Victor Davis Hanson Reflects on Charlie Kirk's Legacy and Impact on American Youth Politics

[00:00] I think we all want to put the passing

[00:03] of Charlie Kirk in perspective and it's

[00:05] been a terrible week. What do we to make

[00:07] sense of this terrible incident? One

[00:09] thing is to remember what Charlie Kirk

[00:11] did. He didn't go to the campuses and

[00:13] say this is the conservative agenda and

[00:16] I want you to vote along this ticket.

[00:18] And he said the universities are

[00:20] training generation after generation

[00:22] after generation in this seriously

[00:25] dangerous leftist dogma. Where did these

[00:27] things come from? and he said they came

[00:29] from the campus and therefore I'm going

[00:31] to the campus and trying to stop this

[00:33] indoctrination by offering a different

[00:35] pathway. He was trying to address the

[00:38] cultural the economic the social

[00:40] maladays of this country that express

[00:42] themselves in politics and he thought if

[00:44] he took care of that then he would be

[00:47] successful out elsewhere.

[00:49] [Music]

[01:01] Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for

[01:03] the Daily Signal. I think we all want to

[01:06] put the passing of Charlie Kirk in

[01:10] perspective and it's been a terrible

[01:12] week and what do we to make sense of

[01:14] this terrible incident? One thing is to

[01:17] remember what Charlie Kirk did. He was a

[01:19] political organizer. He was a media

[01:21] figure, but he was not trying to

[01:23] persuade people on the basis solely of

[01:25] politics. He didn't go to the campuses

[01:28] and say this is the conservative agenda.

[01:32] This is the big beautiful bill. This is

[01:34] uh the immigration and I want you to

[01:37] vote along this ticket. That's what a a

[01:40] traditional politician does. He wasn't.

[01:42] What he was trying to do was uh address

[01:45] root causes that make people vote in a

[01:49] particular way. So he was saying to the

[01:51] Republican party, we've got to address

[01:54] this existential crisis of young people,

[01:57] that was his forte, on campuses and off

[01:59] campuses that can't afford to buy a car,

[02:02] that can't afford to buy a home, that

[02:06] can't afford right away to have

[02:07] children. And that has enormous uh

[02:11] consequences not just for the Republican

[02:13] party, this alienation of the youth and

[02:16] its flirtation with socialisms and its

[02:19] false answers to these real problems,

[02:21] but more importantly uh it's creating a

[02:25] social cultural pro uh problem called

[02:27] prolonged adolescence. People are not

[02:29] getting married at the age they used to.

[02:32] They're not having as many children or

[02:34] as early in their lives as they used to.

[02:37] They're not buying homes in their late

[02:40] 20s or early 30s. They're going to

[02:42] school not for four years, but for six

[02:44] or eight years. They're not going and

[02:47] graduating after four years and getting

[02:49] a good job. They're graduating at six,

[02:51] eight years with the quarter million

[02:53] dollars in some cases in student loans.

[02:56] So he was trying to address the

[02:58] cultural, the economic, the social

[03:01] malades of this country that express

[03:03] themselves in politics and he thought if

[03:05] he took care of that then he would be

[03:08] successful out elsewhere and so he was.

[03:12] So if you look at 2020, why Donald Trump

[03:15] lost, one of the reasons was that the

[03:18] youth vote that traditionally goes to

[03:20] Democrats really went to Democrats, Joe

[03:22] Biden in 2020, that key demographic of

[03:27] 19 to 40 year olds. However, in 2024,

[03:31] Donald Trump made amazing

[03:34] uh rebounds. He got nationwide 6 to

[03:37] eight about 8% higher of that youth vote

[03:40] than he did in 2020. But more

[03:43] importantly in the key swing states that

[03:46] would be places like Michigan, like

[03:49] Wisconsin, like North Carolina, like

[03:51] Arizona and Georgia. In some cases, he

[03:53] got up to 18 to 19%

[03:56] flipping greater margin in 2024 than he

[04:00] did 2020. And that ensured him an

[04:02] electoral college. And that was largely

[04:04] not exclusively due to Charlie Kirk's

[04:08] efforts at addressing the the real

[04:11] issues that young people were worried

[04:13] about. There's a couple of other things

[04:15] about him that were unusual. He was the

[04:17] most successful political activist under

[04:20] 40 of either party or liberal, Democrat

[04:22] or Republican, liberal or conservative.

[04:24] And one of the reasons is it's very hard

[04:28] for uh someone coming out of college to

[04:32] be a political organizer, a political

[04:34] activist to create a business-like

[04:37] organization. Although it was a 503 um a

[04:41] 503c3.

[04:43] It was nonprofit, but it was huge with a

[04:45] $100 million budget. He was a writer. He

[04:48] was a podcaster. Part of that was

[04:50] because he did not go in the traditional

[04:53] academic pathway. He dropped out of

[04:55] college at 18 and he had to live by his

[04:58] wits. Not in the artificial bubble of

[05:00] academia or the la land of the campus

[05:03] where there are no consequences to

[05:05] behavior but he had to earn a living and

[05:07] he had to form an organization and he

[05:09] had to appeal people. So pragmatism was

[05:12] his was his benchmark and so he learned

[05:15] to speak to people in a practical way.

[05:18] He learned to write to with people in a

[05:20] pragmatic way. He learned to organize

[05:23] and galvanize people in a practical way.

[05:26] And he said the universities are

[05:28] training generation after generation

[05:30] after generation in this seriously

[05:34] dangerous leftist dogma. In other words,

[05:36] if you're worried about this

[05:39] bizarre transgendered movement, this

[05:41] cultlike u effort to have biological men

[05:45] compete in women's sports, to take one

[05:47] example, or you're worried about the

[05:49] idea that you can steal $950 and not be

[05:53] prosecuted, or if you think that race is

[05:55] essential and not incidental to who you,

[05:58] where did these things come from? and he

[06:00] said they came from the campus and

[06:02] therefore I'm going to the campus and

[06:04] trying to stop this indoctrination by

[06:06] offering a different pathway. You put it

[06:08] all together and if people want to

[06:10] remember Charles Kirk's uh legacy, I

[06:14] think the best thing they could do is is

[06:16] register. According to your station, get

[06:18] as many people as you can to register to

[06:20] vote and try to upset the historical

[06:24] laws that says a president will lose and

[06:26] lose badly in his first midterm. If that

[06:29] should happen, Donald Trump will have an

[06:32] agenda that will seek that will be

[06:34] derailed and he will not be able to

[06:36] fulfill the promises that he made and

[06:39] the the Democratic House and its lunatic

[06:41] fashion will try to impeach you. But if

[06:44] you do go out and register and you show

[06:45] the same energy and creativity that

[06:48] Charlie Kirk did, then you can pull off

[06:50] a historical upset and defeat the out

[06:53] party and ensure a large Republican

[06:56] majority for both in both the House and

[06:58] the Senate and that will uh force

[07:01] multiply the Trump agenda. Thank you

[07:03] very much. This is Victor Davis Hansen

[07:05] for the Daily Signal.

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