Charlie Kirk on Martin Luther King Jr., Socialism, Freedom and the Battle for Campus Free Speech

[Music] Monday was dr. Martin Luther King jr. day and as is the case with almost everything lately virtually everyone on social media seemed to parse out MLK's words for whatever narrative they're currently pushing in our modern times I saw articles on how MLK was the first environmentalist how he was an ardent feminist a communist a socialist and much more the one quote I tweeted of his is perhaps his most famous I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character I believe this quote to be as relevant now as it was in the early 1960s but for a whole other set of reasons in the 1960s MLK was fighting for equality under the law and equality of opportunity two things that we should all absolutely believe in today those who judge people by the color of their skin and not the content of their character are fighting not for equality but for special treatment of some at the exclusion of others this misguided principled thinking you should treat someone differently because of their skin color or thinking someone should believe what you think they should believe because of their skin color or any other immutable characteristic is the essence of prejudice which means to prejudge this is the complete reverse of what MLK stood for and sadly this way of thinking has infected the modern left almost completely this is why I like myself so many of you find yourselves on the outside of a political bubble that you were once safely part of for this direct message though I don't want to focus on the flaws of identity politics instead I want to focus on one of the other topics I just mentioned socialism and for the purposes of this message I want to put aside whether MLK was a capitalist or a communist or a socialist or a hybrid of any of them what I want to discuss is some of the reaction around the word socialism itself the amount of people I see talking about socialism positively is actually staggering a tweet I set out saying socialism is cool even got me into a little exchange on Twitter with the official verified Socialist Party who explained to me that socialism has actually never been tried which is why we don't know if it'll work yet perhaps they should tell that to the people of Venezuela right now who were fighting for food and basic services as they watch their socialist system collapse on top of them the ideas of socialism that the means of production distribution and labor should be owned controlled and regulated by the community as a whole are the worst sort of collectivist ideas which exist the very implication that the group knows what is good for the individual that we exist to do things for the greater good is totally antithetical to the purpose of being human it's your job to find value in your work to strive for more than you have to bring good to yourself and the people around you and to live as a free person as you see fit the very idea that you should set aside your individuality for the community as a whole which virtually always turns into an intolerant hostile mob is exactly why so many have died in socialist regimes despite the obvious failures of socialism socialists have no problem using the freedoms of capitalism against itself this is perhaps the most perverse part of the socialist worldview much like Islamism socialism wants to use our freedoms against us until it attains complete power for example they use the tools of Twitter and Facebook companies created through the ingenuity of individuals and the freedom of capitalism to attack the very system that they often live in by the way I'm all for them being able to do this even if I don't like what they're doing that's the tricky part of freedom it even applies to people and ideas you don't like just think for a moment if we had a socialist government in charge right now how do you think it would be going for free expression and free speech how tolerant would they be of all the people that they label Nazis and bigots whatever you may think of Donald Trump and the evil capitalists are they the ones coming for anyone's speech right now reporters being put in jail actually President Obama used the Espionage Act to put a record number of reporters in jail and as far as I know Trump who dislikes the press to put it mildly hasn't put anyone in prison for the crime of journalism fortunately I see a rising tide in America based on liberty freedom and individual choice note how those words themselves are somehow thought of as evil in the socialist lexicon liberty freedom and individual choice must all be sacrificed for the greater good but what they're not telling you is that the greater good is usually for the tiny minority in the elite protected class their ideas have never worked and will never work because a system built on stripping our humanity is in direct conflict with what it means to be human I've said it before and I'll say it again this perfect system which they wish to create can never be perfect because we humans as flawed as we are are part of it imperfect beings cannot create a perfect system but what we can create is a system that always does its best to further the advancement of human freedom for all its flaws this is what capitalism is which is why if you're watching this from a capitalist society you should consider yourself one of the lucky ones of course in America politicians don't outright call themselves socialists they say that their Democratic socialists this is Bernie Sanders mantra as he calls for a revolution of every kind to be a political social or even environmental whatever that means what Bernie forgets or intentionally obfuscates is that the Democratic part of this of course will always be tossed away as socialism takes root it's also why there's no doubt in my mind that eventually the social justice movement will turn on Bernie himself and I think there's already plenty of evidence of that democracy is the enemy of socialism and Bernie's trying to have it both ways there's also a reason that the social justice movement has such a socialist strain within it both of these movements based on frowning on achievement and accomplishment and a resentment of those who break the mold need people to be oppressed or at least believe that they're oppressed to survive creativity free thought and the pursuit of your own happiness is the antidote to both social justice and socialism it's either that or a life of bitterness resentment and jealousy which in my view is less socialism and more just anti-social [Music] joining me today is the founder and director of turning-point USA a student organization for young conservatives which advocates for free markets and limited government charlie Kirk welcome to the Rubin replied to be here big fan that's great Young Conservatives I thought there was no such thing that was like the Yeti or the unicorn or Falco or something there's more of us than you might imagine it's not all conservative summer libertarians some are free thinkers independence people on the center-right we just had that amazing conference that you were nice enough to come down and speak at in Florida 2600 700 students from all 50 states and it was so funny I couldn't pay the the media outlets to cover the same you know that's calling up in New York Times Washington Post here we had you know thousands of students giving up their winter break to come here from you know you and me and the best speakers you know that advocate for freedom and none of the media outlets in the traditional media outlets covered it but it's amazing there is a there is a revolution happening on these campuses but it's not it's not against you know conservatives all this it's it's it's a new train of thought that we want freedom we want smaller government but it's also fighting the culture war which is for free speech for diversity ideas and really against what these college campuses have created yes so you're in the thick of a lot of the things obviously that we talk about here so first I just want to talk briefly about how we met because I think it's kind of it kind