The Charlie Kirk Show - America Fest 2022’s Opening Speech
Aired: 2022-12-30
Duration: 26:39


=== America Fest Opening Speech (02:09) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody, today in the Charlie Kirk show, my opening speech at America Fest.
[00:00:04]  Make sure you get involved with Turning PointUSA today at tpusa.com.
[00:00:09]  I encourage you to start a high school chapter or a college chapter today.
[00:00:13]  Support our program at charliekirk.com slash support.
[00:00:18]  That is charliekirk.com slash support.
[00:00:22]  It goes to help our program at the end of the year to hire more staff and put on a better show for you.
[00:00:28]  If this show has meant something to you over the last year, if we have made you think, made you dive deeper into the things that are beautiful and matter, then please consider supporting us.
[00:00:37]  No pressure.
[00:00:38]  CharlieKirk.com slash support.
[00:00:42]  Buckle up, everybody.
[00:00:43]  Here we go.
[00:00:44]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:00:46]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campuses.
[00:00:48]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:00:51]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:00:55]  I want to thank Charlie.
[00:00:56]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:00:57]  His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
[00:01:05]  We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
[00:01:14]  That's why we are here.
[00:01:17]  Brought to you by Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage.
[00:01:20]  For personalized loan services, you can count on.
[00:01:22]  Go to andrewandtodd.com, the wonderfulandrewandtodd.com.
[00:01:29]  Great to see all of you.
[00:01:32]  I just want to compliment our Turning Point staff for the promotion, the marketing, the branding of this world-class event.
[00:01:40]  I mean, this is just extraordinary, isn't it?
[00:01:43]  And one of my favorite takeaways from today is to show that in Maricopa County, you can get people through lines effectively and print badges and right Maricopa County.
[00:02:01]  If you want to learn how to get 10,000 people through a line and print something with almost no problems, come to a Turning Point USA event.

=== Vision for the Conservative Movement (02:21) ===

[00:02:09]  That's all I got to say.
[00:02:12]  Too soon is what they're saying.
[00:02:14]  And they say it helps with healing.
[00:02:18]  Honored to be here, everybody.
[00:02:20]  And thank you guys for taking your valuable time to be here and to get recharged, re-energized, and to think deeply in the next couple of days of why we fight and why we sacrifice so much of our money and our energy and our time.
[00:02:40]  You see, we're in a very important time in our nation's history.
[00:02:44]  And we as a movement, as a conservative movement, need a vision.
[00:02:48]  Without a vision, the people perish, is what it says in the scriptures.
[00:02:52]  And I had the opportunity to travel the country and talk to lots of different people.
[00:02:57]  And we have been lacking a coherent vision of what we as conservatives believe in and what we are fighting for.
[00:03:04]  Now, we know what the bad guys are fighting for.
[00:03:08]  And a movement with no vision, we're nothing more than just a gang, just a random group of people with kind of shared ideas and shared values.
[00:03:16]  But a vision, something that we are aiming for, something as a movement that we strive for, that we work for, all of a sudden will make everything make sense again.
[00:03:26]  You see, there's so many people here that are taking the bold and courageous step to homeschool your kids.
[00:03:32]  We're our homeschool mothers and fathers here that have said in the last couple of years or in the last year, I'm going to go run for school board.
[00:03:40]  There's plenty of people here that have run for school board, people that have run for office.
[00:03:44]  Who here knocked on doors this midterm cycle for candidates?
[00:03:47]  You see, this room is the room that always goes the extra mile.
[00:03:55]  But one of the things we have to take a step back and say, well, what exactly are we fighting for?
[00:03:59]  What does success look like as a vision and as a movement?
[00:04:02]  So, the vision of our opponents and the Marxist totalitarian left is filled with venom, hatred, darkness, resentment, arrogance, and despair.
[00:04:15]  We can go at length, and you're going to hear about it from our amazing speakers about how the totalitarian left has taken over our institutions, how they're teaching our children this vile garbage of critical race theory and this woke nonsense.

