Laura Adkins Coalson

Because he first loved me. ✝️

[Ben Shapiro @benshapiro]

John Adams, writing to Abigail, about the Continental Congress' vote in favor of independence on July 2, 1776:

"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. -- I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. -- Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not."

[Nick Freitas @NickJFreitas]

1. Get married.
2. Have kids.
3. Don't let the government educate them for you.

We win in one generation.

[Matt Walsh @MattWalshBlog]

One thing you notice when you read pretty much anything written more than 100 years ago is just how impoverished and bland and limited our language has become. People spoke and wrote in a kind of effortlessly rich and descriptive way that almost no one does today. On this site a lot of people write almost exclusively in cliches and internet lingo. A lot of people speak like that too. The language contracts, our conversational vocabulary shrinks more and more over time. And the more limited we become in our language, the more limited we are in our thinking.

[Allie Beth Stuckey @conservmillen]

Politics matter because policy matters because people matter. Politics affect policy and policy affects people, and people matter! Go vote!

[Seth Dillon @SethDillon]

From Mere Christianity:

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." — C.S. Lewis

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

Interesting

[Nick Freitas @NickJFreitas]

Godly men and women becoming Godly husbands and wives, becoming Godly fathers and mothers.

That's how we win.
That's how everyone wins.

[Mikey McCoy @Michael_McCoyy]

Almost a year ago 🇺🇸

Charlie Kirk organized 50+ pastors to pray over President Trump - just two weeks before the election.

That prayer took place right before Trump had back-to-back rallies hosted by Charlie and Turning Point Action.

Charlie and Turning Point worked tirelessly to get President Trump elected.

[Glenn Beck @glennbeck]

After reading a few of the comments to my original post, i felt compelled to ask my Christian friends a few questions.

If, in this moment of grief, someone had said to me, as I mourn the loss of Charlie Kirk, “Yes, but everything he said was trash,” how do you think that would feel? Does that sound like the way we honor the charge to “mourn with those who mourn”?

I know very well how my faith is viewed in some quarters. I am not blind to the criticisms, nor do I expect everyone to share my beliefs. If you are not a hater but simply someone who disagrees with me on these issues, I want you to know I recognize your sincerity and that you, too, may believe you are doing right. But please — in this moment — I ask you to show me, and others who are hurting, the respect and love that Christians are commanded to extend to all.

There is a time for debate, and there is a time for silence. The time to belittle or question another’s faith is not while they are burying their dead. Doing so does not soften hearts; it hardens them. It does not heal; it deepens the wound. It does not invite reflection; it closes ears and eyes to any message you might hope to share.

I am not asking you to change your beliefs. I am not even asking you to stay silent forever. I am asking, humbly and respectfully, that you consider saving that fight for another day. We already agree on so much. The times are so dark. This is the third friend I have lost in two weeks. We are all hurting.

I love you. I respect your spiritual stance. I even applaud you for standing up for Christ in your way. But is it too much to ask, just for this moment, that you sit quietly with a friend and mourn while they mourn?

[Laura Adkins Coalson @LauraEAdkins]

Do one thing for yourself now that will make it easier on yourself down the road.

[Greg Price @greg_price11]

This is by far my favorite video of Charlie Kirk and it should be required for everyone in America to see

[JD Vance @JDVance]

A while ago, probably in 2017, I appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox show to talk about God knows what. Afterwards a name I barely knew sent me a DM on twitter and told me I did a great job. It was Charlie Kirk, and that moment of kindness began a friendship that lasted until today.

Charlie was fascinated by ideas and always willing to learn and change his mind. Like me, he was skeptical of Donald Trump in 2016. Like me, he came to see President Trump as the only figure capable of moving American politics away from the globalism that had dominated for our entire lives. When others were right, he learned from them. When he was right--as he usually was--he was generous. With Charlie, the attitude was never, "I told you so." But: "welcome."

Charlie was one of the first people I called when I thought about running for senate in early 2021. I was interested but skeptical there was a pathway. We talked through everything, from the strategy to the fundraising to the grassroots of the movement he knew so well. He introduced me to some of the people who would run my campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr. "Like his dad, he's misunderstood. He's extremely smart, and very much on our wavelength." Don took a call from me because Charlie asked him too.

Long before I ever committed (even in my mind) to running, Charlie had me speak to his donors at a TPUSA event. He walked me around the room and introduced me. He gave me honest feedback on my remarks. He had no reason to do this, no expectation that I'd go anywhere. I was polling, at that point, well below 5 percent. He did it because we were friends, and because he was a good man.

When I became the VP nominee--something Charlie advocated for both in public and private--Charlie was there for me. I was so glad to be part of the president's team, but candidly surprised by the effect it had on our family. Our kids, especially our oldest, struggled with the attention and the constant presence of the protective detail. I felt this acute sense of guilt, that I had conscripted my kids into this life without getting their permission. And Charlie was constantly calling and texting, checking on our family and offering guidance and prayers. Some of our most successful events were organized not by the campaign, but by TPUSA. He wasn't just a thinker, he was a doer, turning big ideas into bigger events with thousands of activists. And after every event, he would give me a big hug, tell me he was praying for me, and ask me what he could do. "You focus on Wisconsin," he'd tell me. "Arizona is in the bag." And it was.

Charlie genuinely believed in and loved Jesus Christ. He had a profound faith. We used to argue about Catholicism and Protestantism and who was right about minor doctrinal questions. Because he loved God, he wanted to understand him.