of shows sort of how you operate and why turning-point has taken off so we had met about a month and a half ago at the Horowitz Freedom Center event in Palm Springs were you were you a panelist there yeah I was a panelist it is kind of helicoptering around a lot of friends that you know attend that conference yeah so so you were there and everyone was like oh you gotta meet charlie Charlie we met for two seconds you said a couple nice things about me and you're like you know we're doing this our gig in Palm Springs and a couple weeks money to come down and talk and and then and immediately we worked it out and and your guys send me the paper that work the next day and it was done and I think that does illustrate something because we're going to get into some of the issues that vary agree on and some of the things we disagree on but basically you were like look you're you're down for free speech that's the main thing here and I want my audience to hear you talk about well I you're a rational thinker which is really rare to find in California I'm kidding but no I mean I'm a big fan of the show and I watch a lot of you interviews and I know you're you know you have a huge following amongst young people and I mean I might you know met you I was like yeah let's get you on board I'm oh I've always been a gut player for better for worse it's got me into a little bit of trouble at times yeah but I think net it's been positive you just have to you have to go with your gut and make quick decisions and similar that's where I met Candis Owens - who is now doing a wonderful job with us and yeah it took me about 45 seconds until I offered her a job so literally I think it happened right in front of me and then you walked up to mr. Candis was like I just got a job and you were like let me do something with you it's like all right look this guy's obviously open to some different people it's totally in the schema what's going on you need the diversity of ideas right if you if you're in a room where everyone thinks exactly the same that would be a university so you need the diversity ideas and you need you need to be able to challenge your viewpoint around a broader theme of freedom that really is okay to have that sort of discussion yeah so to illustrate that point so then about I think it was the week before Christmas you guys do this I was it the largest conservative college we're waiting for we're waiting for someone to correct us we've done some research we have never found anything been closed yeah you have two thousand six hundred and fifty students from all 50 states no one's really found anything even comparable of size so we call it the largest until someone corrects us yeah well there were you had some protesters out there yeah they they show up all the time to everything there but but there was true diversity of thought there only you it was also sort of a Rubin report reunion for me because Prager was there and Gutfeld was there all my best friend Candace was they're obviously and and a whole bunch of Sherpa Tom jr. was there is just a series of people I went up there and I talked about being gay married and I talked about being pro-choice and and a bunch of other things that if you were to poll the average conservative that perhaps they're not for I think gay marriage maybe it's a little a little different at this point but I got a standing ovation and everywhere that I multiple times well yeah yeah budget times and and everywhere that I went for those two three days that I was there and have been by no means was this just me I mean Ben Shapiro came out it was like it was like Elvis it was yeah I'm gonna say it was like the Rolling Stones seriously is nuts but that happened to everybody I went for breakfast I need coffee before I talk to people yet I'm literally there's a line of 100 people start popping up it's like they start swarming yeah but that said something to me beyond the politics that there's something else going on with young people right now where they actually as the young people say they're they're really woke yes what's happening here well and it's that diversity idea is that I think illustrates what makes our organization so unique so a reporter came up to me and he was totally dishonest guys like well this this feels like a Donald Trump rally and I said how could you possibly say that sure we have Trump jr. we have Gorka we also Austin Peterson I ran for president on in the Libertarian Party all right we have Ruben who is not a leftist anymore but he's somewhere out there right he believes in freedom Yeah right we've been Shapiro who literally led the nevertrump in it right we have a huge diversity of ideas and each speaker was respected was given standing ovations was challenged appropriately and I think that really says something about this new Conservatory in movement that we're helping create yeah which is we don't have to agree on 100% of conservative dogma let's just get the big stuff right the big stuff is America a great country yes it's free enterprise a good thing yes you know its freedom something that we should really embrace as a general idea yes is socialism bad yes that's just pretty much the main key points and the rest of the stuff we can argue and disagree with respectfully yeah when did you wake up to some of this stuff just tell me a little bit about your growing up and your situation I was crazy crazy kid growing up grew up in the northwest suburbs of Chicago always was a conservative Republican growing up around a lot of leftists and liberals in my public high school and our you young and conservative like I because I love history and I was always contrarian right so I'd always be challenging my teachers my parents were generally Republican right they weren't you know necessarily political but they were center-right O'Reilly Factor watching you know Republicans that I always used to say and then I would always just challenge teachers that would say that you know all conservatives want to do is kill poor people and you know pollute the environment the typical talking points right and being the kind of you know rebel I guess you could say I'd always challenge the teachers and say well no Ronald Reagan lifted more people out of poverty than your crazy social programs that Jimmy Carter drove nuts and I found enjoyment in it and you know the further down that rabbit hole you get the more you read Milton Friedman the more you understand the foundational principles and ideas at a young age I just became on fire for politics and for economics and long story short I started this organization when I was 18 instead of going to college and ended up being a wonderful decision and helped really place myself in a movement that was waiting to be grown and this is something a lot bigger than just politics this is the fight for the soul of the country and it has to start on college campuses and it's really the struggle for our generation and it's it's really if you divide it it's do we want do we believe America is the greatest country in the history of the world and do we believe freedom is a good thing or do we want to go a completely different direction that looks much more like a European socialist democracy that does not honor civil liberties that does not honor private property and really deteriorates everything that made America a great place that that's the decision our generation has to make it's kind of funny you're sort of like the non Silicon Valley version of like Bill Gates or Steve Jobs didn't quite flattering did you go to college or dropped out of college and but now you're talking to college people when did you realize that that was the place that that this battle had to be yeah and the first couple years of starting turning-point USA it started as kind of a generic student organization but just like any good innovator and entrepreneur I listened and I learned and I realized there was such frustration amongst self-identified conservative libertarians on campus that were not being properly channeled and organized they felt as if they were being targeted and that they were being suppressed and their