May 31, 2026 • 47 mins
Even back in 2019, Charlie had an exceptional way of explaining what made America exceptional. At one of the earliest iterations of YWLS, Charlie explains what made Washington, Jefferson, and Hamilton so much more remarkable than conquerors like Napoleon or Alexander the Great. Simple: Because they built a limited government that would live beyond them, rather than maximizing power for themselves and their descendants. And as a result, the American republic has blossomed to be the greatest nation in history.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
My name is Charlie kirk I run the largest pro
American student organization in the country, fighting for the future
of our republic.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
If the most important thing for you is just feeling good,
you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important
thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful. College is
a scam, everybody. You got to stop sending your kids
to college. You should get married as young as possible
and have as many kids as possible. Go start at
turning point, you would say, college chapter. Go start at
turning point you say high school chapter. Go find out
(00:36):
how your church can get involved. Sign up and become
an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in
fifth grade, most important decision I ever made in my life,
and I encourage you to do the same.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Here I am Lord, Use me. Buckle up, everybody, Here
we go.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the
Charlie Kirkshaw, a company that specializes in gold I rays
and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could
protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegold investments
dot Com. That is Noblegoldinvestments dot Com.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It is such it's just it's just amazing to see
how this Young Women's Leadership Summit grows year after year.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And I said this last night.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I want to say it again now to the entire audience,
just the people that make this possible, our donors and
our supporters, and our board members, those of which that
that we honored last night, and those of which that
wish to you know, remain in the in the not
not on the forefront of that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Thank you so much for thinking of us and supporting us.
You make all of this possible.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So I want to take this time today to kind
of break down the three big things we believe at
Turning Point USA. And then I want to open up
for questions and we can have some good back and
forth and no questions are off limits, but we're gonna
do questions, not speeches for three minutes and then a
question after that. Okay, right, we like that good. So
(02:15):
at Turning Point USA, we believe in three big things.
First thing we believe is that America is the greatest
country ever to exist in the history of the world.
That America is the most benevolent, the most generous, the
most accepting, the most creative, the most entrepreneurial country ever
(02:37):
to exist in the history of the world. So you
should applaud that, by the way, And what's so concerning
to us at turning point USA is the rise of
anti Americanism on college campuses. Does anyone in the audience
feel as if it's almost now the predominant viewpoint to
be anti American on your campus?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Raise your hand.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
This is in our own country and the media will
refuse to cover this, of course, that in our own
country we have people that want to deconstruct the prosperity
and the excellence and the success that we're enjoying today.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But why is.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
America the greatest country ever to exist in the history
of the world. It's not because we have the most people.
China and India have more people than us, a lot
more people. In fact, China has almost four times as
many people as we do, India almost three times as
many people as we do. It's not because we have
the most land. Russia has almost tripled the amount of
land that we have. It's not that we have the
(03:32):
most natural resources. I mean the Middle East around Saudi Arabia, Russia,
they have natural gas, they have oil, so why is
of course we have all those things. But that doesn't
make a country excellent. What makes a country excellent is
the ideas of which that country is founded upon, and
the ideas that are embedded in that culture.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That we all accept.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And there's a difference between the American culture and the
culture of Europe and the culture of almost all the
rest of the world. Something that we take for granted
that all of you have heard throughout your whole life,
which is, if you don't succeed at first, try try,
try again. This is a uniquely American value. We are
more forgiving of failure in this country than any other
(04:18):
country in the world. There's almost an expectation of perseverance.
There's almost an expectation that you're going to push through
difficult times and that you're going to be better tomorrow
than you were today, and you're gonna better today than
you were yesterday. If I were to describe what it
means to be an American, the first thing I think
of is meritocracy.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's a big word. What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That means that we reward hard work, and we reward
people who play by the rules. So simple, those two
things that if you work really hard and you make
a series of good choices for a long period of time,
you'll be able to look five years, ten years, fifteen
years later and see your life improved. Most of the
(05:01):
world does not have that guarantee. Most of the world, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Let's use India.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
In India, if you work really hard and play by
the rules, for six hundred million people in India, it
means their life will be exactly the same fifteen years
from now that it is today. That even if you
go to the school that you're assigned to, even if
you try really really hard at your job, it doesn't
mean much of anything. Your life might have a slight
improvement unless there's some exception and there's an amazing thing
(05:28):
that happens and someone takes a risk on you. Because
in India there's a cast system and it's really hard
to break out of that cast system.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Now it's not as.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Formal as it was one hundred years ago, but it's
culturally a cast system still in India. And so that's
the first and the second thing is this really really
big word called intergenerational stratification. Now, what does that mean essentially,
that means it's the guarantee. It's the promise that in
America that your kid's life and definitely your grandkid's life
(05:56):
will be better than your current life today. And you
should have paued that because again, in a lot of
countries across the world that have amazing, beautiful people, that's
not a guarantee. There's a reason why the waiting list
to come into this country is tens of millions of
people long. That people dream and they go to bed
(06:18):
every single day. This one thing they think about is
I hope I get a letter in the mail from
my embassy or the US embassy allowing.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Me to be a legal immigrants the United States.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
That's what's on the minds of hundreds of millions of
people every day. And so the guarantee that if you
do the first thing, you work hard and play by
the rules, that your life and your kid's life, and
definitely your grandkid's life will improve. I ask this question
almost all the time, and I guarantee very few people
(06:46):
in this room can say that you have it worse
than your grandparents. Very few people in this room can
say that unless your grandparents were John D.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Rockefeller or the Melon family.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I almost guarantee everyone in this room has a higher
standard of living, has more opportunity, and is more liberated
than their grandparents work. That's a sign of an excellent country.
So we go behind the values of America, just like
the Christian Trinity. Now I'm a Christian first, an American second,
(07:19):
a conservative third in that order. Okay, just like the
Christian Trinity, there is an American trinity. And this is
from my very good friend Dennis Prager. We love Dennis Prager,
don't we, sam pass me. The American trinity is three
big things, the first of which is the phrase e
(07:41):
pluribus unim, which is a Latin phrase which means out
of many one. When America was founded, almost on the
Presidential Seal and many of our founding documents, this phrase
kept on popping up, e pluribus unim. It was the
first country ever to be founded on unity and not division.
It was the first country that was trying to bring
people together. It was a country that, of course, we
(08:02):
failed on that at first in a lot of different ways.
But our ability to correct from our mistakes over time
is a sign of excellence. It's not who you were,
but it's how far you've come. It's not where you
were one hundred years ago, but it's the choices that
you've made to be able to correct any mistakes that
you once had. Now, that phrase e pluribus unham is
so important because it's not about pitting people against each other.
(08:25):
It's recognizing, first and foremost, there is only one race,
the human race, and that we have more in common
than ever will divide us. The second part of the
American trinity is one word, and the word is liberty.
And we love a lot of people on the left
love to talk about liberty. They love to say, oh, yeah,
(08:45):
we're all into liberty, and for maybe two issues if that.
But liberty is great and we all should support it.
But you should be able to do what you want
to do as long as it doesn't harm somebody else.
But you have to take responsibility for your actions if
things don't go the way you want them to go.
You should be able to start a business, you should
(09:07):
be able to go to the school you want to.
But if for whatever reason that doesn't work out, who's responsible.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
You're responsible.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's not your teacher's fault, it's not your professor's fault.
It's not the patriarchy's fault. It's none of those people's fault. Instead,
you have to look inwardly as the best, as the
only way to actually change things as you see fit.
The third part of the American trinity is the phrase
in God we trust. It is on all of our currency,
(09:42):
and it is a phrase that we should never forget.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
At the American founding.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
On the principles of our country, we recognize our rights
come from God, not from government. That we recognize we
have natural rights when we are born. This is so
important because therefore we we as this citizens here we
created the government. The government did not give us permission
to exist. This is juxtaposed so differently than the Rissoian
(10:08):
view or the leftist view that for whatever reason, government
has to grant us permission to do certain things. Instead,
it's the exact opposite that we all gave. We give
our designation, and we give our contract towards the government,
and the government is accountable to us. We're the shareholders
of the United States Government. And you put all this together,
(10:30):
what does the results look like? Well, America, despite the
mistakes that we've made, never forget this. America has made
mistakes but America is not a mistake, and.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
We are one of the only.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Countries ever to exist in the history of the world
to voluntarily send our own citizens to go die for
the freedoms of others. We are a country that time
when there is world conflict, when things break out, they
don't call the Belgians. They definitely don't call the French.
(11:07):
When there's conflict, people say where are the Americans. Bring
in the Americans, and whether it be a natural disaster,
a tsunami, of flood and earthquake, it is American leadership.
And that goes to the other point I talked about.
We are the most generous country, the most benevolent country
(11:27):
ever to exist in the history of the world. America
gave away We as a country gave away five hundred
billion dollars to charity last year that.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
We know of that we know of.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That means and that doesn't count the meals that you
paid for a friend who needed it, or an uber
for a friend that was a little short of money.