Someone else pointed out that Charlie died doing what he loved: discussing ideas. He would go into these hostile crowds and answer their questions. If it was a friendly crowd, and a progressive asked a question to jeers from the audience, he'd encourage his fans to calm down and let everyone speak. He exemplified a foundational virtue of our Republic: the willingness to speak openly and debate ideas.

Charlie had an uncanny ability to know when to push the envelope and when to be more conventional. I've seen people attack him for years for being wrong on this or that issue publicly, never realizing that privately he was working to broaden the scope of acceptable debate.

He was a great family man. I was talking to President Trump in the Oval Office today, and he said, "I know he was a very good friend of yours." I nodded silently, and President Trump observed that Charlie really loved his family. The president was right. Charlie was so proud of Erika and the two kids. He was so happy to be a father. And he felt such gratitude for having found a woman of God with whom he could build a family.

Charlie Kirk was a true friend. The kind of guy you could say something to and know it would always stay with him. I am on more than a few group chats with Charlie and people he introduced me to over the years. We celebrate weddings and babies, bust each other's chops, and mourn the loss of loved ones. We talk about politics and policy and sports and life. These group chats include people at the very highest level of our government. They trusted him, loved him, and knew he'd always have their backs. And because he was a true friend ,you could instinctively trust the people Charlie introduced you to. So much of the success we've had in this administration traces directly to Charlie's ability to organize and convene. He didn't just help us win in 2024, he helped us staff the entire government.

I was in a meeting in the West Wing when those group chats started lighting up with people telling Charlie they were praying for him. And that's how I learned the news that my friend had been shot. I prayed a lot over the next hour, as first good news and then bad trickled in.

God didn't answer those prayers, and that's OK. He had other plans. And now that Charlie is in heaven, I'll ask him to talk to big man directly on behalf of his family, his friends, and the country he loved so dearly.

You ran a good race, my friend.

We've got it from here.

[Collin Rugg @CollinRugg]

Charlie Kirk on how he wanted to be remembered.

Question: “How would you wanna be remembered?”

Charlie: “I wanna be remembered for courage for my faith. That that would be the most important thing. The most important thing is my faith in my life.”

[Nick Freitas @NickJFreitas]

I am told that as a state representative this is the moment where I'm supposed to express my heartfelt condolences and then stand in solidarity with those on the other side of the aisle as we condemn political violence and stand unified as one people.

But we aren't "one people" are we?

The truth is we haven't been for some time now, and there is really no point in pretending anymore, if there ever was.

We are two very different peoples. We may occupy the same piece of geography, but that is where the similarities seem to abruptly end.

I convinced myself for a long time that whenever the left called me a racist, a bigot, a sexist, a fascist, a "threat to democracy" for even the most innocent of disagreements, that it was simply hyperbolic rhetoric done for effect.

And now the "effect" is a widow and two orphaned children, because the left couldn’t bear the thought of a peaceful man debating them and winning.

I don’t think they realize it yet, but murdering Charlie is going to be remembered as the day where we finally woke up to what this fight really is.

It’s not a civil dispute among fellow countrymen. It’s a war between diametrically opposed worldviews which cannot peacefully coexist with one another. One side will win, and one side will lose.

Charlie tried to win that fight through argumentation, through discussion, through peaceful resolution of differences.

And the other side murdered him.

Not because he was “extreme” or “inciting violence” or any other hyperbolic slur they hurled at him. They murdered him because he was effective. Because he was unafraid. Because he inspired others and made them feel like they had a voice, that they were not alone. And he did it at the very institutions which have fomented so much hatred toward conservatives.

I don’t want to “stand in solidarity” with the other side of the aisle. I want to defeat you. I want to defeat the godless ideology that kills babies in the womb, sterilizes confused children, turns our cities into cesspools of degeneracy and lawlessness…and that murdered Charlie Kirk.

Social media is aflame right now with leftist celebration of Charlie’s death.

I wonder if any among them understand what has just happened. If there is a Yamamoto somewhere in their midst warning, that all they have done is awoken a sleeping giant.

I doubt it. I think they gave up such introspection and self-awareness long ago.

I don’t know exactly what will happen next. I just know that it won’t be the same as what has happened in the past.

There will be thoughts and prayers…Charlie would have wanted prayers. Not for himself but for those left behind and for the country that he loved.

But then there will be a reckoning.

My Christian faith requires me to love my enemies and pray for those who curse me. It does not require me to stand idly by in the midst of savagery and barbarism...quite the opposite.

So every time I feel tired, every time I feel discouraged or overwhelmed, I am going to watch the video of a good man being murdered in Utah…I will force myself to watch it…and then I will return to the work of destroying the evil ideology responsible for that and so much more.

Rest with God Charlie, your fight is over.

Ours is just beginning.

[Kyle Mann @The_Kyle_Mann]

If you have the freedom to hold widespread "no kings" protests across the country, your government does not have a king

[Karoline Leavitt @karolineleavitt]

☑️ Win National Championship
☑️ Throw on your dark MAGA hat
☑️ Shake hands with your favorite President

[Becky Weiss @Becky_Weiss_]

Let’s talk about the department of education 🤝

[Bo Loudon @BoLoudon]

🚨BREAKING: HHS Secretary RFK Jr just announced the FDA is ELIMINATING the exemption that allows harmful chemicals to be in our food.

MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN!

[Laura Adkins Coalson @LauraEAdkins]

Despite human evil; God's plan is still at work.

[Anna Lulis @annamlulis]

Vance is incredibly relatable to Americans with families.

He just got off a long flight with his kids, clearly exhausted and in pajamas.

Elon Musk and Vance are among the most powerful people on earth, yet are single-handedly normalizing children in public.

Incredible.