ideas were not being allowed to be heard and we made a decision that turning-point the for a couple years is let's not just fight the political war let's double down and fight the culture war and that we can be the champions of free speech and we can be the ambassadors of freedom we're really you see these campuses I call them islands at the Talat arianism you know their idea of diversity is a group of people that all look different but they think the same yeah that's not diversity and so Turning Point is benefited tremendously over the last couple years of really being the champions of free speech and also saying hey we're not Republicans we're not conservatives we're not libertarians you can call us all that stuff that's fine we have members that are across that whole spectrum as long as you believe in freedom you believe America is a great country welcome aboard do you think the idea of having that kind of wide tent is part of the appeal like I think people are so sick of the labels and all that was cool I spend actually most of the weekend hanging out with with Austin but part of it also hanging out with Tommy and Candice and a whole bunch of other people and I was like there really is and then and then you know Alison Stuckey was there and a couple other people and I was like wow these people actually really do think different things totally and and my libertarian side usually goes to kind of where Austin that but I was like we we're we're all having dinner after that's a great thing and I was like this is great we're having real discussions yeah we're really digging into it and there is that disagreement but if you put them all in a room they but they get the big stuff right yeah right you know do we believe that free enterprise has been a net positive for humanity do we believe the Constitution is a great political document that should be preserved protected and better understood do we believe America has been a wonderful you know net benefit for Humanity you know over the last 200 years they probably agree wholeheartedly and all that it's the other stuff where they start to have a little philosophical differences but that disagreement is not being found on the left right now if you disagree with one core tenet of leftist dogma you're ostracized you're kicked out and that shows there they're not a diverse political movement the new modern American Left they're extremely intolerant of differing opinions and I don't have to talk for you I mean what you think you're acting as my agent but listen I would gladly I said this when I had Shapiro on last week I will gladly give the exact same speech that I gave to you guys a couple weeks ago I would love to give that exact same speech to any progressive or Democrat and you guys standing ovations but I'm looking to get my mag a hat wearing students right but you give that speech to the Young Democrats socialists of America conference coming up in a couple months you'll get boos and you'll get weak shouldn't hear things we disagree with yeah you know bolshevik you know forever it's these people have have translated into total authoritarianism do you see a moment where both of the movements sort where you would argue the Conservatives sort of lost their place thus lost the culture war or and where they left sort of went bananas yeah I think the length has gone bananas just by default of their positions they really in inside of every leftist is a totalitarian waiting this you know screaming to get out is a great quote I always use yeah it's because when you argue for total government power and total government control of health care and schools and private economic decisions that can easily be translated into the monitoring of personal capacity decisions right that that translation is quite simple and I always say to a leftist that says well I believe in you know civil liberties but I also believe in government-run schools and healthcare as I say if you don't trust the government to help you know to monitor your own personal life wine earth when you trust the government throughout all these other institutions where I think conservatives have gotten it wrong over the last thirty years is where conservatives have become mislabeled and sometimes some considers believe this to want to do social engineering I think I'm gonna have angelical Christian I'm a pro-life conservative but I also believe government should have barriers in trying to instill those values upon society I think the best persuasion the best capacity for good is done through churches and local community movements and individuals persuading individuals and writing books and doing podcasts not through government doing massive social engineering programs so I think that's where conservatives have lost their way and that's where the left is currently trying to stake their claim is there anything that you think government does well no no I think government is a necessary evil I think it's necessary for providing from the national defense because that is something that whether we like it or not you have to you have to delegate some of our personal freedom to you know have a some sort of a civil society but government by its essence if you read what Milton Friedman has said they're incentivized to be inefficient they're incentivized by definition to not be able to provide the best possible good or service for the individual so look the private sector does everything better whether it be the inefficiency the post office or Medicare is bankrupt Social Security doesn't serve the people you know effectively everything government touches goes to crap and the private sector is by definition more efficient because if you don't do it well you're not going to exist much longer what do you think is the best way of getting that message across that government just doesn't do things well because I think it's just so built-in to people partly because our education is shirt and screwed up or whatever that they just feel the government should just do things so I saw Bernie tweeted the other day this video of all these millionaires saying and I responded yeah so I retweeted it which got like twenty thousand retweets because it was like it's all these millionaires saying we should be taxed more we should be taxed more well what what intellectual hip-hop it's such lies it's like boy a what's stopping you from pay that's what I suppose just send more money to the IRS numbskull or it's right but it's like but okay so but yet Bernie's tweet gets something like fifty thousand retweets and not that it's all about retweets and all but it's true he has high engagement with this but to me it's just lazy thinking it is lazy so virtuous if it's so virtuous to keep giving money to the guns right why do you need the government to tell you to do it and really at its core if you look at the philosophical difference between really the culturally Marxist left which is what they're becoming and the free thinking individualist you know individual libertarian conservative right which is the new you know intellectual position that is growing you know quicker than even the left its we might want good things to happen in society but don't tell me to do them at gunpoint yeah and the left on the other hand I don't think their intentions are very good I think they want permanent political power but Bernie Sanders for example he is so convicted that he is right he wants to use the absolute authority on and unlimited power of the state to put a gun to your head and say you have to have a 70% tax rate because someone is starving on the street I would rather live in a society that has the same tax rate for everyone 10% and we dig deeply say are we going to take care of that person on the street through charity through private philanthropy and through being better people and if you look at when socialism's implemented you see the moral disintegration of society you look at Spain you look at France you look at Europe they don't have anything as private philanthropy any more private charity has disappeared in Europe because government takes care of it and that I think that is such an