=== Fighting Ideological Minority Zones (03:06) ===

[00:04:30]  We know what they want.
[00:04:31]  They want power, they want control, they want uniformity, and they want submission.
[00:04:38]  Now, this is not some sort of abstract concept.
[00:04:41]  One of the reasons why I believe that Turning Point USA is the most important organization in America is because we go to places where there are not a lot of conservatives.
[00:04:51]  At Turning Point USA, we play offense with a sense of urgency to go to places that we are in the ideological and philosophical minority.
[00:04:58]  And guess what?
[00:04:59]  We're not always welcomed when we go to these college campuses, but we are going to win when we go to places that we are not always welcomed and we go there anyway.
[00:05:08]  And our Turning Point USA students and chapters are doing that every single day.
[00:05:13]  And so, recently, you probably saw my visit at the University of New Mexico, my mostly peaceful visit to the University of New Mexico, where they did bring out the welcoming committee of the riot squad.
[00:05:25]  And these terrorists were there at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, so bothered that our amazing Turning Point students wanted to have an event about free speech, the Constitution, and conservative ideas.
[00:05:38]  Enjoy this short clip of what we just experienced.
[00:05:51]  What do you think about the cops?
[00:06:06]  What do you think about the cops?
[00:06:07]  Cops?
[00:06:08]  You know what I say?
[00:06:09]  Americans?
[00:06:10]  Americans.
[00:06:11]  Especially the cops.
[00:06:14]  Yeah, really pleasant and joyful people.
[00:06:16]  They're a movement of happiness and uplifting positivity.
[00:06:19]  But we did not allow these terrorists that try to prevent our students to be able to go to the event, that did everything to cancel it, to win.
[00:06:28]  We made a point at Turning Point USA to continue the event, saying we don't care the cost, we don't care what it's going to take.
[00:06:34]  And we also said, hey, if you're going to act like a domestic terrorist on a college campus, then we are going to mock you relentlessly.
[00:06:42]  Enjoy this.
[00:06:44]  At how peaceful they are.
[00:06:46]  Because we want peace.
[00:06:51]  We're about solidarity and bringing peace here.
[00:06:56]  But we're here to show them that love.
[00:07:07]  This is why we're going to win.
[00:07:09]  I mean, there is no way these people long-term are going to win.
[00:07:12]  And it's going to require courage and boldness to go to places where, even though they deploy their paid activists, we're going to keep on showing up.
[00:07:20]  In fact, I think we have our turning point leaders from the University of New Mexico here somewhere.
[00:07:25]  And those are the real heroes that have to go to class every single day, that are spit on, that are called names, and they continue to fight.