That's not even a counter This is just money that
the IRS was able to designate that went to charities.
Five hundred billion dollars is the combined GDP gross domestic
product of almost all Eastern Europe. So we voluntarily gave
(12:02):
away money, so much money, it's essentially the entire wealth
of entire countries. I believe firmly that the best way
to help the least of these, to help people that
are struggling, is not through big government bureaucracies.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It's through churches, it's through.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Synagogues, it's through mosques, through local community centers. And when
we lose that, when we lose looking out for other people,
when we lose that as a country look to government
to solve our problems, all of a sudden, we become
worse ourselves. You become more bitter, and you become more selfish.
Government will take care of that for me. I don't
(12:40):
need to give to charity. I don't need to help
the person on the side of the street. We become
hardened to the world around us because it's somebody else's responsibility,
when in reality, it should be everyone in this room's
responsibility to lend a helping hand to somebody who needs it.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
How much are life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness
worth to you? This is the question America's founders had
to answer. You see for more than one hundred and
fifty years, America's thirteen colonies governed themselves until Britain declared
they had no right to self rule. So ordinary people
had to make extraordinary choices and risk their lives, their fortunes,
(13:20):
and their sacred honor to fight for independence, and against
all odds they won, and in victory they built one
of the most stable and lasting republics in human history.
Now experience the American solution like never before, thanks to
our friends at Hillsdale College. Revolutionary America, a new documentary
from Hillsdale Studios and narrated by Tom Selleck, brings the
(13:41):
founding of our nation to life through the voices of
those who lived, alongside insights from leading scholars and commentator.
I'm telling you, Hillsdale has outdone themselves with this. It's amazing.
You've got to check this out. You've got to. Frankly,
you got to buy tickets to see this film, So please, please,
please something. You could take the whole family too, You
(14:01):
can take your friends, I mean listen. At a time
when history is often distorted in schools and classes immedia,
this is your chance to see the stories that really
happened and ask yourself, what would you risk for freedom?
Face the decisions our founders grappled with in Revolutionary American,
a Hillsdale Studios film only in theaters May thirty first
through June second, So get your tickets now by going
(14:23):
to Hillsdale dot edu slash Revolution. You do not want
to miss this opportunity to see this on the big screen.
Hillsdale dot edu slash Revolution. To locate a theater near
you and buy tickets for Revolutionary American one more time.
That's Hillsdale dot edu slash Revolution.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So second thing we believe at Turning Point USA is
that the Constitution is the greatest political document ever written
in the history of the world. The Constitution was not
written for the times. It was written to stand the
test of time. The Constitution the brilliance the Founding Fathers.
(15:06):
The Founding Fathers were the first victors and winners of
a conflict and a war that voluntarily gave up political power.
The Founding Fathers could have created the Washingtonian Franklin Jeffersonian
ruling class that would have ruled like kings over Virginia,
the Northeast, and the Southeast. They're the first winners of
(15:28):
a war that won power and then gave it back
and made themselves less powerful after the war than they
were before.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Think about that.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Could you imagine Napoleon, Alexander the Great, or Genghis Khan
winning a huge military victory and then giving up that
power afterwards, or Julius Caesar, any of these conquerors, these
military leaders that we study, and there was one common
denominator about Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Julius Caesar and
Genghis Khan, the empires that they built that was around
(16:01):
their savagery, and their conquests fell because it was about
around them, and it was around force. The Founding fathers
studied history, They studied Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. They
studied their thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment. They studied the Bible.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
The Bible had a huge impact on the American Founding
and they created a document, the Constitution, that was not
an analysis of the times, but instead an analysis of
human beings. As much as we like to convince ourselves
that people change over a period of time, we're exactly
(16:39):
the same today as we were five thousand years ago
in Babylonia and in the Indus River Valley and all
across the world. Human beings are very predictable creatures, and
especially predictable when it comes to government. When it comes
to government, human beings do the same thing time and
time again. They start with saying good things. They put
(17:02):
someone that they trust into power, or that person forcibly
puts themselves into power through conquest or war. They do
some good things for a short period of time, and
then that power starts to corrupt them, and it corrupts
them for a longer period of time. And you might
get lucky, you might win the lottery and get a
good king. You might get a good king. Good king, right,
(17:23):
that means he's not killing people. That's the definition of
a good king. But then, you know what the problem
with a good king is usually a good king has
really really bad kids, and then you have a really
big problem, and there's no way.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
To correct that.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And so the founders they studied even the problems with
just flat out democracy.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Big myth.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
We are not a democracy in this country. We're not
a democracy, and we should never be a democracy.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
We are a.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Constitutional republic with a democratic means of putting individuals in
position power.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
What's the difference.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, a republic has certain truths, certain inalienable rights, if
you will, that are enshrined in the foundational pillars of
that country. A democracy is if fifty one percent of
this room decides that no one needs to own guns.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It becomes that way. That's a democracy.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
If fifty one percent of this room says we need
to get rid of free speech, a democracy, it becomes
that way. In a constitution republic, eighty percent of this
room could say, well, let's get rid of the Second Amendment,
and we'll say, well, look, actually, it says very clearly
in our republic that these rights are enshrined upon our founding.
A constitutional republic is the greatest preventative measure from tyranny.
(18:46):
So founding fathers did not do what Plato tried to do.
Plato tried to create utopia. He tried to create perfection.
This is what the left is trying to sell everyone
in this room today. And I got harsh piece of reality.
Life is suffering. You're not going to be able to
(19:06):
create utopia. It's never going to happen. But you can
create better, you can create not as bad as today.
Because why is this? This is very this is drawing
straight from Hobbes, we as human beings tend to put
ourselves in positions and put in patterns of behavior where
(19:29):
we act very selfishly, and especially when it comes to government.
So we need a government that is not perfect, because
that will never happen. But one as the Founding fathers
that said, you see this system of government, this will work.
It's not going to be perfect, but it will work.
Don't screw it up. That's what the Founding fathers gave us.
(19:53):
As they never promised perfection, is they never promised that
you will be able to eradicate the ills of prejudice,
the things that the left tries to say that they'll
be able to get rid of. We just need another
ninety three trillion dollars for a green New Deal, and
that and that alone will be it. How many more
programs have they been trying to sell us for the
(20:13):
last one hundred years, And by the way, the funny
thing is every one of these programs actually makes us
less free, less competitive, and further away from our founding roots.
And yet the promise that the left always tries to
do is we're just one more government program away to perfection.
We're just one government program away to getting us in charge.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
And what makes us.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
As conservatives or libertarians or freethinkers so different than the
left is we admit at the beginning we will.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Never achieve perfection.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's just not going to happen because human beings are
going to act selfishly.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
People are going to commit crimes. There.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You will have corrupt politicians. But do you know what
the founding fathers realized is all right.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
You will have corrupt politicians.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
You can get rid of congress people through a vote
by other men members of Congress. You are going to
have corrupt members of the courts. You can impeach a
Supreme Court justice. You will have presidents that should be impeached.
This president is not one of those presidents that should
be impeached, by the way. And here's the method that
other parts of government can check itself, because the government
(21:20):
is nothing more than an expression of the citizens. And
here's the other important thing to remember about the Constitution
is that the states created the federal government. The federal
government did not create the states. That we were a
collection of states that came together in a federalized system.
And because of that, we should have what's called these
(21:41):
laboratories of democracy. I love the fact that Florida is
able to experiment with charter schools and no income tax,
unlike California, which is bankrupt and broken and busting at
the scenes.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
And you could see.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The differences between Florida, a state that is creating jobs,
balancing budgets, expanding opportunity for minority kids, and California, which
has an increasing homeless population, Like you wouldn't believe that
is more wealth inequality than any other state that has
businesses leaving it daily, that loses people with wealth. That
(22:19):
and there's this attack on wealth all the time in
our culture, in our society. You cannot get rich in
this society without making other people rich along the way.
