Charlie Kirk Warns CPAC: College Campuses Are the Battleground for America's Future and Bernie Sanders

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Charlie Kirk Warns CPAC: College Campuses Are the Battleground for America's Future and Bernie Sanders

Charlie Kirk delivers a warning to CPAC attendees about the ideological transformation happening on America's college campuses and its direct connection to the rise of socialist candidates like Bernie Sanders. Kirk, who visits universities across the country through Turning Point USA, explains how the systematic indoctrination of students into Marxist ideology has created a political movement that threatens American values. He outlines concrete action steps for conservatives, from defunding universities to getting involved in school board races, while celebrating President Trump's achievements and his executive order protecting free speech on campuses. Kirk argues that the 2020 election represents a fundamental choice between American renewal and socialist transformation, with college campuses serving as the critical battleground where this fight will be won or lost.

Categories: Speeches
February 27, 2020

The Warning From College Campuses

Charlie Kirk opened his CPAC address with a stark warning based on what he witnesses daily on college campuses across America. As someone who visits universities so others don't have to, Kirk identified a direct connection between campus ideology and the Democrat primary, where a self-described socialist was leading the race. The transformation of higher education into what he calls installations of indoctrination has created an entire generation taught to view America as fundamentally racist, bigoted, homophobic, and backwards.

Kirk pushed back against those dismissing the possibility of a Bernie Sanders presidency, reminding conservatives not to repeat the left's mistake of 2016 by underestimating an outsider populist candidate. As Andrew Breitbart taught, politics flows downstream from culture, and conservatives have been losing the cultural war in media, Hollywood, and academia for two decades. The strategy of the left, according to Kirk, centers on boosting turnout at universities through measures like same-day voting, making college campuses the battleground for this election and the next generation.

Turning Point USA's Growing Presence

Despite the challenges, Kirk shared positive developments. Turning Point USA now operates on 2,000 high school and college campuses across the country. Their sister organization, Students for Trump, has more affiliated chapters than Students for Bernie Sanders. This growth represents a counter-movement to the dominant left-wing ideology on campuses, though Kirk emphasized the fight is far from over.

Three Action Steps for Conservatives

Kirk presented three concrete actions every conservative can take to combat the indoctrination happening in education:

Stop Funding Your Alma Mater: Unless graduates attended institutions like Liberty University or Hillsdale College, Kirk urged them to cut off donations to their alma maters. These universities, he argued, use alumni funds to indoctrinate the next generation with ideas about open borders and Marxism, creating an endless supply of activists for candidates like Bernie Sanders.

Get Involved in School Board Races: Kirk emphasized that the left has systematically taken over school boards across the country. He called for conservatives to invest the same energy in local school board races as they do in national elections, particularly focusing on textbook selection and elementary-level education decisions.

Reconsider Four-Year College: Kirk challenged parents to ask not where their kids are going to college, but why they need to go at all. After visiting what are considered the best schools in the country, he stated he wouldn't send anyone he cares about to these institutions without being willing to play Russian roulette with their values. America needs more plumbers, electricians, HVAC technicians, police officers, firefighters, and veterans, and far fewer people hyper-educated in humanities, communications, and psychology who graduate saddled with debt and resentment toward their country.

The College Cartel

Kirk described higher education as a cartel that exists using taxpayer funding while taking the minds and futures of young people. This system serves not just to maintain a power structure and status quo, but to create a future political base of left-wing Democrat activists. He pointed to the fact that 95 percent of professors in higher education are self-identified left-wingers, questioning why conservatives continue to send their most prized possession—young people—into this environment.

The current Democrat leadership, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, and Ilhan Omar, represent a harbinger of things to come, Kirk warned. They demonstrate bitter resentment for America, just as the leading Democrat nominee has nicer things to say about literacy in Cuba than about the heroic history of the United States.

From Communism Abroad to Campuses at Home

Kirk traced the ideological shift to thirty years ago when America defeated communism in Europe and brought down the Berlin Wall. However, while communism was defeated abroad, it came straight to American college campuses and school boards. This infiltration has transformed educational institutions from places of learning into centers of activism.

The Teacher Union Problem and School Choice

Kirk identified teacher unions, specifically the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, as a true cartel that has negatively impacted the hearts and minds of the next generation. He argued that these unions have immorally denied minority communities access to higher quality education. Challenging these unions and expanding school choice represents a critical path forward for conservatives.