important point to make so going back to your question how do you illustrate this to a young person you ask the fundamental question do you trust a government that word trust is so important because in in that word trust that really feels personal all right do you trust the government 99% of young people say no then you ask the next question then why do you want to make government bigger as soon and they'll say I don't well then you're not a social so you're not a leftist then let's talk about how we can really shrink the size of government and put power back into the hands of people and it's important to note also even though you think government might want to do something it doesn't mean federal government has to do it local government is much more accountable to the citizens than some bureaucrat in DC that you're never going to meet and so those are those are arguments that you know we've found to be very effective yeah it's interesting you mentioned intentions and I always try my best not to impugn intentions of others I think that especially on the left right now obviously I think these people have a lot of bad ideas now of course some of them have bad intentions but most of them don't most average people don't wake up thinking we're I'm gonna do bad today they actually think they're doing good most of them yeah do you think some of their leaders actually have bad and without a doubt yes absolutely and not all of them but some of them and you look back to the original writings and the original thought process behind the Great Society Lyndon Baines Johnson who bragged on multiple times that the implementation the Great Society and all the social programs around it will keep african-americans dependent and keep them voting for generations documented in the presidential record Lyndon Baines Johnson said that and so I think the Democratic Party is full of people with great intentions but its leaders have realized and calculated but if they can keep the government programs continuing for just long enough not getting people out of poverty but keep people surviving within poverty they will have a permanent political base so if you ask the question if African Americans actually rose out of poverty and saw their wages get higher and their schools get better and their communities you know flourish are they going to keep voting for government welfare programs that are the basis of the Democratic Party absolutely not yeah they're not they're gonna break out of that so I think the intentions of the Democratic Party the followers I'm never ever gonna impune them I'm not going to call them deplorable Zoar anything like they call us I think most of the followers Democratic Party actually really good people but the leaders we must question their motives because if you look at the failures of the welfare system in this country it is undoubtable that they're protecting a system that benefits them politically is this also partly why the media is going so hysterical right now like have you noticed just in the last couple weeks we've shifted a little bit out of Russia hysteria but now it's about Trump's mental capacity and it's like now and see how they coordinate it I mean you really if you just look telling you they got to got like a group text message chain going I'm talking they got like John King Anderson Cooper Don Lemon Rachel Maddow I think they're all just group texting I'm not kidding I want to down that conspiracy theory can you cut me when you start to have all three television stations open of CBS this morning and CNN you know with Cuomo and MSNBC Good Morning Joe and they're talking about the exact same thing literally the segment's are literally produced the same I don't think that's a conspiracy it there's got to be some sort of Talking Points Memo they send out just that early in the morn but does that show you were talking points memo or just general group thing no I think it's general group Ian but I also I think they understand that they have to be coordinated to be effective which there's nothing I think wrong with that effectively we conservatives do the same thing without even realizing it you listen to Rush Limbaugh you listen to Dennis Prager and you listen to Sean Hannity the talking points are usually quite similar because you know you watch Fox and Friends in the morning that kind of sets the agenda and I'm not I'm not attacking the Democrats for being that but if you look at why the media is going so far off the rails it's they will never accept the fact that this presidency is actually large in part a wonderful success is that the president is fulfilling his campaign promises we're seeing unprecedented economic prosperity and you're seeing people's lives actually get better and so they have to go down to this tabloid journalism or report on this fake book they have to continue down this Russia hysteria because if this president succeeds which he is and he will what else do they have they have gone so far all in that this guy is a psychopathic nutjob they will they will lose all institutional credibility and political relevance you know it's funny right when Trump started the campaign I kept saying that if you keep calling this guy Hitler you are painting yourself into a really bad corner and it cheapens Hitler to yak about that Hitler was one of the worst mass murderers in human history who killed 15 million people and they have people once a week on those networks equate him to the rise of the Third Reich what does that do is it cheapens the evil of Hitler and is that one of the worst thing you could possibly do more trying to educate the next generation everyone's Hitler no one's Hitler then maybe what Hitler did wasn't that bad maybe Hitler was democratically elected and had a supreme court that kept them in balance you see it I'm saying that right you know it cheapens the evil of the Nazi Empire when they start to make these comparisons to Donald Trump and Hitler it's really and also the way this stuff just goes downstream I mean because then it's you start calling all your intellectual opponents Nazis then you say it's okay to punch the Nazis well where does that end can we punch the not tonight life can we blow up there exactly I'm called a Nazi all the time and I mean it's one of the most intellectually just dangerous arguments to make when you and when everyone becomes a fascist even though there is no evidence of that what really has your political movement become yeah where'd the words freedom and liberty and the words that I now use a lot how did they get so MUC tup that they started feeling wrong you know what I mean in the cultural relevance of things well I think it I think it's starting with the misrepresentation of what freedom and liberty really is I mean the left tries to be the movement of freedom a lot of young people that follow Bernie Sanders actually think they're on the side of freedom they think that Bernie Sanders is fighting for political freedom and economic freedom and he's going to fight for the little guy when in reality when his ideas are implemented which he's an open socialist the power always gets concentrated at the top the rulers are the ones that get rich the people that have the best connections the best lobbyists are the ones that benefit tremendously you look no further than Venezuela or cube are anywhere where socialism has tried it's the poor people that voted these guys into power they could that are worst off mm-hmm and so we have to be able to make the argument freedom is not only a really cool thing freedom is not only a great idea but it actually works like freedom when implemented actually makes people's lives better it you know freedom would be a difficult argument if it was not only like really cool to make the argument like yeah you do whatever you want to do when you want to do it how you want to do it that would be great yeah but we actually get to make the argument that in practicality freedom is the greatest thing to make people's lives better for innovations for medical advances for technological you know prosperity nothing comes even close to allowing freedom to to ensue