Just because someone got rich does not mean somebody else
got poor got poor.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Getting wealthy in.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
A free market system means you had to create wealth
for other people along the way. So if the United
States Constitution did and what it has done has allowed.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
This prosperity to exist.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
If you look at the differences between the French founding,
which is rooted in Rossau, which believes not in the individual. See,
that's what's so important is that we as Americans and
we as believers in the US Constitution recognize the sovereignty.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Of the individual.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
You have a right to free speech, you have a
right to own a firearm, you have a right to privacy.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I'm not going to tell you how to live your life.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
The French founding is completely different. It's we're a collective
body that the individual comes second or third or even
further down there. That there is a social contract that
we all exist to and it's the government that really
is the one that is going to be the most
important thing in our life.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
And what's the byproduct of that.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Well, you've seen France not be as successful as America
over the last one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I think that's a pretty fair thing to say.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And I love some parts of France, Like I'm not
trying to be like it's not like an anti French speech, Like,
don't get me wrong, but it's unmistakable that whether it
be the entrepreneurs, the companies, the benevolency, the charity, the
ford thinkers, the authors, the writers, the cultural influence, which
founding was better for human flourishing, Which founding was better
(23:59):
for the individual to attain their dreams. One that dives
in mediocrity, like the French where they basically take the
entire month of August off, where every time anything goes
wrong they go in the streets and protest it because
things cost a little bit more, because they want to
blame other people, and instead of America, we're like, well,
just work harder, like get another job. That's an American
(24:20):
value and the French value is to get in the
streets and blame somebody else for it.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
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Speaker 1 (25:43):
The third thing we believe at Turning Point USA is
that we believe that free enterprise capitalism is the most moral,
proven and effective economic system ever discovered.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Free enterprise.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Let's talk about what free enterprise isn't first, because I'm
sure all of you on campus here have to deal
with the misrepresentations around capitalism and free enterprise. Let me
tell you what free enterprise isn't. It's not cronyism. It's
not being able to buy special access in DC. It's
not being able to have the correct lobbyists to get
government contracts. It's not having well positioned office on offices
(26:22):
on K Street. It's not having the right politicians on
speed dial so that you can get your company treated correctly.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
That is cronyism.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And as we like to say, and it's a saying
from again Dennis Prager, the bigger the government, the smaller
the citizen. And as free enterprise capitalism, let me tell
you what it is now. It's the ability for every individual.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
We come from that idea of the individual to be
able to buy what they want to buy, sell what
they want to sell, keep what they earn, trade as
they wish, as long as it does it harms somebody else.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's free enterprise capitalism. And what's the buy product of that.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, over time, three big things happen, andree enterprise capitalism.
Prices go down, the quality of goods go up, and
more people get access to those goods. What used to
be considered luxury items in Western society, every single person
has right now in this room. In the nineteen eighties,
it was a luxury good to have a cellular phone.
(27:19):
It was a luxury good that most of it was
this big, and some of them are only in cars.
And now every person in this room has a supercomputer.
I'm guessing most of them are Apple, and that has
a supercomputer. That the prices have been going down over.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Time, the quality has gone up.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
When I was in high school, Any high schoolers out there,
we love.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Our high schoolers. Thank you for being here. Love our
high schoolers.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
When I was in high school, the iPhone was just
getting released. We had those old things called eye touches.
Anyone remember I touch? Do you remember the iPods? Were
used to have to go like this? And you have
to put the high schoolers right now are saying, what
on earth are you talking about? When you used to
have to rotate your finger to be able to get
(28:04):
to the next But I was really good at that,
by the way, really good back and forth. There were
no apps, there was no color. It was nothing more
than an iPod. That's right, an iPod where you had
a lit up screen. This was ten years ago, and
(28:24):
we laugh at it as if this was the Mesozoic era,
only in a free market system with a keyword competition,
competing for all of your attention, competing for all of
your money, competing for your your time and your appreciation.
Could you have something that you're able to film this speech?
I you're able to take pictures that you're able to
(28:45):
communicate with someone halfway around the world. This is only
possible in a free market system, and we could prove
it because in countries such as let's just use Venezuela
that embraces socialism and not so good ideas, the biggest
concern for most people in this room, I'm sure at
(29:07):
times is my phone is running out of battery or
my uber is late. And I'm half kidding, of course,
but I'm sure these are things that stress everyone out
in Venezuela. They're worrying where am I going to get
my next singular meal for the week, Where am I
going to get one shower for the month? Where am
(29:30):
I going to be able to have a place to
sleep for just this one day?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And then I'll worry about tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
And Venezuela, which is such an important example, has the
most oil and natural gas reserves of any country in
the entire world, more than Russia, more than even the
United States, more than Saudi Arabia, more than Iran. And
only socialism could screw that up. And they did something
very important in the early two thousands. They nationalized their
(30:01):
oil assets. The government took over all the oil and
natural gas. So when the government takes something over, there's
no price system. This is the argument for private property.
When there's no price system, things get really inefficient. Cronyism
takes over. I think cronism is bad. Now just wait
till government owns everything. It would be like the TSA
(30:23):
running our oil and gas industry.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Okay, if you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Want to just make somebody a conservative, bring them to
Atlanta's airport at five am and say you don't have
TSA pre you don't have clear and you got to
get to your plane in forty five minutes. Go, And
at the end of that, say, are you still going
to be voting for Democrats after this? Because there's no
(30:49):
way that you could appreciate the government. And I don't
mean to I don't mean to mischaracterize TSA workers, but
I think we would all agree that there is a
lack of spirit, a lack of accountability, and a lack
of energy amongst TSA workers versus the people that work
at Chick fil A, Right, And what's the difference is
(31:15):
that the people that work at Chick fil A, they're
instilled with values. It's private enterprise. They have to turn
a profit. And if you don't do your job at
Chick fil A, you're not going to have that job
anymore at TSA. If it don't do your job, you
get promoted. That's government versus free enterprise.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And we see that.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Kind of tension time and time again. And so we
at Turning Point you say, believe in these three big things,
and that's it. Now. I have personal opinions about all
sorts of different stuff, and you guys can ask me
about those things. And we always want our speakers to
talk about any issue they want to talk about, whether
it be abortion and guns, and you guys have heard
from all of that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
But as an organization, these are the three things that
we believe.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
We don't consider these to be political at all. These
are not things that should be replublican or Democrat, or
even conservative or liberal. These should be inherently agreed upon
things as a country that we all accept. And so
I will juxtapose the American trinity with the leftist trinity,
and then I would love to open it up for
(32:17):
questions because I want you all to understand what we're
up against. And I think a lot of you do
understand because you're on college campuses today.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We at Turning Point USA believe.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Whatever happens on college campuses will soon happen in the
halls of Congress, and will soon happen in corporate boardrooms.
College campuses are the Canarian, the cold mine. They're the
leading indicator. They are the cultural war of things to come.
Alexandria Acasio Cortes did not come out of nowhere. She
(32:48):
was created in the university system. She is a prototype
of the professors. Does anyone knows someone like AOC who's
constantly wrong but never in doubt? Anyone know her any
you see a.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Lot like her?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
And I'm not trying to attack her personally, I'm not.
I am going to critique her ideas, and I am
going to put some criticism towards how committed she is
to believing she's correct and everyone before her was wrong.
It's a really dangerous thing to believe that everyone before
me was incorrect. What is the word that comes to mind?
And boy, that takes a lot of hubris and pride
(33:22):
to think that everyone before you is incorrect and you
and you alone are now the standard bearer of what
is righteous and true. That takes a lot of hubris
and a lot of pride, doesn't it?
Speaker 4 (33:31):
So?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
What is the leftist trinity?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Let's go through the American trinity again, as Dennis Prager
talks about it, e pluribus unim, which means out of
many one that there's more that unites us than divides us.
Second liberty that you can do what you want to
do as you see fit as long as it doesn't
harm somebody else, But you have to do what, take
responsibility for your actions.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
A belief in the individual. The third thing in God.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
We trust that our rights come from God, not from government.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
That is the American Trinity.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Is the leftist trinity, not eat pluribus unum.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Definitely not.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
You'd be divide and conquer men versus women, rich versus poor,
police versus citizens. They want to pit people against each
other at all times. It's not about unity. It's about
bosses versus employees. It's not about finding common ground or
(34:26):
compromise or having differences but still understanding those differences. Instead,
it's what they did in the Kavanaugh hearing, interruption, chaos, demagoguery, misrepresentation,
character assassination. That is what they want. Was what happens
when you're able to divide. The second part, you're able
(34:47):
to conquer when you keep an entire portion of the
American population in permanent fear. When you keep an entire
portion of the American population.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That begins to hate the other part.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Of the American population, they call us deplorable, they call
us irredeemable, They call us clinging to our God, guns,
and religion. They call us slow, petted, They call us
the smelly Walmart people. They call us flyover country. They
have contempt for us, but they don't know us. They
don't and because as soon as they're forced to talk
(35:19):
to us, as soon as they're forced to have a
conversation with us, as soon as they realize that we
care about this country, then all of a sudden, they
might hate us less. But the hate is what drives them,
and they need that to be able to divide and
conquer and attain power, because within chaos makes it really
(35:39):
easy to get power. The second part of the American
trinity we talk about is liberty. It's definitely not liberty
for the left, it's control. How can we control people
we don't want? For example, they don't want black students
to be able to go to better schools. They want
to control them in failing public schools. They don't want
to be able to have women have firearms to defend
(36:03):
themselves against predators. Instead, they want to have them living
young women living in a place of fear so they
can control them. They don't want to actually have economic
opportunity for disenfranchised communities all across the Midwest. Instead, they'd
rather give them a bunch of government stuff so they
can one so they can control them.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
That is a huge pillar of the.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
American Left and the final thing in God we trust. No, no, no,
The left does not believe in that. It's in government
we trust. That's what the left believes at every turn,
at every issue. It's not what the individual can do,
it's not what people can do. Instead, it's what government
can do. And I fear for a country where we
(36:44):
as a people will not look inwardly to fix problems,
but instead say, oh, the government will fix it for us,
or the government will do it better than we can.
