TPUSA is presenting to the world and to young people in particular the idea that if you want to be conservative, you must be Christian. When a political organization repeatedly frames conservatism as inseparable from a single set of religious beliefs, it shrinks the ideological tent. It also exiles an entire population of people who share conservative values and goals, just not those same exact Christian beliefs. They want the spectacle to bring in young people. They want to use the spectacle to prop themselves up. And this is harming their credibility. This is pushing people away. People see through it. People feel manipulated. People feel that something is off out there. I believe actually more and more people by the day who consider themselves conservative and who do not subscribe to this organization and what they stand for and what they're promoting. [music] Hey everybody and welcome to my channel. Today I'm going to be talking about whether or not TPUSA's current strategy is undermining broader conservative values. What influence is Turning Point, Charlie Kirk's organization, having on conservatism? And before I begin, I want to be really clear about where I'm coming from in this video. I consider myself independent politically. I want to make that clear. I do not subscribe to the Democrat or Republican party, but I believe in lots of conservative values like limited government, personal responsibility, and many more. I also believe in God, and I believe that faith can inform moral reasoning and can inspire people to be more responsible in their communities. I even believe that your faith can and maybe should inform your political views. So, what I'm about to say is not an attack on true conservative values. It's not an attack on Christianity or Christians because I am part of those groups. It's also not an attack on young conservatives who are genuinely trying to engage with the world in a meaningful way. I want to make all of that very clear from the start. My concern and what I'm going to talk about in this video is the strategy, credibility, and long-term consequences of the approaches that TPUSA is currently taking. Because I believe that when conservatism is reduced to viral outrage, cultural performance, and identity signaling, we risk losing what actually matters and what actually makes conservatism persuasive and durable in the first place. Like it or not, Charlie Kirk's organization, TPUSA, has become the largest and most influential conservative organization that reaches young people in America. And influence comes with a lot of responsibility. So the question I'm asking in the video today is whether or not the methods that are being used by TPSA to energize and rally young conservatives, whether those methods are actually strengthening the conservative movement or undermining it. Hi, my name is Maddie and welcome to my channel. Historically, this has been a place where I seek to educate people about a certain type of psychological child abuse that I went through for 20 years. This entails a parent who manipulates their child to turn against their other parent and reject their other loving parent. I went through through this starting at the age of nine during my parents divorce. My mom made me believe terrible things about my dad. Horror stories, false allegations like that he didn't love me and that he didn't have a soul, couldn't feel empathy. And because of all of that manipulation and psychological warfare, I rejected him for 20 years. So four years ago, I actually learned the truth of what I had lived through, realizing that I had rejected him due to my mom's delusional reality. And I've been exposing this abuse and seeking to educate young people in particular about the fact that it even exists so that they too can rebuild their relationships with their loving parent. Now, hang with me. I just have to give a quick uh disclaimer here and then we'll get into the real meat of the video. For those of you who have been following along for a while with my project, it might confuse you why I'm covering more political and social issues lately. I've had a lot of comments about, "Maddie, stop talking about politics. Maddie, stop talking about uh cultural social issues. Um you're you're undermining your credibility with parental alienation, etc." And some more mean comments than that. Well, I want to remind everyone listening to my goals for this project. They've been the same since day one. My goals have never been to help parents who are being unjustifiably rejected by their children. If that's a secondary gain that my channel can have, I welcome it for sure. But my goal has always been to alert other people to the truth. People who've been living under their parents' spell. My goal has always been to wake up, so to speak, other manipulated children to their reality so that they can restore their relationships with their loving parents like I have with my dad in the past 2 and a half years. I also want to say this. I've been running my project and I've been trying a myriad of different tactics to accomplish accomplish my mission from tons of videos, different types of videos to flyer campaigns to actually flying to college campuses and