Earl Ofari Hutchinson
““Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed.” That was Trump griping on his Truth Social Media outlet that there are just too darn many federal holidays.
The occasion for Trump’s blast at the supposed glut of federal holidays was the national holiday celebration of Juneteenth. But in voicing criticism of the excess of federal holidays Trump must have had a senior moment memory lapse. When asked whether his designated “martyr for freedom” Charlie Kirk should have a federal holiday, he didn’t hesitate. He said he’d be open to pushing for such a holiday.
Now that the notion of such a holiday is out there don’t be shocked if one or more GOP house representatives or senators introduce a bill permanently memorializing Kirk with a holiday. There’s already been strong hints in that direction. There was the quasi-national memorial gathering at ASU stadium. There was the unanimous Senate vote for a Day of Remembrance for Kirk on his birthday October 14.
But even before that social media posts popped up all over the place with a picture of Kirk next to that of the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington. D.C. That spawned the inevitable and nauseating comparison of Kirk to King complete with the claim that if King as an individual in fact the only individual with a holiday named solely in his honor, then so should Kirk share the honor.
There is also a comparison with King that can be made in any talk of a Kirk national holiday. King symbolized a movement that rewrote the book on the fight for civil rights and social justice in America. Kirk likewise did the same but in the exact opposite direction. He ramped up hard-core rightist ideology and put a quasi-official stamp on white supremacy advocacy. But in the wrong perverse way like King, he was impactful.
It makes little difference that Kirk’s in your face espousal of bigoted, homophobic, and violence spewing quips and digs against a phalanx of groups most particularly Blacks was roundly opposed by millions. King’s civil rights advocacy was opposed by millions too. And the King national holiday is still the least celebrated federal holiday. And a lot of Americans decades later still hate what King stood for.
So, it wouldn’t matter whether a broad segment of Americans that Kirk routinely vilified couldn’t stomach would he espoused. If a GOP dominated Congress and the Trump White House ever seriously pushed the for a Kirk federal holiday, there’s a good chance they’d get it.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His latest book is Trump for Sale (Middle Passage Press) He is the publisher of thehutchinsonreport.net.