And that has never ever been the case. Instead, it's
free people looking out for their fellow citizens, making good
choices around core common values that has always proven to
create the greatest contry ever to exist.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Here's what your financial advisor won't tell you. By the
time the news tells you to buy gold. It's too late.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
You're waiting.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I get it. Everybody's waiting waiting to see if the
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on the unknown, and it moves faster than you can react.
So while you're waiting for certainty, the rest of the
world is planning for what comes next. You can wait
(37:34):
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Speaker 1 (38:24):
And so with that, I would love to open up
for some questions until they yanked me off stage.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
So hey, Charlie, so what would your response be to
someone who says or asks why you hate socialism? If
we have socialist programs within our country right now and
more a mixed economy.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Great. I get this question all the time.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
So people say, oh, Charlie, you know you don't you?
You say you hate socialism, but what about the roads,
and what about the bridges, and what about Medicare? And
what about social security and all these things? So let's
break this down. Who hears heard this argument before?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Heard this argument?
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Good? Good? So let's define what socialism first and foremost
in is socialism?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
And they can't escape this?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
And Bernie Sanders believes this socialism is the constant march
towards the eradication of private property and government control of production. Okay,
it's that constant march towards that. Now, we as conservatives
and we as libertarians are freedom thinkers and freedom lovers.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
We are not anarchists.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
We do believe that there are some things that government
should do police, fire, roads, bridges, but we also recognize
the best way to do that is what.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Local local police.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
We don't want to federalize our police force, right, local
firefighters where you have a local fire station.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Local schools.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Right, we don't want common core. We want localized control
of education. And with that, with that, you're able to
have accountability towards where that money is actually going and
you're able about to see what.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
You're paying in.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Now, if you have a problem with that, then you
can go to your school board meeting, you can go
to your local city council and say, I don't like
the fact that it's taken three years to reconstruct this road.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
This is not right.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
And they're going to feel your pressure because then they
have to see you at football games, and they're gonna
have to see you at the grocery store, and they're
gonna have to see you everywhere they go in the community.
You know what's the problem with DC is there's no accountability.
In order to go see your elected officials, you got
to get in a plane, go to DC and maybe
they'll take a meeting with you. Maybe, And that's the
beauty of localized control. Bernie Sanders, for example, one of
(40:32):
the big things that Bernie Sanders pillar, just so you understand,
is the same Medicare for all, which is the complete
nationalization and government takeover of one sixth of the American economy,
the healthcare industry. One six that's the eradication of private property.
That's telling private doctors they can't practice anymore. That's telling
(40:52):
private chiropractic clinics. I'm sure some of you go to chiropractice.
Chiropractice have been really great to me in some ways.
You can't do this anymore. It has to all run
through government. So it's the constant march towards the eradication
of private property. The final thing I'll say is this,
They use social Security and Medicare all the time to
say these are socialist programs.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Let me tell you why that's wrong, and.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Then I'll give you a piece of kind of a
little piece to think about.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
In response that number one.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
People pay directly into Social Security as a proportion of
the wages that they earn, so they have a job
throughout their life and all of you see that in
your paycheck right now. I actually think young people should
be able to opt out of the Social Security tax,
which would be a seven percent raise for everybody. They
shouldn't forcibly take our seven percent of our earnings every
(41:39):
single paycheck, but you pay into it and you're able
to see hopefully that money actually doesn't go to a
trust fund. That's the other part of it. And so
here's the other criticism towards it. If their idea of
optimal socialism is really Social Security, which has not in
a trust fund and it's going to be bankrupt in
five years and is going to.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Run a deficit.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
If they're optimal view of socialism is Medicare, where we
have over fifty billion dollars of documented waste every single year,
that's their idea of optimal socialism. I actually I am
not crazy about that, and there's a lot ways where
it could be. Those those benefits that people pay into
could be a lot better. And I'll say, for us
young people, we should not be forced to pay seven
(42:22):
percent of our wages every year, annualized for the rest
of our life to something that we might see how
many of you are so sick and tired of getting
your paycheck and it's way less than you think the
government is stealing your earnings, every single paycheck for a
promise that they're not going to fulfill, and they say
they will and they're not. This would be the biggest
(42:45):
tax cut for students and young people and middle class
workers the country has ever seen. But instead, corrupt politicians
want to keep a bloated federal government going and they're
taking the earnings of every single person in this room.
So thank you for this question. One or two more? Okay,
one more, last one.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Hi, Charlie. My name's Lauren. I'm from Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I'm a big fan.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
I went to school in San Francisco, and I was
liberal my entire life, and now in the last year
I've become kind of conservative.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Up a conversion story thanks to you as well.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Thank you, But I feel like, you know, when I
was a liberal, I looked at people on the right
like the bad guys, like they were evil, And now
as a conservative, I look at people like we're always
talking with the left and like those people and the
leftist and liberals, and it just feels so divisive, and
I'm wondering, is there a more productive way to have
a conversation. Is there a way to humanize people? Is
(43:41):
there a way to look at people as Americans instead
of looking at it like the left and the right
and always like demonizing people.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah, great, great point, Thank you and so. And welcome
to the conservative side.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
By the way, thank you and so.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
One of the great things I get to do every
single year's actually to college campuses and speak. I see
our NYU chapter leader Asha right here. Who else had
a campus clash on your campus? Raise your hand, that's awesome,
and Asher will tell you.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
You'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
What do we always do when we ask for questions.
We ask for the disagreements to go to the front
of the line. Right, In fact, we demand it, right,
We like extract the disagreement. And I think and I'm
not And you guys can make your own assumption looking
at the videos. We always treat everybody with respect and
we listen to what they have to say. In fact,
(44:34):
we want it to be a forum of discussion and
debate and dialogue and that collision of ideas. And I
totally agree, because I think there's too much division and divisiveness.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Then we do the same thing. And at the end
of every one of.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
These events is then I'll ask the audience, I'll say,
how many of you have gone to see some liberals
speak on campus at some point in your college career,
many hands will go up. So did any of them
ever demand that can serve go to the front of
the line and ask questions saying no. And so we
have a responsibility as free speech advocates to be the
(45:09):
ambassadors of decency and respect we do to hear what
other people have to say and to find common ground.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Now, some of you have seen my videos.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
When people really start to go up and irritate and
they just poke, well then they're going to get the
cross examination that I'm happy to deliver with facts and
deliberate and a deliberate approach. And so, but first I
just want to say, that's an amazing testimony because we
are seeing thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions
(45:40):
of people stop being liberals, leave the left and come
to a different side. I think it's truly amazing. So
thank you for that. And so in closing, let me
just say this before we introduce our amazing next speaker.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Who's totally terrific.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
If you're kind of on the fence and this is
your first turning point USA event, you now get the
three big things that we believe, and you understand why
we fight and why we're doing what we're doing. We
want to get a chapter started on your school. If
you're on the fence, raise your hand. If you're starting
in the process, or run a Turning Point USA chapter,
raise your hand.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Look at that. Look how cool that is. Go find
these individuals, talk to them. We have our field staff
all here. We want to grow our influence on campus
dramatically throughout especially the next year and a half. It's
so so critical, and so get engaged, get involved in that.
And then I have one personal shameless plug that I'm
asking of everyone in this room. Thank you if you
(46:35):
guys could please subscribe and give five stars to the
Charlie Kirk Show on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
That would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
So and in closing, guys, young ladies, you have such
an amazing opportunity in front of you, and it's such
a great honor to be able to host this kind
of venue for all of you. And we have Turning
Point USA have your back through everything. So if you
encounter campus bias, a professor that says something they shouldn't
or anything, we're here as an ally and as a
support arm all along the way, and that's why our
(47:03):
staff exists and why we do what we do.