so what do you say when someone says I hear this all the time you know well if the government doesn't do these things these social programs or if the government takes away food stamps or whatever it is that we just don't know if the private sector or churches and synagogues whatever we just don't know that that'll pick up the slack and then if that doesn't happen we end up with this permanent class of under underserved people that have no way fundamentally disagree with that and so this is where the world views I think collide is where the left they try to build this I think a lot of it is trying for guilt right they actually want to help as many people as possible they feel so bad that people are suffering they want someone else that do it for them so the first thing I do is I challenge how much money are you giving their charity how much are you doing to actually help the homeless guy in the side corner yeah and then what if ten million people did what you did secondly never underestimate the good that Americans will do when people are in need hurricanes natural disasters famines fires Americans always step up Americans voluntarily gave 500 billion dollars away to charity last year imagine if our tax rate was 10 percent imagine if there was really a national rallying call to double our charitable efforts we can easily give away trillions of dollars Wow trillions of dollars that's the size of the welfare state and I would make a compelling argument that local churches charities and municipalities do a heck of a lot better job of serving the people than the federal government bureaucrat a lot you know sending money to Washington DC is that actually gonna help the poor single mother in Miami or is going to the local Catholic Church and getting $5,000 which might be a lot of money to you actually gonna help them a lot more than sending that $5,000 Washington DC I will argue fiercely against someone who says that a government bureaucrat is going to help an underprivileged individual better than a private charity or individuals helping individuals so you said a couple nice things about Trump so I want to get into some of some of the specifics on that please but so one of the things that I've said is that Trump basically was the bull in the china shop and he just went in and just up and did everything and I actually think that right now that's a net good because there were a lot of bad things happening before there's some fertile ground for some good ideas so on that level I'm for what's happening when I had Eric Weinstein sitting in that chair he said that he would have preferred it to be a panther in a china shop meaning it would have just knocked over a few things maybe not though there I don't think that that exists that's that was the point of our disagreement I just think it just doesn't exist where you get to selectively choose where things are gonna be knocked off the shelves and all that Seb Korca was speaking at the turning point of it felt was doing this whole thing about how somebody was doing it backstage continued on stuff it's not but but gorko is saying how Trump was the I think he said the Icebreaker going sure the glacier basically and what I noticed that was there was a theme with the speakers where everyone basically acknowledged that there are issues with Trump I don't think anyone went up there and said this guy is the perfect thing or you know this is exactly how we wanted it but there was a sense of this was the only way it could have happened is that basically where you fall so I'm one of the few you know outward and vocal millennial Trump you know supporters out there not few I should say in kind of this work world a conservative pundit tree if you will everyone tries the heads right and there's some good and some bad and I've obviously gone all in and I'm glad I have and I'm happy to walk through you know the philosophical you know reasoning for that so look look Donald Trump was never supposed to be president at States just look going back a little bit running in a crowded field of Republican candidates and noun Singh the day after Jeb Bush announced his candidacy which I think was no coincidence and I think he saw Jeb Bush announce like screw it if that guy's running I'm running it took down the bush dynasty that out a hundred ten million dollars to spend and then took down the Clinton dynasty took down the media dynasty in a way that's totally unprecedented and if you look at the values that he represents in my personal opinion he is one of the best chances Western civilization has to continue he believes America is the greatest country in the history of the world he's been a fierce critic of socialism his visit this Poland was a 40-minute critique of the fall of the USSR he believes that the Constitution's the greatest political document ever written look no further than his appointment of Gorsuch in these circuit court judges more than any of that he believes that America as an idea must be preserved protected and advanced and is he an imperfect vessel of course we're all imperfect vessels does he tweet things that I might not always agree with yeah sure but but if the ideas that he's implementing I would make a compelling argument he's the most conservative president in a hundred years even more so than Ronald Reagan he is doing more bold reforms and he's fighting to do what he said he was going to do even in the face of unprecedented opposition whether it be the embassy moving to Jerusalem opening up our natural resources getting out of TPP getting out of the Paris climate court agreement this is stuff that is not supposed to happen right do you think Jeb Bush would be doing this sudden give me a break no way so basically do you think he was the last chance for conservatives I think I say that but I kind of think that's a compelling argument that know that if you look when McCain ran or Romney ran Romney was against women with his binders of women they said McHugh no McCain was racist blah blah blah that to me the most compelling argument is that none of these guy you think Marco Rubio will beat Hillary you know or Jeb would is somehow beat Hillary No so that putting aside some of my reservations for a moment this was the only way that any of these ideas were gonna get that bet that's correct so let me play out the alternative scenario Hillary Clinton is president and she has control of the Senate and control the house and she's just advancing this radically destructive Obama agenda instead Donald Trump for any of the disagreements people might have around him the results really speak for themselves the economic prosperity that we're seeing right now that you can put six trillion dollars of new wealth created in this country but even more than that I'm telling you there was a referendum on the ballot and I was there on Wisconsin I was there in Michigan I was there in Pennsylvania with Donald Trump jr. for weeks on end the people that showed up to vote that hand vote in 30 years you know what they were really voting for they were voting that America is the greatest country that has through the world and here's finally someone who's gonna fiercely defend it against the permanent political class that's important because who else to represent that permanent political class than Hillary Clinton like she was the worst person that Democrats could have put up in a change election here's someone whose husband was impeached who constantly cheated on her she's the most uncharismatic possible person to put up and here's a guy who you know what he's gonna blow it up great that's who I'm gonna vote for and you look a lot of what he's doing he has shrunk the size a lot of these federal bureaucracies and he's fighting a lot of these entrenched media and political establishments that honestly I never thought we would see such a champion against which brings me great satisfaction what do you think about the intellectual side of Trump like I get what you're saying that the broad ideas of freedom in America and liberty and those things and I basically agree that that's he does understand those things in terms of just like