speaking to students on the ground there in a similar way that Charles Charlie Kirk did and educating them about parental alienation. What I found is this, that by far I have found the most success in reaching new audiences that know nothing about a parental alienation and educating them by making videos related to social, political issues, and current events. So, you can expect to see a wider variety of topics on my channel moving forward. And I understand if that's not for you. I'm not blaming anyone if you are not here for that. I will continue to cover things directly related to parental alienation as well. I'm not abandoning the cause. I'm merely shifting my focus in order to accomplish the goals that I've had since day one. By the way, if you suspect that you have been manipulated to reject your parent, I have tons of content here, a whole playlist called for alienated children, and that can hopefully help you understand your experience. That being said, I appreciate your support. Thank you. Before we talk about TPSA, the organization itself, let's briefly define some key terms. So what is conservatism? Historically, conservatism has had many different strands from fiscal restraint and individual liberty to cultural stewardship and personal value. As a conservative myself, I believe strong political movements like conservatism should unite around principles. I want to say that again. I believe strong political movements should unite around principles, not pressure people into predetermined outlooks. Conservatism at its root is about preserving valued institutions, encouraging personal responsibility, limited government, and promoting virtues that help societies flourish. Now, I know that's kind of broad, but it's a political tradition, not a religious litmus test. Universally, universally conservative ideas like limited government and personal freedom can be embraced by people of many faiths or people of no faith at all. And I want to ground this in my own experience for a moment. I lost my faith 17 years old due to a bunch of religious trauma. I won't go into that now. You can check out my channel, my story if you want to know more about that. But I lost my faith in God because I was so harmed in the name of God. And I did not reject my moral values. However, I did not reject the conservative values I held. I merely was rejecting religion because it was used in my life as a tool for control. I was hurt in the name of God and I subsequently turned my back on him for about a decade. What's important in me mentioning this is that losing my faith did not mean I lost my conservative values. And I know a lot of people have a difficulty with this topic, but I feel very called to talk about it today. I still believed in limited government, personal freedom, accountability, and the idea of power being constrained. And that's because those ideas do not belong to one religion. When conservatism becomes dependent on religious identity in order to pro prove legitimacy, I believe it stops being a philosophy and starts becoming a gatekeeping mechanism. And history shows us that wants belief is enforced through identity or enforced through pressure. Freedom is usually the first thing that's sacrificed. That brings me to point number one. The first thing I see that Turning Point USA is doing to really undermine the conservative movement in my opinions. All my opinions, feel free to disagree with me. That's what makes life interesting and beautiful, that we can all have different opinions. I even disagree with my husband on a lot of these things. It's fine. You can do that in life. I hate that I even have to say that. I wish that people could just understand that intuitively, but we're at a point in society now that you'll be canceled for even talking about this stuff. I'm going to talk about religion and conservatism. Yeah, I'm taking a deep breath because I have been an agnostic conservative. I've also been a Christian conservative. The first reason why I believe that TPUSA is fracturing the Conservative Party is because they are marrying religion and conservatism to a degree where it's almost become impossible in their view and with their organization to separate the two. Now, if you're Christian conservative listening, you're probably getting a little triggered. You may be getting a little triggered, but I got to remind you, you're seeing the world through your own point of view. And there are lots of people out there who are conservative and who are not Christian. Religion and politics align for many Americans. That's true. Historically, maybe a lot of conservatives are Christians. That's probably still true today. And we're going to get into some statistics that proves that's true. But it's not a perfect alignment. In fact, religiosity is not required to be a conservative. It's just not yet. TPUSA with the addition especially of TPUSA faith is presenting the idea that conservative values are inseparable from the Christian faith. Do you agree with this? because I I would argue that heavily their claims, speeches, and arguments often, more often than not, rely on the B Bible instead of logic, instead of reasoning, instead of relying on our founding