Speaker 5 (47:09):
For more on many of these stories and news you
can trust, go to Charliekirk dot com
My name is Charlie kirk I run the largest pro
American student organization in the country, fighting for the future
of our republic.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
My call is to fight evil and to proclaim truth.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
If the most important thing for you is just feeling good,
you're gonna end up miserable. But if the most important
thing is doing good, you'll end up purposeful. College is
a scam, everybody. You got to stop sending your kids
to college. You should get married as young as possible
and have as many kids as possible. Go start at
turning point, you would say, college chapter. Go start at
turning point you say high school chapter. Go find out
(00:36):
how your church can get involved. Sign up and become
an activist. I gave my life to the Lord in
fifth grade, most important decision I ever made in my life,
and I encourage you to do the same.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
Here I am Lord, Use me. Buckle up, everybody, Here
we go.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Noble Gold Investments is the official gold sponsor of the
Charlie Kirkshaw, a company that specializes in gold I rays
and physical delivery of precious metals. Learn how you could
protect your wealth with Noble Gold Investments at noblegold investments
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Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
It is such it's just it's just amazing to see
how this Young Women's Leadership Summit grows year after year.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And I said this last night.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I want to say it again now to the entire audience,
just the people that make this possible, our donors and
our supporters, and our board members, those of which that
that we honored last night, and those of which that
wish to you know, remain in the in the not
not on the forefront of that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
Thank you so much for thinking of us and supporting us.
You make all of this possible.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
So thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
So I want to take this time today to kind
of break down the three big things we believe at
Turning Point USA. And then I want to open up
for questions and we can have some good back and
forth and no questions are off limits, but we're gonna
do questions, not speeches for three minutes and then a
question after that. Okay, right, we like that good. So
(02:15):
at Turning Point USA, we believe in three big things.
First thing we believe is that America is the greatest
country ever to exist in the history of the world.
That America is the most benevolent, the most generous, the
most accepting, the most creative, the most entrepreneurial country ever
(02:37):
to exist in the history of the world. So you
should applaud that, by the way, And what's so concerning
to us at turning point USA is the rise of
anti Americanism on college campuses. Does anyone in the audience
feel as if it's almost now the predominant viewpoint to
be anti American on your campus?
Speaker 2 (02:56):
Raise your hand.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
This is in our own country and the media will
refuse to cover this, of course, that in our own
country we have people that want to deconstruct the prosperity
and the excellence and the success that we're enjoying today.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
But why is.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
America the greatest country ever to exist in the history
of the world. It's not because we have the most people.
China and India have more people than us, a lot
more people. In fact, China has almost four times as
many people as we do, India almost three times as
many people as we do. It's not because we have
the most land. Russia has almost tripled the amount of
land that we have. It's not that we have the
(03:32):
most natural resources. I mean the Middle East around Saudi Arabia, Russia,
they have natural gas, they have oil, so why is
of course we have all those things. But that doesn't
make a country excellent. What makes a country excellent is
the ideas of which that country is founded upon, and
the ideas that are embedded in that culture.
Speaker 2 (03:55):
That we all accept.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And there's a difference between the American culture and the
culture of Europe and the culture of almost all the
rest of the world. Something that we take for granted
that all of you have heard throughout your whole life,
which is, if you don't succeed at first, try try,
try again. This is a uniquely American value. We are
more forgiving of failure in this country than any other
(04:18):
country in the world. There's almost an expectation of perseverance.
There's almost an expectation that you're going to push through
difficult times and that you're going to be better tomorrow
than you were today, and you're gonna better today than
you were yesterday. If I were to describe what it
means to be an American, the first thing I think
of is meritocracy.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
That's a big word. What does that mean?
Speaker 1 (04:39):
That means that we reward hard work, and we reward
people who play by the rules. So simple, those two
things that if you work really hard and you make
a series of good choices for a long period of time,
you'll be able to look five years, ten years, fifteen
years later and see your life improved. Most of the
(05:01):
world does not have that guarantee. Most of the world, unfortunately.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Let's use India.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
In India, if you work really hard and play by
the rules, for six hundred million people in India, it
means their life will be exactly the same fifteen years
from now that it is today. That even if you
go to the school that you're assigned to, even if
you try really really hard at your job, it doesn't
mean much of anything. Your life might have a slight
improvement unless there's some exception and there's an amazing thing
(05:28):
that happens and someone takes a risk on you. Because
in India there's a cast system and it's really hard
to break out of that cast system.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Now it's not as.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Formal as it was one hundred years ago, but it's
culturally a cast system still in India. And so that's
the first and the second thing is this really really
big word called intergenerational stratification. Now, what does that mean essentially,
that means it's the guarantee. It's the promise that in
America that your kid's life and definitely your grandkid's life
(05:56):
will be better than your current life today. And you
should have paued that because again, in a lot of
countries across the world that have amazing, beautiful people, that's
not a guarantee. There's a reason why the waiting list
to come into this country is tens of millions of
people long. That people dream and they go to bed
(06:18):
every single day. This one thing they think about is
I hope I get a letter in the mail from
my embassy or the US embassy allowing.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Me to be a legal immigrants the United States.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
That's what's on the minds of hundreds of millions of
people every day. And so the guarantee that if you
do the first thing, you work hard and play by
the rules, that your life and your kid's life, and
definitely your grandkid's life will improve. I ask this question
almost all the time, and I guarantee very few people
(06:46):
in this room can say that you have it worse
than your grandparents. Very few people in this room can
say that unless your grandparents were John D.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Rockefeller or the Melon family.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
I almost guarantee everyone in this room has a higher
standard of living, has more opportunity, and is more liberated
than their grandparents work. That's a sign of an excellent country.
So we go behind the values of America, just like
the Christian Trinity. Now I'm a Christian first, an American second,
(07:19):
a conservative third in that order. Okay, just like the
Christian Trinity, there is an American trinity. And this is
from my very good friend Dennis Prager. We love Dennis Prager,
don't we, sam pass me. The American trinity is three
big things, the first of which is the phrase e
(07:41):
pluribus unim, which is a Latin phrase which means out
of many one. When America was founded, almost on the
Presidential Seal and many of our founding documents, this phrase
kept on popping up, e pluribus unim. It was the
first country ever to be founded on unity and not division.
It was the first country that was trying to bring
people together. It was a country that, of course, we
(08:02):
failed on that at first in a lot of different ways.
But our ability to correct from our mistakes over time
is a sign of excellence. It's not who you were,
but it's how far you've come. It's not where you
were one hundred years ago, but it's the choices that
you've made to be able to correct any mistakes that
you once had. Now, that phrase e pluribus unham is
so important because it's not about pitting people against each other.
(08:25):
It's recognizing, first and foremost, there is only one race,
the human race, and that we have more in common
than ever will divide us. The second part of the
American trinity is one word, and the word is liberty.
And we love a lot of people on the left
love to talk about liberty. They love to say, oh, yeah,
(08:45):
we're all into liberty, and for maybe two issues if that.
But liberty is great and we all should support it.
But you should be able to do what you want
to do as long as it doesn't harm somebody else.
But you have to take responsibility for your actions if
things don't go the way you want them to go.
You should be able to start a business, you should
(09:07):
be able to go to the school you want to.
But if for whatever reason that doesn't work out, who's responsible.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
You're responsible.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
It's not your teacher's fault, it's not your professor's fault.
It's not the patriarchy's fault. It's none of those people's fault. Instead,
you have to look inwardly as the best, as the
only way to actually change things as you see fit.
The third part of the American trinity is the phrase
in God we trust. It is on all of our currency,
(09:42):
and it is a phrase that we should never forget.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
At the American founding.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
On the principles of our country, we recognize our rights
come from God, not from government. That we recognize we
have natural rights when we are born. This is so
important because therefore we we as this citizens here we
created the government. The government did not give us permission
to exist. This is juxtaposed so differently than the Rissoian
(10:08):
view or the leftist view that for whatever reason, government
has to grant us permission to do certain things. Instead,
it's the exact opposite that we all gave. We give
our designation, and we give our contract towards the government,
and the government is accountable to us. We're the shareholders
of the United States Government. And you put all this together,
(10:30):
what does the results look like? Well, America, despite the
mistakes that we've made, never forget this. America has made
mistakes but America is not a mistake, and.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
We are one of the only.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Countries ever to exist in the history of the world
to voluntarily send our own citizens to go die for
the freedoms of others. We are a country that time
when there is world conflict, when things break out, they
don't call the Belgians. They definitely don't call the French.
(11:07):
When there's conflict, people say where are the Americans. Bring
in the Americans, and whether it be a natural disaster,
a tsunami, of flood and earthquake, it is American leadership.
And that goes to the other point I talked about.
We are the most generous country, the most benevolent country
(11:27):
ever to exist in the history of the world. America
gave away We as a country gave away five hundred
billion dollars to charity last year that.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
We know of that we know of.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
That means and that doesn't count the meals that you
paid for a friend who needed it, or an uber
for a friend that was a little short of money.
That's not even a counter This is just money that
the IRS was able to designate that went to charities.
Five hundred billion dollars is the combined GDP gross domestic
product of almost all Eastern Europe. So we voluntarily gave
(12:02):
away money, so much money, it's essentially the entire wealth
of entire countries. I believe firmly that the best way
to help the least of these, to help people that
are struggling, is not through big government bureaucracies.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
It's through churches, it's through.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Synagogues, it's through mosques, through local community centers. And when
we lose that, when we lose looking out for other people,
when we lose that as a country look to government
to solve our problems, all of a sudden, we become
worse ourselves. You become more bitter, and you become more selfish.