Understanding Bernie Sanders' Appeal

When asked why a 78-year-old candidate excites young people, Kirk offered insight: Sanders is exactly like the intro professor to "How to Hate America 101." He speaks like that professor, looks like that professor, and is equally as angry as that professor. He presents himself as the crusader against everything wrong and unjust in society, the little guy against the big guy.

Kirk pointed out a fundamental contradiction in Sanders' message: he claims government is bought and paid for by the wealthy, the few, and the well-connected, yet wants to make that same government more powerful. Why, Kirk asked, would Sanders want to give more money, guns, healthcare, and control over education to a government he says is corrupt? The power structure Sanders criticizes would only become more powerful if he were elected.

President Trump's Historic Achievements

Kirk reminded the audience of what he considers a gift from God: President Trump's election in November 2016 and the results that followed. His list of accomplishments included:

  • Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch
  • 170 Circuit Court judges
  • Record low Black, Latino, and Asian American unemployment
  • 10 million Americans off food stamps
  • Energy independence
  • VA Accountability Act
  • Right to Try legislation
  • Prison reform
  • Elimination of Qasem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi
  • Recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital
  • Recognition of the Golan Heights
  • Speaking at the March for Life
  • Cutting funding to Planned Parenthood

Kirk characterized this period as an American renaissance, a gift from the administration. However, he noted that one side wants to fundamentally transform one of the greatest blessings God has given his children: America itself.

The Mitt Romney Betrayal

Kirk didn't hold back on Senator Mitt Romney, encouraging the audience's negative reaction to his name. He accused Romney of lying to everyone who knocked on doors, made phone calls, and donated to his campaign, believing he would be a crusader against what Kirk called the Marxist president who preceded Trump. After begging for Trump's endorsement for his Utah Senate race, Romney voted for what Kirk termed a "sham unconstitutional impeachment."

Romney, according to Kirk, embodies the political class that President Trump ran against. The party of Mitt Romney was a party that didn't fight, wanted to preserve the ruling class, and failed to give the next generation confidence, courage, and conviction to stand for what is correct.

The MAGA Doctrine Versus the Status Quo

Kirk contrasted two visions for the conservative movement. The old way represents the status quo ruling class of Mitt Romney, characterized by open borders, allowing China to get rich, and being a technocratic governing ruling class. The alternative is what Kirk calls the "MAGA Doctrine"—a doctrine of American renewal and revival that believes America is the greatest country in the history of the world.

This doctrine embraces American sovereignty, believes in the working class, and represents people who shower before and after work. It's a conservative movement unafraid to challenge tech companies, Hollywood, media, and the cartel of colleges. This movement represents the people, not the Washington DC political ruling class. Kirk argued this is the conservative movement that will win in November against socialism.

True Rebellion on Campus

Kirk pointed out an ironic reality: wearing a Bernie Sanders shirt on campus gets thumbs up, high-fives, and invites to the coolest parties. True rebellion, according to Kirk, means wearing a Make America Great Again hat on campus. He challenged anyone wanting to see what real rebellion looks like to try walking around Brown, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, or UCLA with that hat.

For the first time, conservatives have a president who understands the seven mountains of cultural influence and the significance of standing in solidarity with grassroots activists. President Trump courageously signed a historic executive order to protect free speech on college campuses—one of the most important executive orders of his presidency, announced at CPAC the previous year.

The Choice Ahead

Kirk framed the 2020 election as a referendum on what America is: a mediocre socialist welfare Marxist country, or something greater? A country of victims or victors? Are Americans thankful or angry that they live in America? At the elemental level, this explains why students show up in high numbers for Sanders and why the left is doing what they're doing.

The dichotomy has never been more clear, Kirk argued. One side wants to fundamentally transform one of the greatest blessings God has given his children. He believed that if conservatives do their job, it won't even be close—though he noted that the fact the election might be close is itself an indictment of how far American culture has declined.

The Path to Victory

Kirk closed by emphasizing that every person in the audience plays an extraordinarily important role. President Trump will face attacks in unimaginable ways from now until November—manufactured narratives and stories building on previous attempts to spy on his campaign and impeach him starting just 14 minutes after his inauguration.

Culture will get the president reelected. Culture will win back the country. College campuses are the battleground for the hearts and minds of the next generation. Kirk committed to continuing his fight on these campuses from now until November, calling on everyone to do what they can to reelect the president and take back the country. The future of whether America remains a free Republic and constitutional republic or becomes a failed socialist experiment is being determined right now on high school and college campuses across the nation.

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