documents. However, many people are conservative and not religious. And we'll get into the available research that proves this to be true. So from Pew Research data for instance, they show that highly religious Americans, especially white evangelical Protestants, do tend to lean Republican. Yet large number large numbers of Americans with different or no religious beliefs also identify across the political spectrum. My point is that not all conservatives are Christians and not all Christians are conservative. However, there can and there is a large overlap. Understanding that nuance is important and we're going to check out these statistics right now from Pew Research. So, Pew Research Center did this study about religion, partisanship, and ideology. So, they were looking at the religious profiles of US adults, how religious they are, and what religion they identify with. And generally speaking, they say Americans who are highly religious are the most solidly Republican constituency. US adults with lower levels of religious engagement more commonly identify with or lean toward the Democratic party. So I'm I'm not trying to prove or say or claim that Republicans are not religious. That's not my claim at all. I'm just trying to prove that there is this percentage right here, 27% of Republicans that actually have low religiousness. You have 43% here too that have medium to low religiousness. And that's not an insignificant percentage. You can go through this. It's on pewarch.org. um you can look up and you can actually read the data on political orientation and political ideology by religious affiliation. My claim again is that universally conservative ideas like limited government and personal freedom can be embraced by all people of many faiths or people of no faith at all. And by tying religion and political identity, you create a very troubling situation. When a political organization repeatedly frames conservatism as inseparable from a single set of religious beliefs, it shrinks the ideological tent. It also exiles an entire population of people who share conservative values and goals, just not those same exact Christian beliefs. Scholars point out the conservative identity and religious commitment do not universally overlap. They correlate certainly and most strongly among highly political engaged individuals, but this is not the whole picture. It's just not. So, I wanted to bring in this clip, too. I'm not a fan of Rolling Stone, but I thought it was interesting the way that they actually phrase this. This is about TPUSA's America Vest. Motion blur catches attendees moving through the convention hall. Many already mouthing the words to constantly crusting Christian rock. their gestures and familiarity signaling a world view in which polit politics is framed as biblical mandate. The scene mirrored the wider tone of the convention where slogans like make American Christian again marked how thoroughly fanatical Christianity undergurted the events political identity. To me, having the goal of upholding conservative values, having the conservative movement endure and flourish is very different than the goal of making America Christian again. When I had lost my faith in God and I was an agnostic independent voter but having conservative values, the make American Christian Again mission would have been an extreme turnoff for me and I would have been more likely to unsubscribe from the conservative party altogether. Even still, as someone who believes in God, I think that make America Christian again, that should not be uh correlated and married with the conservative movement. But that's what TPUSA is currently offering young people. Um, and let's talk about it from a little bit of a psychological perspective, too. Social identity psychology shows that tightly binding ideology and religious identity can make disagreement feel like a moral failure rather than constructive debate. You can't argue against somebody's religious views. Everybody's entitled to their own religious beliefs. You can debate val conservative values versus liberal values. You can debate policy. You can debate uh political ideas, social movements, but you cannot debate someone's religious beliefs. Those are personal. To me, those are off the table. And by combining conservatism with Christianity into one singular vein, it's polarizing the conservative movement instead of strengthening it. Many young voters actually describe themselves as moderate or unaffiliated even while participating in civic life. And we've seen this throughout history when movements lean heavily on identity signaling. This inadvertently alienates the very people it's meant to engage, especially if those people interpret that politics are primarily explored through group belonging rather than shared ideas. And as a conservative, I do believe that we need movements that persuade, not just mobilize, that include, not just exclude. And right now, TPUSA is presenting to the world and to young people in particular the idea that if you want to be conservative, you must be Christian. A healthy conservative movement welcomes robust debate about means and ends, and that's how ideas grow. That's how societies flourish. The ironic