the intellectual or philosophical side do you think he really has an understanding of the issues or do you think that maybe isn't even important I don't think it's that important I've spent considerable time with him and his family and I can say this his his understanding of why America is the greatest country in the history of the world why free enterprise matters and actually how to benefit country as a whole is is just as good if not better than some of these politicians they might be able to recite all these intellectual and philosophical quotes because this is a president that you know what he's been through bankruptcy trials he's been through hiring and firing hundreds of people and you know you running a business and me running a business that develops character in someone you just got to say making payroll dealing with regulators - versus some of these senators that have been you know orders and thinkers their whole life give me a break right so I have a deep amount of respect it doesn't bother me that you know CNN says oh he talks to the fourth grade level give me a break you know seriously he talks the way that the guy in Northeast Iowa has been waiting for someone to talk to in a while so I completely dismissed that as an argument and I look at what he's accomplished as a person which is totally amazing and what he's fighting for every single day and he gets the big stuff correct he really does and I challenged some of my you know critics on the right who else in that field of 17 Republican candidates would have nominated Gore CIFAS Supreme Court moved the embassy advocated for the greatest you know middle-class tax cut in American history not back down on some of these core issues it's really if I would have said here's XYZ candidate let's just pretend this is you know in the Republican primary and in the first 11 months would get this done most conservative pundits would say where do I sign you know seriously you know and he has he has advanced more conservative pro-freedom libertarian ideas than any of these candidates what most of these candidates would so then what do you make of the conservative class that hates him so I'm talking about like the David Frum crew that that whole yeah French the rest of these guys that really just hate him even though I agree he has put forth a lot of the idea that they've been yammering about for the last twenty years I mean look I I have a lot of respect for those publications because of their history I'm just I'm challenged I I'm really wondering is it a personal vendetta they have against this guy is a personality disagreement because policy wise and implementation of the people he's put in place to make decisions the cabinet positions I mean this is a much more conservative president than george w bush and remarkably more effective than HW and already in twelve months much more consequential than ronald reagan and and so i'm wondering i want the balls in their court right because to be so hyper critical just automatically against someone who is fighting for your ideas every single day i I'm just I'm really wondering what was it is it a personality disagreement or is it kind of just I don't want to be wrong type of thing like I'm cheering for his demise because I'm a posed him for so long I think it's also I just want to be liked by mainstream which is the other thing right like I I've now created a whole new form of enemies I never thought possible which is like these rabid welcome to my world you know seriously these rabid media elites that are like always close to the Trump people we must try to destroy him and like all right fine whatever you know yeah the hatred for this man is is uncalled for is there anything that he's doing that you're not happy with so I'll give you odds that's a great question I so I'll give you something that just in the last and you know what you're gonna say and I'll probably agree okay so in the last ten days so he basically instructed Jeff session so that we're gonna grant okay so to me states rights if you care about that constant during that you said he loves so much and all those things the states should be able to make laws that they want and the federal government should not impede on the library we have something called the Tenth Amendment etc etc so in a case like this what's happening there how is there such a disconnect between the ideas of freedom that you laid out so eloquently and then what sessions is doing in practice i I can't I can't explain it well and I won't defend it because I don't agree with it look I'm a big defender of individual freedom and liberty and I get a lot of hate from my social sense or conservative friends when I argue for decriminalization of drugs I've never done drugs in my life and I don't plan to but someone wants to do it cool right whatever you know put whatever you want to put in your body as long it doesn't harm someone else so this is something that I think actually not making the correct decision on but you know what I'm happy to say that said it publicly and you know if I if I find someone like Jeff session who's gets most of the stuff right he's been great on guns he's been great on some of those other stuff but I don't think he's correct on this marijuana issue and I don't think he's correct politically it says the majority of Americans don't agree on this issue and to go after people that are peacefully doing business that's really what they're going after this is the financial transaction side that doesn't make a lot of sense to me that's not on the correct side of economic freedom but you know what this agreement is a healthy thing right and we need to challenge our cabinet officials and challenge our leaders when we don't see eye to eye with them and I think this is something that I think runs in the face of some of our core beliefs and tenets yeah it just seems like so ideologically inconsistent when I think it's fighting for States right he's been fighting for states rights in that look even now you've got people on the Left fighting for states rights ridiculous which makes no sense because now they're they're trying to defend sanctuary cities so yeah therefore doesn't mean it's right and against the federal government right doesn't mechanism but I will say this I think a lot of it is stemmed from this kind of old holdover war on drugs that Ronald Reagan declared in the 1980s which was an abysmal and total failure right the statistics speak for themselves that you know the war on recreational marijuana has not been a net benefit for the taxpayer for society in general again I come from the general world view that the greatest change does not come through in policy or if your government bureaucrats and so to be intellectually consistent I won't defend penalizing people that are peacefully selling you know cannabis to other people whether it be for medically recreationally and but here's the thing I went to high school in northwest suburbs of Chicago this is the story I always tell people say Charlie you're conservative how can you possibly hold its position no it's always that these Tea Party groups which I love I love the Tea Party I love those people right but they're they're my you know that I call them like the hardcore group right like they're the Alex Jones you know flag-carrying people that are really hardcore they're really big in the conspiracy and you know there's there always ask me Charlie how can you possibly be on the side of the criminalization of marijuana I said listen I went to high school in the North the suburbs of Chicago okay I remember after football games like kids have backpacks full of marijuana now marijuana is illegal in Illinois marijuana is illegal in Cook County and there were cops in our halls looking for it all the time it was not working okay let's just put it that way the Reds are wanted it found it the kids like me who didn't want any to do with it just walked away what what other better illustration of freedom than that you don't want to engage with it just walk away find somewhere else to do it we didn't need to pay you know the DEA or FBI units to go do locker