Government will take care of that for me. I don't
(12:40):
need to give to charity. I don't need to help
the person on the side of the street. We become
hardened to the world around us because it's somebody else's responsibility,
when in reality, it should be everyone in this room's
responsibility to lend a helping hand to somebody who needs it.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
How much are life, liberty in the pursuit of happiness
worth to you? This is the question America's founders had
to answer. You see for more than one hundred and
fifty years, America's thirteen colonies governed themselves until Britain declared
they had no right to self rule. So ordinary people
had to make extraordinary choices and risk their lives, their fortunes,
(13:20):
and their sacred honor to fight for independence, and against
all odds they won, and in victory they built one
of the most stable and lasting republics in human history.
Now experience the American solution like never before, thanks to
our friends at Hillsdale College. Revolutionary America, a new documentary
from Hillsdale Studios and narrated by Tom Selleck, brings the
(13:41):
founding of our nation to life through the voices of
those who lived, alongside insights from leading scholars and commentator.
I'm telling you, Hillsdale has outdone themselves with this. It's amazing.
You've got to check this out. You've got to. Frankly,
you got to buy tickets to see this film, So please, please,
please something. You could take the whole family too, You
(14:01):
can take your friends, I mean listen. At a time
when history is often distorted in schools and classes immedia,
this is your chance to see the stories that really
happened and ask yourself, what would you risk for freedom?
Face the decisions our founders grappled with in Revolutionary American,
a Hillsdale Studios film only in theaters May thirty first
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(14:23):
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you and buy tickets for Revolutionary American one more time.
That's Hillsdale dot edu slash Revolution.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
So second thing we believe at Turning Point USA is
that the Constitution is the greatest political document ever written
in the history of the world. The Constitution was not
written for the times. It was written to stand the
test of time. The Constitution the brilliance the Founding Fathers.
(15:06):
The Founding Fathers were the first victors and winners of
a conflict and a war that voluntarily gave up political power.
The Founding Fathers could have created the Washingtonian Franklin Jeffersonian
ruling class that would have ruled like kings over Virginia,
the Northeast, and the Southeast. They're the first winners of
(15:28):
a war that won power and then gave it back
and made themselves less powerful after the war than they
were before.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
Think about that.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Could you imagine Napoleon, Alexander the Great, or Genghis Khan
winning a huge military victory and then giving up that
power afterwards, or Julius Caesar, any of these conquerors, these
military leaders that we study, and there was one common
denominator about Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Julius Caesar and
Genghis Khan, the empires that they built that was around
(16:01):
their savagery, and their conquests fell because it was about
around them, and it was around force. The Founding fathers
studied history, They studied Socrates and Plato and Aristotle. They
studied their thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment. They studied the Bible.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
The Bible had a huge impact on the American Founding
and they created a document, the Constitution, that was not
an analysis of the times, but instead an analysis of
human beings. As much as we like to convince ourselves
that people change over a period of time, we're exactly
(16:39):
the same today as we were five thousand years ago
in Babylonia and in the Indus River Valley and all
across the world. Human beings are very predictable creatures, and
especially predictable when it comes to government. When it comes
to government, human beings do the same thing time and
time again. They start with saying good things. They put
(17:02):
someone that they trust into power, or that person forcibly
puts themselves into power through conquest or war. They do
some good things for a short period of time, and
then that power starts to corrupt them, and it corrupts
them for a longer period of time. And you might
get lucky, you might win the lottery and get a
good king. You might get a good king. Good king, right,
(17:23):
that means he's not killing people. That's the definition of
a good king. But then, you know what the problem
with a good king is usually a good king has
really really bad kids, and then you have a really
big problem, and there's no way.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
To correct that.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
And so the founders they studied even the problems with
just flat out democracy.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Big myth.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
We are not a democracy in this country. We're not
a democracy, and we should never be a democracy.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
We are a.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
Constitutional republic with a democratic means of putting individuals in
position power.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
What's the difference.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Well, a republic has certain truths, certain inalienable rights, if
you will, that are enshrined in the foundational pillars of
that country. A democracy is if fifty one percent of
this room decides that no one needs to own guns.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
It becomes that way. That's a democracy.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
If fifty one percent of this room says we need
to get rid of free speech, a democracy, it becomes
that way. In a constitution republic, eighty percent of this
room could say, well, let's get rid of the Second Amendment,
and we'll say, well, look, actually, it says very clearly
in our republic that these rights are enshrined upon our founding.
A constitutional republic is the greatest preventative measure from tyranny.
(18:46):
So founding fathers did not do what Plato tried to do.
Plato tried to create utopia. He tried to create perfection.
This is what the left is trying to sell everyone
in this room today. And I got harsh piece of reality.
Life is suffering. You're not going to be able to
(19:06):
create utopia. It's never going to happen. But you can
create better, you can create not as bad as today.
Because why is this? This is very this is drawing
straight from Hobbes, we as human beings tend to put
ourselves in positions and put in patterns of behavior where
(19:29):
we act very selfishly, and especially when it comes to government.
So we need a government that is not perfect, because
that will never happen. But one as the Founding fathers
that said, you see this system of government, this will work.
It's not going to be perfect, but it will work.
Don't screw it up. That's what the Founding fathers gave us.
(19:53):
As they never promised perfection, is they never promised that
you will be able to eradicate the ills of prejudice,
the things that the left tries to say that they'll
be able to get rid of. We just need another
ninety three trillion dollars for a green New Deal, and
that and that alone will be it. How many more
programs have they been trying to sell us for the
(20:13):
last one hundred years, And by the way, the funny
thing is every one of these programs actually makes us
less free, less competitive, and further away from our founding roots.
And yet the promise that the left always tries to
do is we're just one more government program away to perfection.
We're just one government program away to getting us in charge.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
And what makes us.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
As conservatives or libertarians or freethinkers so different than the
left is we admit at the beginning we will.
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Never achieve perfection.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
It's just not going to happen because human beings are
going to act selfishly.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
People are going to commit crimes. There.
Speaker 1 (20:50):
You will have corrupt politicians. But do you know what
the founding fathers realized is all right.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
You will have corrupt politicians.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
You can get rid of congress people through a vote
by other men members of Congress. You are going to
have corrupt members of the courts. You can impeach a
Supreme Court justice. You will have presidents that should be impeached.
This president is not one of those presidents that should
be impeached, by the way. And here's the method that
other parts of government can check itself, because the government
(21:20):
is nothing more than an expression of the citizens. And
here's the other important thing to remember about the Constitution
is that the states created the federal government. The federal
government did not create the states. That we were a
collection of states that came together in a federalized system.
And because of that, we should have what's called these
(21:41):
laboratories of democracy. I love the fact that Florida is
able to experiment with charter schools and no income tax,
unlike California, which is bankrupt and broken and busting at
the scenes.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
And you could see.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
The differences between Florida, a state that is creating jobs,
balancing budgets, expanding opportunity for minority kids, and California, which
has an increasing homeless population, Like you wouldn't believe that
is more wealth inequality than any other state that has
businesses leaving it daily, that loses people with wealth. That
(22:19):
and there's this attack on wealth all the time in
our culture, in our society. You cannot get rich in
this society without making other people rich along the way.
Just because someone got rich does not mean somebody else
got poor got poor.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Getting wealthy in.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
A free market system means you had to create wealth
for other people along the way. So if the United
States Constitution did and what it has done has allowed.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
This prosperity to exist.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
If you look at the differences between the French founding,
which is rooted in Rossau, which believes not in the individual. See,
that's what's so important is that we as Americans and
we as believers in the US Constitution recognize the sovereignty.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Of the individual.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
You have a right to free speech, you have a
right to own a firearm, you have a right to privacy.
Speaker 2 (23:05):
I'm not going to tell you how to live your life.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
The French founding is completely different. It's we're a collective
body that the individual comes second or third or even
further down there. That there is a social contract that
we all exist to and it's the government that really
is the one that is going to be the most
important thing in our life.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
And what's the byproduct of that.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Well, you've seen France not be as successful as America
over the last one hundred years.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
I think that's a pretty fair thing to say.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
And I love some parts of France, Like I'm not
trying to be like it's not like an anti French speech, Like,
don't get me wrong, but it's unmistakable that whether it
be the entrepreneurs, the companies, the benevolency, the charity, the
ford thinkers, the authors, the writers, the cultural influence, which
founding was better for human flourishing, Which founding was better
(23:59):
for the individual to attain their dreams. One that dives
in mediocrity, like the French where they basically take the
entire month of August off, where every time anything goes
wrong they go in the streets and protest it because
things cost a little bit more, because they want to
blame other people, and instead of America, we're like, well,
just work harder, like get another job. That's an American
(24:20):
value and the French value is to get in the
streets and blame somebody else for it.