part about TPUSA blending religion with politics is that if you research Charlie Kirk's early goals and beliefs for his organization, you will find that he rarely mentions faith or religion at all. If you watch older interviews of Charlie, for instance, he consistently mentions the founding principles of free markets and fiscal responsibility. He even says many times that TPUSA is bipartisan. I know that might be hard to believe. When I first watched these old interviews and heard that, I was like, whoa, it really changed. But I want you to hear it from Charlie in his own words. So, we're going to play a clip from his very first appearance on F Fox and Friends. Now, some of you may have seen this, but bear with me if you haven't. This is his first appearance on Fox and Friends >> TV and it was right here on Fox and Friends May 21st, 2012. >> When we graduate from high school this coming June, we're handed a diploma, but that's also an invoice for hundreds of thousands of dollars that my generation is going to have to pay off through interest, high taxes, and a stagnant economy. We here at SOS Liberty believe that if we do not change the conversation back to us, the kids that are going to have to inherit this debt, that our economy will be stagnant for years to come. And our website, we have really interesting things. We have uh videos, pictures trying to inspire the youth. SOS liberty.com that has a wide variety of youth from all across the country jumping onto our our cause. I'm having a trouble finding a summer job as is Mike in a lot of different regards. A lot of kids are feeling the effects of what we like to call, you know, with the Washington economy with a lot of debt uh plummeting small business with higher regulation and high taxes. We're just trying to reinstitute the founding principles, free market, fiscal responsibility. SOS Liberty is a nonpartisan. We don't consider this a Republican versus Democrat issue, but rather a generational one. >> So, you heard that yourself. He said it's a nonpartisan. And as you can hear, Charlie was not focused on converting people to a certain faith. He was not using his faith to bring people to his cause or he was not quoting the Bible to back his own beliefs and values. On the contrary, he was actually focused on economics, on the founding principles, on being bipartisan. And somewhere along the line, his organization really took a turn. There are plenty of people doing deep dives on that. So, I'm going to stick to my thesis today, which is whether or not TPUSA is undermining the conservative movement. Now, I talked about how TPUSA is blending and marrying Christianity and conservatism, which is effectively isolating a whole population of people who might be agnostic, might be a different faith, who might be uh faithless altogether. And we're going to talk about point two now, which is how TPSA is prioritizing outrage and virality over serious conservative ideas. This is most recently demonstrated through their biggest conference, America Fest. And I watched a bit of it, uh, as much as I could handle to watch because I was curious to see how this organization would would proceed without Charlie, whether it would still represent his legacy, his mission of free speech, conservative values and ideals, or whether it has taken a turn. Now, you can go watch my previous video about the top four cringey worst moments of that conference if you're curious to learn more about the conference. But we're going to talk now about how social media platforms reward content that triggers strong emotions. And that's how you kind of go viral on social media. Those strong emotions are usually anger, embarrassment, or fear. But it can also be other emotions. And that's just the reality of how these algo algorithms work. If you're able to get an emotional response from your viewer, then you're more likely to increase your viewership to spread your message faster. And political psychology research consistently shows that emotionally charged content spreads faster. Like I said, however, here's the problem. In my view, this same emotionally charged content also discourages nuance and critical thinking or tends to at least. And TPUSA has been relying on this outrage messaging since before Charlie's death. I will say that. And this outrage messaging trains people to react, not to reflect, not to investigate. This is a concern for me. If young conservatives are being shaped primarily through viral content instead of thoughtful arguments or reading primary sources like actual books. Imagine that. We shouldn't be surprised when the depth is lacking and when critical thinking falls by the wayside. I worry that a movement built on what goes viral will eventually lose sight of what is true in the first place. that the decisions will be made with the goal of virality instead of truth seeking or education. And I understand why they would like to grow their platforms and reach more and more young people. But you have to still be able to critically think. You have to still re rely on logic and reasoning and not emotion. That brings me to my third issue which is probably the most obvious issue that TPUSA is uh having performative politics and cultural culture war spectacle. How that is harming their organization's credibility. So let's go back a long time ago. Let's go back to when Charlie Kirk himself was 18 years old and he began TPUSA from the ground up. I want to play you this clip. I believe this is his very first media I believe this is his very first media appearance. Uh I think it's his local news station. And I want to show this to you because it's such a stark contrast to me of what TPUSA is promoting today. Let me know what you think of this clip. Which economic system would be most prosperous to create wealth for the middle, lower, and upper class for all people over the next hundred years? 