room raids is something that kids were recreationally and peacefully doing I'm not a proponent of it I would support a charity to try to educate students not to do it cuz I think of Rupe you know had a net negative but why is it government's role to socially engineer us especially when it's a non-lethal substance I always think it's so interesting like look I now I mean California where it's now yeah now recreationally legal but I have a medical marijuana card and I've hurt my knee playing bass yeah well a couple years ago the places right over there I'd like to walk you in there just to see what's going on before you're not gonna persuade me to it's fine whatever I just think it would be fun to go in there with you and yeah that would be what was going on and go where my mag I had that would not go well no no that's not that would get a hit of salt there but I think it's funny because anytime that I ever bought weed illegally like when I lived in New York City yeah just get it from whoever the weed guy was I don't even know who that we've got exactly but I never once in 15 years or whatever I never had the guy selling weed say hey you want to buy crack you want to buy coke you want right now and yet we can go to prescription plate you can go to a psychiatrist all in it every drug and it's a hundred times worse and it's and it's chemically addictive yeah right so look I know plenty of people that have had stories that tell me Charlie if it wasn't from medicinal marijuana I would have gone to narco substances and I would have been a really a worse place right and so fine but that's the core tenant of freedom and I think what you're seeing here is most of our turning point followers would find sympathy with my argument and this is okay this is a natural change in a political movement as time goes on but and the fact that jeff sessions holds that position maybe he has an experience that I haven't experienced right that is really personal to him maybe he's seen you know marijuana do something horrible to a family member of people in local community Alabama I'll disagree with that probably not like whatever I'm trying to give the benefit the doubt because I think he's generally a good person I always try to give the benefit of doubt when people hold these positions yeah I just think it's not the right policy but you know what in 20 years you're gonna see the conservative libertarian majority similar to Rand Paul advocate for this and then we'll be able to point out the hypocrisy the left's say okay hold on a second like we're cool with people being able to sell what they want to sell it long doesn't harm someone else why are you trying to tell me I can't frack this oil field in the Permian Basin right right if you want to have like it into it if you want to be intellectually consistent right huh all right I want to do one other thing on the social stuff and then we'll move over to some articles oh no I know I said listen I never had a lie against the grain you immediately sat down you're like anything let's go all right seriously challenge but here we are so well I don't think this want to be too much of a challenge but I think it's an interest in sure it just shows how things have shifted so at the Republican convention Peter Thiel an openly gay man great link spoke before Trump he said I'm a proud gay man got a standing ovation then Trump gets up there talks about weights him out yeah TRO right points him and he said it makes me very happy because the exact quote he said because he uh makes me very happy that was a hand okay what's that that the fact that there's been such a wholesale shift in that that even right now Ted Cruz or the guys that you might consider a little more of the Christian conservatives well Mike Huckabee right okay so so where you come from basically as far as I can tell don't really see this as an issue anymore is that a fair price that's correct and and so let me dive deeper also posed a hypothetical to some of the leftists watching this Peter TL openly gay man gets a standing ovation the Republican National Convention and then pointed as the you know pointed out by the candidate do you think that an evangelical pastor that was pro-israel that might be a Democrat would have even been allowed to speak at the Democratic National Convention or given a standing ovation they booed God when he was doing that was when it was mentioned okay they literally did what is the shift here the shift is the Republican Party is beginning to realize hey let's party of freedom like it's cool if you want to do that I think it's it's a real sea change because even if you see Rand Paul beginning to you know endorse more of those you know favorable drug policy positions on the side of freedom or gay marriage you know you're starting to see a sea change where it's becoming the soul-searching the Republican Party as we donor the last 30 years is what's the one thing that ties our party together freedom freedom freedom and I think that's why you're starting to see that and the left they can't reconcile what what ties them together oppression you know like it's the oppression Olympics if I kind suffers more you know and I think that's a really good thing segue to one one final point is what I think is the position that needs to be articulated better is I have no problem if you know gay marriage whatever like I believe marriage one man one woman that's my own personal position right but I'm never gonna tell government to have someone live a life I think it's cool you're married I think it's great and you should have all the same tax benefits adopt children it's great right but now you feel the same way about you well it's fines like whatever like but that's that's more of like a generational perspective here's where I think Republican conservatives need to really fight hard and I think you agree is the religious liberty stuff is are you gonna force a Christian Baker to make a cake for a gay couple that is not the same thing as being cool with gay marriage and the left is trying to make a moral equivalency argument of the civil rights of the 1960s and someone having to violate the religious conscience to make a cake for a gay couple because they want it they want to have fascism where you can go into a private company and say you have to produce a product or service because we have a certain you know lifestyle that's dangerous and wrong and I think that's where the fight needs to happen and that's where I think we can actually win conference over do you think also the nology is the answer to some of those problems where we've kind of sucks that you know I did in my Praeger you video from last year which is excellent thanks I mean that was the line that really caught on because I don't want to force know that Baker to do something just as if there was a you could use any example here but if there was a Jewish artist who had a website that they take commissions for paintings I wouldn't want the government forcing them to paint neo-nazi paintings it's exactly the same thing yeah and would you want to force you know a Muslim wedding hall to have to host you know someone that is a great critic of his salon right that would violate one of the tenants one of the pillars of Islam right but for whatever reason the left is you know way overstepping their bounds and the Circuit Court of California is like lost their freaking mind seriously where they don't realize the slippery slope that they're engaging in here where if you have a private business with their own private conscience they should be allowed to accept and deny business as they see fit especially if it's business that takes pre-planning like such as a wedding cake or photography the only argument they might make is if you're you know running a fast food restaurant but you know what if someone wants to be a racist or a bigot they have that right no one's gonna go buy products from them anymore right that's how you win arguments without having to use the government gun on people's heads which again I think that's the argument that we have to make but if look if a gay couple wants to get married