Charlie Kirk Deserves Better

Captain Seth Keshel marked “safe” from AmFest today

It is nearly impossible to be unfamiliar with Turning Point USA if you are connected in any capacity to Arizona Republican politics. While I’ve never been contracted with them, I am very familiar with a lot of their local leaders in my capacity as First Gentleman of Arizona’s 17th Legislative District. In the days following Charlie Kirk’s death, I reflected on the organization he built and the impact they’ve had in promoting citizen engagement among young people, which has immense impact on the future of American politics.

I believe the organization takes a “big tent” approach to conservative politics. Having been to parts of the last two America Fests (AmFests), I’ve seen speakers I like, and speakers I dislike or don’t trust - mainly on my perception of their political worldviews and the misalignment with what a successful American future entails. They roll out fan favorites that people trust, and then follow that person immediately with someone who openly espouses positions harmful to a greater conservative movement. It has always perplexed me.

But that isn’t my point today. I am spending time with my kids for Christmas at home; Rachel is in Phoenix attending today. From following along, AmFest 2025 has been a complete disaster. That is not Erika Kirk’s fault, nor is it necessarily the fault of TPUSA. Charlie’s death has severed the fragile alliances on the right and has made doing what he valued most nearly impossible. The political right is more of an anxiety disorder than a political movement - one that thrives on an obsession with perceived betrayal, negativity, and sensing doom over hypothetical scenarios that may never come to fruition as the world changes.

Charlie listened to people, considered his own worldviews as changing with world events, and never threw his friends away over disagreeing viewpoints. He maintained friendships with Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, Tucker Carlson, and Mark Levin. Three months later, at the first AmFest since Charlie’s death, it’s been nothing but grown adults swiping at one another from the stage when Charlie would have understood that the purpose for the entire spectacle was to call people to organization and subsequent action. A shit show.

It is hard to be a voice of reason these days. Some people are rah-rah all day long, praising everything the administration does. Others, like me, take an optimistic long-term approach to politics and still see the point in activism and prefer to highlight accomplishments over setbacks. I personally know several individuals working for the administration who have the right worldview, hold winning positions, and are advocating to have those implemented. I’m tired of everyone watching from X choosing to do nothing but complain.

There are very few pessimists who still have the sense to identify wins, but a massive horde of people who are so entrenched in negativity and hopelessness they disqualify all good things. They spent years bitching about the border and how it would destroy the country and when that border is silent by Trump’s first Christmas back in office, so are they. They complain about gas prices, and when they are at the lowest points they’ve been in many years - crickets.

Charlie Kirk would have kicked everyone’s asses over the way AmFest has unfolded so far. His entire mantra was collaboration, respect for free speech, and the core belief that no one person can have everything 100% right. In full disclosure, I couldn’t care less about a single word Ben Shapiro has to say. Watching his continuing allegiance to ideology and his resentment toward the Trump base is all I need to see. Likewise, I am irritated in watching so many on the right condemn a man they loved for years, Tucker Carlson, for questioning our foreign policy aims. Don’t even get me started on these feuds causing conservatives to act like liberals and smear those with whom they disagree with epithets and labels.

Yet I don’t ignore the fact that many people required for national victory hold beliefs in line with Shapiro’s, and I also don’t hold every one of Tucker Carlson’s opinions. I am my own man, and I have my own opinions and arguments. I believe in four fundamental political aims:

• America should control her borders and immigration policies tightly, only allowing compatible people to immigrate and having zero tolerance for illegal immigration

• America should not send her jobs to any other countries and should make all economic policies with American workers in mind

• America should not serve as world police or a security force for foreign nations

• America must engage heavily in anti-corruption measures (election fraud, Somali fraud, insider trading, lobby corruption)

Some in Shapiro’s camp support some of those positions. Some in Carlson’s camp support some of those positions. America is a big place with a lot of ideas, and it is supposed to be about the people. When the big names start making the big stages about themselves and not the people there looking for direction, we are losing the plot and getting away from what Charlie Kirk envisioned for his organization and the future of a free nation.

I am not in anyone’s camp. We need to get back to goal-setting, coalition building, and promoting full transparency with regard to the pillars listed above. Without it, events like AmFest are nothing more than “Six Flags Over Conservatism” light and laser shows that do nothing to move the needle, and everything to rip apart people who spend entirely too much time dooming on the Internet.

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Seth Keshel, MBA, is a former Army Captain of Military Intelligence and Afghanistan veteran. His analytical method of election forecasting and analytics is known worldwide, and he has been commended by President Donald J. Trump for his work in the field.