28% said capitalism. 40% said socialism. The rest said they don't know the difference between socialism and capitalism. >> Which >> really >> which was really the more intelligent answer, >> right? And um >> well, yeah, at least yeah, I'd rather have them not know because there's opportunity for education. That's exactly what our group is doing is getting these kids understanding the morality of free markets, the immorality of excessive borrowing. >> So your group, what is specifically? What does that mean? You have a group. What is >> Turning Point USA is turned into a national movement. It was launched uh June 5th. We have over 20 to 25 national chapters and we have 30 to 50 uh student columnists from all over the country that contribute to our website. We give them a platform of empowerment. So they can write something, they can publish it, they can show their friends, their family. Now, do you ever do I mean do you have things right affiliated with the school because I know there are some um young folks out of the Will County area too that have a youth program and they reach out and they have meetings and they've really tried to they actually do you walk precincts and things like that? >> We do not we do not do specifically for any candidate at least this last election cycle and the reason is is we go at it in a nonpartisan point of view. No. >> How different is that from the recent America Fest where Erica Kirk in all her glittery gold outfit comes up to the stage and endorses J Vance for the Republican party's nomination for president. It's almost so black and white and so starkly different. It's hard to believe it's the same organization. So Charlie is obviously focused on fiscal policy here on economics. No talk of even any social issues. No talk of rel religion. Um he's bringing reason and logic to the table. He's not saying anything that's exploiting anyone's emotions for views. He's just talking about his organization. and he does seem very genuine to me like his beliefs are not. He he seems like just this young kid who who wants to inspire other young kids to care. >> We believe in fiscal uh responsibility, free markets, but instead of we we encourage uh civic participation, we encourage people to be interns. A majority of our uh people in our group are interns for Joe Walsh or Congressman Dol. We love that. But also we educate in meetings and debates. >> What topics are you mainly interested there? Mhm. >> What what topics are you >> the debt and the deficit? We think it's extremely relevant to our generation. We're going to have to pay it off and it's immoral. >> Do you relate that to socialism and the market? >> We we think that it's immoral and we do call it socialistic behavior. Absolutely. And we also focus on education. We think that every student should have a su a chance to learn and we think that teachers are not being held accountable. >> Okay, there you have it from Charlie's own words. His focus is on the deficit, on debt, and education. He's very focused on economics. And if you watch his la one of his last interviews, maybe I'll include a clip here with uh Tucker Carlson. Tucker Carlson asks him at a point in the interview, what is the most pressing issue for young people today? And Charlie says, economics, affordability, being able to survive in this country right now. the way it is economically. So from the start to the very end, his number one focus, you could argue, was still economics, although all this other crap definitely got in the way. Definitely infiltrated his original ideas and mission for his organization. Now, however, TPUSA is sinking millions of dollars into making the biggest spectacles and concertlike events, pyrochnics, famous guest appearances, [clears throat] Nicki Minaj, and they're focused on the wrong issues. I believe now social and polit and cultural issues, they absolutely matter. I have my own opinions on those, which I'm not going to be focusing on. But what is more important is the day-to-day survival for young people, economics, and by focusing so heavily on social and cultural issues like for instance transgenderism, they are really not doing the young people a ser a good service which Charlie himself said again that their main complaint was being able to afford the cost of living in this country. >> [snorts] >> We even see on the turning point stage well-known political pundits like Ben Shapiro calling for the cancellation of other conservatives attending that same TPSA event. I have a whole breakdown of Ben's speech at the TPUSA