This might decide survival of American democracy. Explanation of this assersion requires several books, if not more. I will consider some of it in this and future write-ups. 

It is undeniable that, if running smoothly, liberal democracy is a better political system than all others. However, it is a big if and democracy is fragile. Athenian democracy lasted only one hundred plus years. For more than two thousand years after Athens, democracy was not actively promoted. The success of American democracy changed that [3]. In fact, the US started as a republic, not a democracy [4]. Most American Founding Fathers favored a republic, not a democracy; in other words, modeled the US after Rome, not Athens [4]. French philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville promoted American democracy through his book Democracy in America. Democracy began gaining praise. 

After Charlie’s assassination Niall Ferguson gave a speech at the University of Austin [5]. At the end of his speech, he quoted Benjamin Franklin's words, “A republic, if you can keep it.”, which was his response to Elizabeth Willing Powel's question: "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" The American experiment is approaching 250 years old, and it is largely successful so far. Can America democracy continue?  

References: 

1. Niall Ferguson, "Civilization: The West and the Rest," Penguin Books, 2012

2. Max Weber, Talcott Parsons (Translator) ,"The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism," CreateSpace, 2010.  

3. A. C. Grayling, Democracy and Its Crisis,  Oneworld Publications, 2017. 

4. James Miller, Can Democracy Work? Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018. 

5. *Niall Ferguson on Preserving Liberty After Charlie Kirk's Senseless Murder (9-19)