Speaker 3 (24:28):
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(24:50):
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(25:11):
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Speaker 1 (25:43):
The third thing we believe at Turning Point USA is
that we believe that free enterprise capitalism is the most moral,
proven and effective economic system ever discovered.
Speaker 2 (25:56):
Free enterprise.
Speaker 1 (25:58):
Let's talk about what free enterprise isn't first, because I'm
sure all of you on campus here have to deal
with the misrepresentations around capitalism and free enterprise. Let me
tell you what free enterprise isn't. It's not cronyism. It's
not being able to buy special access in DC. It's
not being able to have the correct lobbyists to get
government contracts. It's not having well positioned office on offices
(26:22):
on K Street. It's not having the right politicians on
speed dial so that you can get your company treated correctly.
Speaker 2 (26:27):
That is cronyism.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
And as we like to say, and it's a saying
from again Dennis Prager, the bigger the government, the smaller
the citizen. And as free enterprise capitalism, let me tell
you what it is now. It's the ability for every individual.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
Right.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
We come from that idea of the individual to be
able to buy what they want to buy, sell what
they want to sell, keep what they earn, trade as
they wish, as long as it does it harms somebody else.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
That's free enterprise capitalism. And what's the buy product of that.
Speaker 1 (26:57):
Well, over time, three big things happen, andree enterprise capitalism.
Prices go down, the quality of goods go up, and
more people get access to those goods. What used to
be considered luxury items in Western society, every single person
has right now in this room. In the nineteen eighties,
it was a luxury good to have a cellular phone.
(27:19):
It was a luxury good that most of it was
this big, and some of them are only in cars.
And now every person in this room has a supercomputer.
I'm guessing most of them are Apple, and that has
a supercomputer. That the prices have been going down over.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Time, the quality has gone up.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
When I was in high school, Any high schoolers out there,
we love.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Our high schoolers. Thank you for being here. Love our
high schoolers.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
When I was in high school, the iPhone was just
getting released. We had those old things called eye touches.
Anyone remember I touch? Do you remember the iPods? Were
used to have to go like this? And you have
to put the high schoolers right now are saying, what
on earth are you talking about? When you used to
have to rotate your finger to be able to get
(28:04):
to the next But I was really good at that,
by the way, really good back and forth. There were
no apps, there was no color. It was nothing more
than an iPod. That's right, an iPod where you had
a lit up screen. This was ten years ago, and
(28:24):
we laugh at it as if this was the Mesozoic era,
only in a free market system with a keyword competition,
competing for all of your attention, competing for all of
your money, competing for your your time and your appreciation.
Could you have something that you're able to film this speech?
I you're able to take pictures that you're able to
(28:45):
communicate with someone halfway around the world. This is only
possible in a free market system, and we could prove
it because in countries such as let's just use Venezuela
that embraces socialism and not so good ideas, the biggest
concern for most people in this room, I'm sure at
(29:07):
times is my phone is running out of battery or
my uber is late. And I'm half kidding, of course,
but I'm sure these are things that stress everyone out
in Venezuela. They're worrying where am I going to get
my next singular meal for the week, Where am I
going to get one shower for the month? Where am
(29:30):
I going to be able to have a place to
sleep for just this one day?
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And then I'll worry about tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
And Venezuela, which is such an important example, has the
most oil and natural gas reserves of any country in
the entire world, more than Russia, more than even the
United States, more than Saudi Arabia, more than Iran. And
only socialism could screw that up. And they did something
very important in the early two thousands. They nationalized their
(30:01):
oil assets. The government took over all the oil and
natural gas. So when the government takes something over, there's
no price system. This is the argument for private property.
When there's no price system, things get really inefficient. Cronyism
takes over. I think cronism is bad. Now just wait
till government owns everything. It would be like the TSA
(30:23):
running our oil and gas industry.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
Okay, if you.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Want to just make somebody a conservative, bring them to
Atlanta's airport at five am and say you don't have
TSA pre you don't have clear and you got to
get to your plane in forty five minutes. Go, And
at the end of that, say, are you still going
to be voting for Democrats after this? Because there's no
(30:49):
way that you could appreciate the government. And I don't
mean to I don't mean to mischaracterize TSA workers, but
I think we would all agree that there is a
lack of spirit, a lack of accountability, and a lack
of energy amongst TSA workers versus the people that work
at Chick fil A, Right, And what's the difference is
(31:15):
that the people that work at Chick fil A, they're
instilled with values. It's private enterprise. They have to turn
a profit. And if you don't do your job at
Chick fil A, you're not going to have that job
anymore at TSA. If it don't do your job, you
get promoted. That's government versus free enterprise.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
And we see that.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Kind of tension time and time again. And so we
at Turning Point you say, believe in these three big things,
and that's it. Now. I have personal opinions about all
sorts of different stuff, and you guys can ask me
about those things. And we always want our speakers to
talk about any issue they want to talk about, whether
it be abortion and guns, and you guys have heard
from all of that.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
But as an organization, these are the three things that
we believe.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
We don't consider these to be political at all. These
are not things that should be replublican or Democrat, or
even conservative or liberal. These should be inherently agreed upon
things as a country that we all accept. And so
I will juxtapose the American trinity with the leftist trinity,
and then I would love to open it up for
(32:17):
questions because I want you all to understand what we're
up against. And I think a lot of you do
understand because you're on college campuses today.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
We at Turning Point USA believe.
Speaker 1 (32:26):
Whatever happens on college campuses will soon happen in the
halls of Congress, and will soon happen in corporate boardrooms.
College campuses are the Canarian, the cold mine. They're the
leading indicator. They are the cultural war of things to come.
Alexandria Acasio Cortes did not come out of nowhere. She
(32:48):
was created in the university system. She is a prototype
of the professors. Does anyone knows someone like AOC who's
constantly wrong but never in doubt? Anyone know her any
you see a.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Lot like her?
Speaker 1 (33:00):
And I'm not trying to attack her personally, I'm not.
I am going to critique her ideas, and I am
going to put some criticism towards how committed she is
to believing she's correct and everyone before her was wrong.
It's a really dangerous thing to believe that everyone before
me was incorrect. What is the word that comes to mind?
And boy, that takes a lot of hubris and pride
(33:22):
to think that everyone before you is incorrect and you
and you alone are now the standard bearer of what
is righteous and true. That takes a lot of hubris
and a lot of pride, doesn't it?
Speaker 4 (33:31):
So?
Speaker 2 (33:31):
What is the leftist trinity?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Let's go through the American trinity again, as Dennis Prager
talks about it, e pluribus unim, which means out of
many one that there's more that unites us than divides us.
Second liberty that you can do what you want to
do as you see fit as long as it doesn't
harm somebody else, But you have to do what, take
responsibility for your actions.
Speaker 2 (33:50):
A belief in the individual. The third thing in God.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
We trust that our rights come from God, not from government.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
That is the American Trinity.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Is the leftist trinity, not eat pluribus unum.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Definitely not.
Speaker 1 (34:06):
You'd be divide and conquer men versus women, rich versus poor,
police versus citizens. They want to pit people against each
other at all times. It's not about unity. It's about
bosses versus employees. It's not about finding common ground or
(34:26):
compromise or having differences but still understanding those differences. Instead,
it's what they did in the Kavanaugh hearing, interruption, chaos, demagoguery, misrepresentation,
character assassination. That is what they want. Was what happens
when you're able to divide. The second part, you're able
(34:47):
to conquer when you keep an entire portion of the
American population in permanent fear. When you keep an entire
portion of the American population.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That begins to hate the other part.
Speaker 1 (34:56):
Of the American population, they call us deplorable, they call
us irredeemable, They call us clinging to our God, guns,
and religion. They call us slow, petted, They call us
the smelly Walmart people. They call us flyover country. They
have contempt for us, but they don't know us. They
don't and because as soon as they're forced to talk
(35:19):
to us, as soon as they're forced to have a
conversation with us, as soon as they realize that we
care about this country, then all of a sudden, they
might hate us less. But the hate is what drives them,
and they need that to be able to divide and
conquer and attain power, because within chaos makes it really
(35:39):
easy to get power. The second part of the American
trinity we talk about is liberty. It's definitely not liberty
for the left, it's control. How can we control people
we don't want? For example, they don't want black students
to be able to go to better schools. They want
to control them in failing public schools. They don't want
to be able to have women have firearms to defend
(36:03):
themselves against predators. Instead, they want to have them living
young women living in a place of fear so they
can control them. They don't want to actually have economic
opportunity for disenfranchised communities all across the Midwest. Instead, they'd
rather give them a bunch of government stuff so they
can one so they can control them.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
That is a huge pillar of the.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
American Left and the final thing in God we trust. No, no, no,
The left does not believe in that. It's in government
we trust. That's what the left believes at every turn,
at every issue. It's not what the individual can do,
it's not what people can do. Instead, it's what government
can do. And I fear for a country where we
(36:44):
as a people will not look inwardly to fix problems,
but instead say, oh, the government will fix it for us,
or the government will do it better than we can.