AMFest. You can go watch that. But I will say it was really disgusting to see him call for the the cancellation of his Pierce on the stage as the first speaker at that convention. Not to mention that Charlie did not like Ben and that Ben was jealous of Charlie and that Ben was very rude to Charlie and that when Charlie himself announced the conference earlier in the summer, Ben was not even on the list of speakers. So to have him be the first speaker and to call for the uh the denouncing of people like Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson and actually saying that if you're a that if you do not denounce them, you are a coward. That was really troubling to watch because Charlie always promoted the the difference of ideas, free speech, being able to debate civily and rationally and respect difference of opinion. To wrap up my third point though, I will say that complex policy questions like healthcare, education, and economics or the role of the government for instance, those are questions are hard. They require substance and they don't fit neatly into the 30 or second 60-second clips that will go viral for this organization. And because spectacle is easier to market than policy, organizations like Turning Point USA that are built around viral engagement might eventually drift away from governing questions, which is quite frankly what I've been observing. And when conservative activi activism is dominated by performative politics, drawing in the young people through a spectacle, through like a Christian concert instead of true debate about real issues that matter, when they use conflicts and social trending issues, instead of solutions, audiences began to associate conservatism with mockery and confrontation. It's not good for true conservative values. Let's talk about credibility. Credibility is built when people believe that you understand an issue very deeply. Even if they disagree with you, you can be credible in someone's eyes even if they disagree with you. When does credibility erode? Well, credibility erodess when politics begin to look like entertainment. When instead of encouraging critical thinking and debate, which is what Charlie Kirk clearly stood for, when his own organization hosts speakers who are calling their peers cowards for failing to renounce a list of other conservatives they disagree with. And I want to play this clip for you because I think that it does a good job of explaining what I've been seeing. Let's listen. >> I don't know. what stage of grieving this is, but this is the WWE stage. I think it comes right before [laughter] it come first. It goes Yeah. Look at this. So, this is supposed to be a Christian organization of conservatives and um that's what they do now. So, they got to go more spectacle. And um Tim Dylan actually had a pretty good commentary on So, if you've been watching our coverage or anybody's coverage of TPUSA's America Fest, it was a, pardon my French, it was a show from start to finish. Completely the opposite of what uh Charlie Kirk had made it out to be. Charlie Kirk had built that up from the grassroots. And then Erica Kirk supposed to be grieving, but you see how it looks when she's grieving and she's turning and she's running around saying Shabbat shalom. She's pitching a book all about the Sabbath. And uh they're all talking about Israel first. So it's obvious what's happening here. And they're and so they have no real good there. The heart of the organization has been taken away and they're ruerless. They have no leadership except their Zionist Jewish donor handlers. But here's what Tim Dylan has to say and here's I think he nails it. Let's listen. >> This turning point kind of abomination uh that the the the right wing of this country has turned into like a bad reality show. Uh and it's all of the fault of of everyone by the way. It's the fault of everyone speaking and everyone attending and every there's nobody that gets [laughter] everything about this is weird and uncomfortable for everyone. And I obviously I'm not saying she killed her husband or knew about it or whatever. I'm saying the guy got shot three months ago and she walks out to a pyrochnic display and then she goes, "We're going to elect JD Vance." It's weird that that's where her head is at. It's difficult for many people to relate to. It's not relatable for people that talked about how Hollywood isn't relatable and [laughter] Hollywood is out of touch. This looks a lot like Hollywood to most people. and to go out uh through a stream of fireworks and sparklers and stand there in a glittering pants suit and talk about electing JD Vance 3 months after your husband was killed. Many people feel that there is something off about that. And we're starting to see that political people are the exact same thing as the Hollywood elites that they all love to dunk on. >> Yes, that is my third point. If conservatives want to persuade moderates, independents, or young and undecided voters, if they want to persuade anyone, they cannot rely on what TPUSA is currently offering. Movements that prioritize spectacles and use spectacles over substance are going to struggle to earn credibility and trust with anyone outside of their