Thread by @DrewHolden360, Since George Floyd’s killing, as the US has undergone a reckoning on [...]

Since George Floyd’s killing, as the US has undergone a reckoning on race, @charliekirk11 has tweeted about black lives 76 times.

Every. Single. One. has been outrage porn, cherry-picked black GOP voters or crime-related clickbait.

Conservatives: we have to be better than this.

@charliekirk11 is held up by many as some young conservative luminary.

If he represents our party’s future on race-related issues, we’re doomed. If our response to the protests - flawed as they are - is clickbait bullshit, we’re in big trouble.

I’ve threaded his tweets below.

We need more than that. And it need not be some kind of watered-down, kumbaya, big tent bullshit argument.

Theres a compelling, conservative case here, but instead too many people like Kirk would rather thumb their nose at BLM.

That won’t work.

BLM has ENORMOUS hypocrisy that needs to be called out. We can’t do that effectively if we only chime in to the conversation around race in America when it’s an intellectually lazy attempt to dunk on the other side.

We can’t

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Kirk is doing exactly what conservatives criticize BLM (rightly) for doing: cherry-picking only the information that advances a particularly narrative.

If that’s our angle, how are we any better than BLM?

And the conspiratorial bullshit doesn’t help.

We’ve got to wrestle with the tough stuff - that’s what political movements do. Taking sophomoric potshots at the other team - in a moment of political, social and cultural upheaval - is bullshit. And it’s losing bullshit to boot.

More of the same.

If you can’t see the moral imperative to grapple with the black experience in America, at least recognize the political one.

According to Pew, Biden is 82 basis points ahead of Trump among black voters. Failing to add to the conversation isn’t helping Rs on that front.

And there are an enormous number of arguments conservatives can make here. If you haven’t, check out the Empower America Project. @SenatorTimScott is the honorary chair. https://www.empower.org"> https://www.empower.org

Empower America Project

We champion and mentor future public servants and community leaders to fine-tune their political philosophy, public policy insights, and communication skills while advancing a platform of limited...

https://www.empower.org

We can’t just ignore everything about the black experience except for black-on-black crime, or use tragedy as a ‘gotcha’ opportunity, as Kirk is want to do. That shouldn’t need to be said. But apparently it needs pointing out.

I’m sure plenty of my followers will point out that @charliekirk11 makes some good points. I think he does too.

But we lose any semblance of a moral or intellectual high-ground when this is the only way we engage on the issues. It’s political suicide.

I guess this is as close as he comes to engaging on the topic.

So, I beg you, engage with issues of racial justice. Think about them. Write about them. Read about them.

Even if it only gets you to “I think this is all bunk and I reject it” it’ll still move the ball forward from where we are now.

If nothing else, do it to beat the alternative. Because if we don’t, it’ll be the left that gets to set the standards, while Kirk and the gang are left with intellectually bankrupt soundbites.