And that has never ever been the case. Instead, it's
free people looking out for their fellow citizens, making good
choices around core common values that has always proven to
create the greatest contry ever to exist.
Speaker 3 (37:06):
Here's what your financial advisor won't tell you. By the
time the news tells you to buy gold. It's too late.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
You're waiting.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I get it. Everybody's waiting waiting to see if the
ceasefire holds, waiting to see if the straight of horn
moose reopens, waiting to see what happens next. But gold
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on the unknown, and it moves faster than you can react.
So while you're waiting for certainty, the rest of the
world is planning for what comes next. You can wait
(37:34):
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Speaker 1 (38:24):
And so with that, I would love to open up
for some questions until they yanked me off stage.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
So hey, Charlie, so what would your response be to
someone who says or asks why you hate socialism? If
we have socialist programs within our country right now and
more a mixed economy.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
Great. I get this question all the time.
Speaker 1 (38:46):
So people say, oh, Charlie, you know you don't you?
You say you hate socialism, but what about the roads,
and what about the bridges, and what about Medicare? And
what about social security and all these things? So let's
break this down. Who hears heard this argument before?
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Heard this argument?
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Good? Good? So let's define what socialism first and foremost
in is socialism?
Speaker 2 (39:06):
And they can't escape this?
Speaker 1 (39:07):
And Bernie Sanders believes this socialism is the constant march
towards the eradication of private property and government control of production. Okay,
it's that constant march towards that. Now, we as conservatives
and we as libertarians are freedom thinkers and freedom lovers.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
We are not anarchists.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
We do believe that there are some things that government
should do police, fire, roads, bridges, but we also recognize
the best way to do that is what.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Local local police.
Speaker 1 (39:38):
We don't want to federalize our police force, right, local
firefighters where you have a local fire station.
Speaker 2 (39:45):
Local schools.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Right, we don't want common core. We want localized control
of education. And with that, with that, you're able to
have accountability towards where that money is actually going and
you're able about to see what.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
You're paying in.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Now, if you have a problem with that, then you
can go to your school board meeting, you can go
to your local city council and say, I don't like
the fact that it's taken three years to reconstruct this road.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
This is not right.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
And they're going to feel your pressure because then they
have to see you at football games, and they're gonna
have to see you at the grocery store, and they're
gonna have to see you everywhere they go in the community.
You know what's the problem with DC is there's no accountability.
In order to go see your elected officials, you got
to get in a plane, go to DC and maybe
they'll take a meeting with you. Maybe, And that's the
beauty of localized control. Bernie Sanders, for example, one of
(40:32):
the big things that Bernie Sanders pillar, just so you understand,
is the same Medicare for all, which is the complete
nationalization and government takeover of one sixth of the American economy,
the healthcare industry. One six that's the eradication of private property.
That's telling private doctors they can't practice anymore. That's telling
(40:52):
private chiropractic clinics. I'm sure some of you go to chiropractice.
Chiropractice have been really great to me in some ways.
You can't do this anymore. It has to all run
through government. So it's the constant march towards the eradication
of private property. The final thing I'll say is this,
They use social Security and Medicare all the time to
say these are socialist programs.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
Let me tell you why that's wrong, and.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Then I'll give you a piece of kind of a
little piece to think about.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
In response that number one.
Speaker 1 (41:17):
People pay directly into Social Security as a proportion of
the wages that they earn, so they have a job
throughout their life and all of you see that in
your paycheck right now. I actually think young people should
be able to opt out of the Social Security tax,
which would be a seven percent raise for everybody. They
shouldn't forcibly take our seven percent of our earnings every
(41:39):
single paycheck, but you pay into it and you're able
to see hopefully that money actually doesn't go to a
trust fund. That's the other part of it. And so
here's the other criticism towards it. If their idea of
optimal socialism is really Social Security, which has not in
a trust fund and it's going to be bankrupt in
five years and is going to.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Run a deficit.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
If they're optimal view of socialism is Medicare, where we
have over fifty billion dollars of documented waste every single year,
that's their idea of optimal socialism. I actually I am
not crazy about that, and there's a lot ways where
it could be. Those those benefits that people pay into
could be a lot better. And I'll say, for us
young people, we should not be forced to pay seven
(42:22):
percent of our wages every year, annualized for the rest
of our life to something that we might see how
many of you are so sick and tired of getting
your paycheck and it's way less than you think the
government is stealing your earnings, every single paycheck for a
promise that they're not going to fulfill, and they say
they will and they're not. This would be the biggest
(42:45):
tax cut for students and young people and middle class
workers the country has ever seen. But instead, corrupt politicians
want to keep a bloated federal government going and they're
taking the earnings of every single person in this room.
So thank you for this question. One or two more? Okay,
one more, last one.
Speaker 5 (43:03):
Hi, Charlie. My name's Lauren. I'm from Las Vegas.
Speaker 2 (43:05):
I'm a big fan.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
I went to school in San Francisco, and I was
liberal my entire life, and now in the last year
I've become kind of conservative.
Speaker 1 (43:15):
Up a conversion story thanks to you as well.
Speaker 5 (43:18):
Thank you, But I feel like, you know, when I
was a liberal, I looked at people on the right
like the bad guys, like they were evil, And now
as a conservative, I look at people like we're always
talking with the left and like those people and the
leftist and liberals, and it just feels so divisive, and
I'm wondering, is there a more productive way to have
a conversation. Is there a way to humanize people? Is
(43:41):
there a way to look at people as Americans instead
of looking at it like the left and the right
and always like demonizing people.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah, great, great point, Thank you and so. And welcome
to the conservative side.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
By the way, thank you and so.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
One of the great things I get to do every
single year's actually to college campuses and speak. I see
our NYU chapter leader Asha right here. Who else had
a campus clash on your campus? Raise your hand, that's awesome,
and Asher will tell you.
Speaker 2 (44:11):
You'll tell you.
Speaker 1 (44:13):
What do we always do when we ask for questions.
We ask for the disagreements to go to the front
of the line. Right, In fact, we demand it, right,
We like extract the disagreement. And I think and I'm
not And you guys can make your own assumption looking
at the videos. We always treat everybody with respect and
we listen to what they have to say. In fact,
(44:34):
we want it to be a forum of discussion and
debate and dialogue and that collision of ideas. And I
totally agree, because I think there's too much division and divisiveness.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
Then we do the same thing. And at the end
of every one of.
Speaker 1 (44:46):
These events is then I'll ask the audience, I'll say,
how many of you have gone to see some liberals
speak on campus at some point in your college career,
many hands will go up. So did any of them
ever demand that can serve go to the front of
the line and ask questions saying no. And so we
have a responsibility as free speech advocates to be the
(45:09):
ambassadors of decency and respect we do to hear what
other people have to say and to find common ground.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Now, some of you have seen my videos.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
When people really start to go up and irritate and
they just poke, well then they're going to get the
cross examination that I'm happy to deliver with facts and
deliberate and a deliberate approach. And so, but first I
just want to say, that's an amazing testimony because we
are seeing thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions
(45:40):
of people stop being liberals, leave the left and come
to a different side. I think it's truly amazing. So
thank you for that. And so in closing, let me
just say this before we introduce our amazing next speaker.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Who's totally terrific.
Speaker 1 (45:54):
If you're kind of on the fence and this is
your first turning point USA event, you now get the
three big things that we believe, and you understand why
we fight and why we're doing what we're doing. We
want to get a chapter started on your school. If
you're on the fence, raise your hand. If you're starting
in the process, or run a Turning Point USA chapter,
raise your hand.
Speaker 2 (46:12):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
Look at that. Look how cool that is. Go find
these individuals, talk to them. We have our field staff
all here. We want to grow our influence on campus
dramatically throughout especially the next year and a half. It's
so so critical, and so get engaged, get involved in that.
And then I have one personal shameless plug that I'm
asking of everyone in this room. Thank you if you
(46:35):
guys could please subscribe and give five stars to the
Charlie Kirk Show on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
That would be amazing.
Speaker 1 (46:41):
So and in closing, guys, young ladies, you have such
an amazing opportunity in front of you, and it's such
a great honor to be able to host this kind
of venue for all of you. And we have Turning
Point USA have your back through everything. So if you
encounter campus bias, a professor that says something they shouldn't
or anything, we're here as an ally and as a
support arm all along the way, and that's why our
(47:03):
staff exists and why we do what we do.
Speaker 5 (47:09):
For more on many of these stories and news you
can trust, go to Charliekirk dot com
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