base, of their I was going to say of their manipulated base, but of their base. And this is coming from someone who's a conservative. I believe in God. I believe in conservative values. And I renounce whatever TPUSA is is currently offering. Even worse, by the way, with the current way the turning point is operating, I also fear that they are losing some of their base, too. They have to be. I I believe they are. They're losing some of their base. Let's finish this video, though. And we all look at this. This is Megan the Stallion twerking at the Camala rally. This is deeply unsettling to a lot of people. It feels like you're being played. You feel it. It seems off. You feel like this is a coordinated and choreographed spectacle so that you are played. They want your money. >> Exactly. You can feel the manipulation. You can feel that they want something from you, that they're trying to control the narrative. And I will briefly mention how they brought in the other video I did the four worst moments from Amfest. I talked about the recreation. I called it the recreation of Charlie's uh tent that he was under when he was uh assassinated. I didn't know when I made that video that it was not a recreation. It was not. It was actually the exact tent that he was murdered under and they brought it to the conference. Now, they brought it to the conference. They had the the actual tent there that he died under. And people were taking selfies under there. People were taking videos under there, smiling under there. And here's the sick part, too, that I learned. They actually were selling those white t-shirts that said freedom. The same t-shirt Charlie was wearing when he was assassinated. They were selling those t-shirts right next to the actual uh I keep going like this. the actual tent that he was killed underneath. And so pe people who were there actually reported on this that people would buy crowds would buy these t-shirts, put them on, and take photos underneath the exact tent that he was murdered under. That's ghoulish. That's darker than dark. That's so macabra. That is just disgusting. I will not support an organization that has the gall to make a spectacle out of a man's death, out of his final moments. And how on earth would his widow allow for that? How would that not trigger her into oblivion? It's been three months. So, [sighs and gasps] while Turning Point doesn't represent the entire conservative movement, I do realize that, by the way, as a conservative who does not support Turning Point to USA. I I want to make it clear that they do not represent the entire conservative movement. There are people out there, I believe actually more and more people by the day, who consider themselves conservative and who do not subscribe to this organization and what they stand for and what they're promoting. I, for example, am here criticizing this organization right now and I still believe in God and I still hold conservative values. Yet, two things are unfortunately true and this is really why I'm making this video. Number one, TPUSA is a massive conservative or conservative organization. It has over 850 chapters and whether or not you like it, it TPUSA does currently have sway over public opinion and sway over the beliefs of many young people. Secondly, TPUSA has aligned themselves with the current administration with Donald Trump with JD Vance and the rest of the current Republican party in power that is also aligning themselves with conservatism. These two facts, especially on the surface, give many people the perception, again, whether or not you like it, that TPUSA is the conservative movement. I'm worried that people who are liberal or people on the left see TPUSA and think that all conservatives subscribe to that, that all conservatives are like that. And it's not true. By the way, I think this is what TPUSA actually wants for people to view them as the conservative movement. I refuse to do that. They are not the conservative movement. Not in my eyes. And for those of us who do not appreciate this organization anymore, especially in the wake of Charlie's assassination, this is a scary thought. And that's kind of why I wanted to make this video to let people know that there are conservatives out there. There are people who hold traditional conservative values that Charlie did at the beginning of his organization's start who are rejecting this performative fake manipulative spectacle that they are offering focused on viral social issues instead of stuff that matters like economics. And perhaps the most frightening part is this. A movement, a movement that can't move beyond spectacle will absolutely struggle when it's their time to govern. Now, there's one last video I wanted to show you. This is coming from Tik Tok, and I think it's important to show a variety of different opinions, a variety of different sources when I'm presenting these issues. And I have to say that I agree with her on this a lot and she's coming from a way different perspective than me, a more liberal perspective. And let me know what you guys think about this clip in particular. Arley Kirk built a mega church and he called it a student organization. Turning point USA is the most insane new