that's cool like whatever that's the law of the land move on to bigger battles like religious liberty and freedom all right let's shift a little bit to some religions okay you are a Christian conservative that's correct just that phrase trigger is a certain amount of people so first off what what is a Christian conservative which always stuns me so I do a lot of campus tour I'll tell you a quick story a lot of campus tours and I go through my litany of what I call hard truths told by Charlie Kirk and I'll say you know socialism is the greatest killer of humanity last 100 years and I'll say free enterprises of the greatest economic system ever and then I'll say three words and it drives them so crazy I say God is real and it's like they just start shaking ah the left they think they dare they don't know how to handle it and half the place loves it half the place hates it I don't know why that's so triggering so a Christian first and foremost I believe you know Jesus Christ as the Son of God and he came down and we you know he died for all our sins and we have a good documentation of that and we could debate and discuss that whatever but as a Christian I'm you know I believe that you know we are called to try to advance the kingdom of God and the Ministry of Jesus Christ as many people as possible and as peacefully as possible obviously right so that's how I try to live my own personal life and make my own personal decisions as a conservative I'd say let me provide everything so I I don't see you proselytizing religion though in the public way I've heard you speak before sure and I've never heard you push that so I say it every so often when asked but I look at my speaking no different than sometimes doing a job right so a plumber electrician that is not going to tell every person he turns around the corner like hey have you heard this crowd you know what I mean so you have to you don't want to be too offsetting and off-putting but I also try to you know through my some of my platforms you know talk about my personal beliefs no matter how triggering it might be to other people and I'm like campus tours I try to you know advance but of course I could probably do a better job of it but with that being said I would consider myself more as a Conservatorium which I find to be a new breed of you know ideology which you and I talked about and some people have already been labeling themselves as such and I find no contradiction between my Christian worldview and my political philosophy in fact I find great amount of you know synchrony actually between what I find what I believe theologically and what I believe spiritually and religiously it's also what I advocate for politically which is essentially the non-aggression principle and you know believing in productive people and free societies should be able to make your choices as you see fit as long as you're not harming someone else how did Christians end up as so much of the butt of what the left hates because you can open up every day another BuzzFeed article mocking isn't it right Christians and Mike and HuffPo and the they all love the Bible oh yeah them oh yeah it's nuts but how did that happen well so I think what happened is that Christian conservatives fell for a trap that they really should have rejected which is we might hold these truths very near and dear to our heart the jakoli and biblically and spiritually religiously but I think where the line was crossed is in the 60s and 70s and 80s where we tried to impose those beliefs through government policy where people then inherently have a rejection to it similarly how people are rejecting the left imposing their crazy worldview upon us right I think that was a big mistake because it created this kind of counter-revolution which is I don't want to have to live the way some Christian and Alabama wants me to live does that make sense so it's it's the imposition of those values through legislation and government which is something I don't necessarily support right so I try to always advocate for every one of my political positions through a secular worldview because that is the vast majority of people and that's the actual the government system that we have all need to decided to create we do have a separation of church and state and we should support that with that being said I can still have my own personal opinions and my own personal you know ways to go about changing public policy but when we start to say we should support this law because it's the Christian thing to do that is I think beginning that has turned people off for the last 30 years what does it say also about Christians that you know we talked about gay marriage before that there was a shift sure there actually has been a shift now you're basically arguing it's a political shift or utilitarian yes you're just you're sort of giving me just a realist argument yeah but is there something else going on there to where there is so could be mean intolerance to tolerance in the truest sense yeah and here's the other problem with Christians and me being a card-carrying member of this community and I try my hardest and I fail is and I'm around a lot of these Christians and I sometimes fall into it is this legalism right is that I'm somehow better than you because I'm a Christian and I really think that's done such a disservice to the Christian community especially the Christian conservative community it's this sanctimonious approach to lifestyle that I find to be really off-putting to a lot of non-believers and people say well I don't want to be a Christian because they're always going to talk down to me or they're gonna make me live by this set of beliefs oh they think they're better than I am it's a number-one critique I get it's not that oh I don't believe Jesus Christ is actually the Son of God or I don't believe the Bible you know those are actually things I think that could be ironed out it's more so like I've always been talked down to her when I was a young kid I was Catholic school and they gave me these 15 things I couldn't do and because of that I rebelled and rejected so I think this idea that actually Jesus Christ advocated for which is hey I dined with the tax collectors I was best friends with the prostitutes right like I never thought that they were any better than the my disciples right and I and of course I don't live this out the best I should but where Christians have gotten it wrong is this fierce fire and brimstone legal as thou shall all homosexual you know like that's wrong man yea that's not that's not what the the teachings and the evidence we have of Jesus Christ life ever taught us he was welcoming he was tolerant he was accepting he had standards he was fierce when it came to eternity in the standards of God but he wasn't afraid to go chill with tax collectors which were considered like the lowest form of individual possible in the Middle East during that time right and so I think we as Christians can learn a lot of that in modern societies and when we wrap this thing up you want to go have lunch with some prostitutes I mean if they want to hear about the good news of Jesus Christ but even so right he's sometimes some people are like oh you know but the point being is we should we as Christians have to do a better job of not being the sanctimonious moral conjectures which we get labeled at summit and so much so when you see a guy like Shapiro or a guy like Prager preggers more than my here I love them Prager basically a secular view at this point but grew up Orthodox Shapiro obviously is a observant religious there have been Orthodox Jew you guys basically from what I can tell agree on pretty much everything politically you're obviously more Trump than than Shapiro is pretty fine on any given day Prager definitely is more Pro Trump but this does any of your religious differences does I know that doesn't matter to you in terms of poverty that's very obvious but in just in terms of like your humanity or the way your worldview does any of that matter here you know I've had wonderful discussions Dennis Prager about what he believes theologically and I mean look