Phoenix, Arizona: It is impossible to know how significant Charlie Kirk will ultimately become in the pantheon of American history. But in the cauldron of State Farm Stadium, it felt as though something important was brewing.

For onlookers on Sunday (US time), this might have seemed hard to fathom. Kirk was a 31-year-old political activist – what of it? But he was also a prominent figure in the MAGA movement, a key ally of President Donald Trump and a prolific fundraiser through his organisation, Turning Point.

Tens of thousands of Americans attended Charlie Kirk’s memorial at State Farm Stadium in Arizona.Credit: Bloomberg

Kirk was a bridge to the next generation at a time when many young people have sworn off conservatism, mainstream media, or both. He was killed by a single bullet fired from a rooftop while he debated attendees at Utah Valley University on September 10. A 22-year-old man from Utah has been charged with murder.

Precisely what was brewing at Kirk’s memorial in Arizona is again difficult to say because we cannot know right now which message delivered in that stadium will resonate with Americans: that of mercy and forgiveness espoused by the grieving widow, Erika Kirk, or the calls for vengeance and reckoning espoused by others.

It was a ceremony that made no distinction at all between church and state. Trump, in his speech, repeated his........

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