mega church of the 2020s. And after spending four days at Kirkella, you cannot convince me otherwise. Charlie Kirk transformed from libertarian bro to prosperity gospel preacher in four years flat. We watched it happen in real time. He met one megaurch pastor who told him mixing Jesus with politics suddenly meant more power, less taxes. And suddenly Turning Point USA had 30 pastors on staff. monthly events at Dream City Church and was recruiting kids on over 2,000 campuses with Democrats are demonic messaging. And then after his assassination, they were selling merch of what he wore when he died and his widow is now running the show and we all just kind of went with it. In 2018, Kirk said separation of church and state was important. And then in 2022, Kirk called it a fabrication by secular humanists. Okay. And everyone kind of went with this like this is fine. Your king, Charlie Kirk, had 30 pastors on payroll. Please spare me the free markets BS. And let's get right into it because this is wild. So, six years ago, six years, Charlie Kirk was out there telling Dave Rubin that we need separation of church and state and that Christians trying to impose their morality through government policy was, and I quote, turning people off. I wanted to include that part. Now, I said it at the beginning and I will say it again. If you are a Christian, if you're someone who believes in God like me, I think it's important to have your faith inform your political beliefs, it's something else entirely to enforce those beliefs on other people. Charlie recognized that, and I showed you the clip earlier where he was adamant that his organization was nonpartisan. I do think she's going in a little hard at Charlie himself. Uh, I don't like the reference of the organization's event being called Kirk Chella. Then again, it does look like a mega church to me. So, there is some truth to this girl statement in my opinion. I do think she's being rather harsh, though. And he said, "Jesus was welcoming and tolerant and he was basically your standard libertarian bro." So he happened to go to church sometimes, but it wasn't his like whole brand or identity. Fast forward to 2022 and suddenly separation of church and state is a fabrication and made up by secular humanists. Like sir, what happened? Did someone slip something in your protein protein shake? What happened was he met mega church pastor Rob McCoy in 2019 and McCoy whispered the magic words in his ear, "You can have so much more power if you make this all about Jesus." And Kirk was like, "Oh you're right." And like from a tax perspective, so I you can't deny the the tax perspective if you're a church. However, I am more apt to think that Charlie might have been manipulated. Yes, I don't want to assign him any deceitful uh or malicious motives, though, cuz he's not here to defend himself. I will say that I stand by my three points that number one, I believe that a healthy conservative movement allows for different religious views. We should not be focused as conservatives on converting people to a certain faith. My second point, just to wrap up and and summarize, the conservative movement is failing in TPUSA's work because they're prioritizing outrage and virality over serious conservative ideas. Again, I stand by that. And lastly, I stand by my third point that TPUSA has become a performance, a political performance. I will add a mega church and they are promoting a culture war. They want the spectacle to bring in young people. They want to use the spectacle to prop themselves up. And this is harming their credibility. This is pushing people away. People see through it. People feel manipulated. People feel that something is off. In conclusion, short-term attention can feel like success. But I think that TPUSA is forgetting something crucial. Attention is not the same as persuasion. And attention is not going to be bring people's hearts and minds into your movement. It's not going to change people's beliefs. Conservatism also does not need louder voices, does not need more fireworks, does not need a more money on the stage. The conservative movement in order to endure needs to be serious again. Serious about our founding principles and ideas like Charlie was at the start. Economics, fiscal responsibility, limited government, debt, the deficit, education, serious about governing, and serious about forming people who can persuade and who can lead. Well, please let me know what you think about this video. I made this video initially because in my critique video of Amfest, I asked people in the comments, is anyone else concerned for the future of the Conservative party? And it got like over 200 likes. And so I I know there are people out there who might feel the similar way. You might agree with one or two of my points. You might agree with none of my points. But I'm curious to hear from you in the comments. Do you agree with me? Are you concerned for the Conservative Party? And as always, if you found this helpful or insightful, please give it a thumbs up, like the video, share the video, uh, leave a comment. It helps tell the algorithm that this matters. As always, thank you for watching. I'll see you in the next one. [music]