=== Courage to Change America (15:01) ===

[00:07:37]  So, what is our vision as conservatives?
[00:07:40]  We know their vision is one of despair and confusion, the destroying of distinctions.
[00:07:47]  One of the things the totalitarian left wants to do for our society is to destroy the distinction between God and man, between man and woman, between good and evil.
[00:07:59]  They want to blur the lines that allow us to live in a free and stable and civil society.
[00:08:05]  Because you know what?
[00:08:06]  They get a lot more powerful that way.
[00:08:07]  But our vision needs to be clear and bold.
[00:08:10]  How about this?
[00:08:11]  We want a country where our kids love America again.
[00:08:17]  We want a country where kids are taught about Jefferson and Madison and Jay.
[00:08:22]  A country where they're taught about Abraham Lincoln and the beauty of the Declaration and the Constitution and the Federalist Papers.
[00:08:28]  We want a country where kids are taught that if you judge somebody on the basis of skin, you are a racist and we should instead care about character, not the complexion of somebody's skin.
[00:08:44]  Our vision for America, it's hard to believe I even have to say this, is we want a country where kids can be kids again.
[00:08:52]  We want a country where kids are safe from groomer teachers and predators who are trying to put prescriptive pharmaceuticals into their bodies that will do irreversible damage.
[00:09:06]  We want kids to be kids again in America.
[00:09:13]  We want to live in a country where puberty is not treated like some sort of illness that needs irreversible medical surgery.
[00:09:22]  We want to live in a country where the innocence of children is preserved and protected.
[00:09:28]  We want to live in a country where we don't have to have the debate, have to have some sort of, we don't have a debate, there is no debate about pedophilia, period, end of story.
[00:09:35]  We want to live in a country where that's a non-negotiable.
[00:09:41]  Our vision is that we want to value wisdom, eternal principles, prudence, common sense, more than someone who has a PhD in North African lesbian poetry.
[00:09:59]  I believe there is more wisdom in the American plumbing community than at Harvard or Yale.
[00:10:11]  This one hits home.
[00:10:13]  We want to live in a country and build a country and rebuild the country where it's easy to be a parent, where it's easy to get married and have children.
[00:10:23]  If we as conservatives stand for anything, it should be to tell our young people that one of the most beautiful things you can do is to get married and have kids.
[00:10:37]  And right now, that is increasingly difficult in this confusing, chaotic time.
[00:10:45]  Young people say, well, it's just too expensive to get married and have children.
[00:10:48]  It's just too difficult.
[00:10:49]  Or I don't want to participate in the patriarchy.
[00:10:53]  What a robbery of joy.
[00:10:56]  I could say this now personally.
[00:10:57]  We welcomed the daughter into the world back in August.
[00:11:00]  Praise God.
[00:11:02]  To think that children, young people, are growing up and being told that there's something oppressive or tyrannical about the covenant between a man and a woman and having children.
[00:11:13]  Hey, we as conservatives, if there's anything that we stand for, it is to be fruitful and to multiply.
[00:11:20]  And if you look at what the left is trying to do, less children because human are a stain on the environment.
[00:11:28]  You look at every one of the things they're trying to teach, like, oh, you don't need kids.
[00:11:30]  You could be happy with, you know, video games and some sort of promotion at your corporate job.
[00:11:36]  Maybe that is for you.
[00:11:37]  But one of the reasons why our generation, it's very sad, is the most depressed, suicidal, alcohol-addicted, and drug-addicted generation in history.
[00:11:47]  Is the stuff that gives you meaning they have been told is evil.
[00:11:52]  And if there is anything our movement does, it is to tell the young people in this room and across the country, it's okay to get married and have children.
[00:12:00]  In fact, you should get married and have children.
[00:12:06]  Now, I want to take a step back and brag on the phenomenal, unprecedented, and spectacular work that Turning Point USA is doing.
[00:12:18]  Many of you know some of the work we do on college campuses, as we saw there.
[00:12:23]  In fact, I have one more video to show, which goes to show, again, one of the things, you just have to mock the left, okay?
[00:12:29]  These people make it so easy.
[00:12:30]  Joe Bob, who's one of our best, most talented contributors, he's amazing.
[00:12:34]  He goes to these college campuses and he just gets these people to open up.
[00:12:38]  This is one of my favorite, and it's at University of Texas, Austin.
[00:12:42]  I'll give you three guesses how you know his political affiliation as soon as you see a video of him.
[00:12:48]  They're only there to make money.
[00:12:49]  I mean, that's their long-term profit maker.
[00:12:52]  It's content.
[00:12:53]  So don't give them the content.
[00:12:54]  Just make fun of them.
[00:12:56]  Ruin their content.
[00:12:57]  Don't engage with it.
[00:12:58]  Come here to our campuses.
[00:13:00]  You're making a out of us with your cleverness.
[00:13:03]  It's honestly pathetic.
[00:13:05]  You think this is a real job?
[00:13:06]  I mean, we're out here getting real jobs and you're bothering us day to day.
[00:13:13]  Yeah, I mean, for real.
[00:13:14]  Like, that's the best thing you can do because you're not going to beat them in a debate.
[00:13:18]  I sure as hell can't.
[00:13:20]  You know?
[00:13:21]  Like, it's their job.
[00:13:22]  Don't talk to them.
[00:13:23]  It's not worth it.
[00:13:24]  Make fun of them.
[00:13:25]  When they show up, make fun of them.
[00:13:26]  Don't talk to them.
[00:13:27]  Make fun of them.
[00:13:28]  They're only here to create content.
[00:13:31]  Can't win and debate.
[00:13:33]  The work we do on college and high school campuses is moving the dial, but I don't think everyone understands the depth or the sophistication of what we've been able to accomplish at Turning Point USA.
[00:13:43]  First, from a big picture perspective, from a worldview perspective.
[00:13:47]  In the last five years, according to Morning Consult, in 2017, when Turning Point was just getting started, when our annual event was like the size of that seating section over there, 47% of our nation's young people self-identified with a liberal worldview.
[00:14:04]  47%.
[00:14:06]  Five years later, today, 34% of our nation's young people, a 13-point collapse.
[00:14:13]  13 points.
[00:14:16]  Now, full disclosure, more young people still identify as liberal as conservative.
[00:14:21]  Conservative increased by one point.
[00:14:23]  But look what we're up against.
[00:14:25]  The education system, digital social media.
[00:14:27]  But what we are seeing is movement in the right direction.
[00:14:30]  And it's not happening by itself.
[00:14:32]  At Turning Point USA, we are on pace to hit 1,000 high school chapters across the country, high school chapters all across the country.
[00:14:40]  And if you are a high school student out there and you are not yet involved, you have got to go to our booth in the exhibit hall and start a high school chapter.
[00:14:48]  We just launched a year and a half ago TPUSA Faith, which is an incredible, I see some of our pastors here all across the country.
[00:14:58]  We hosted an amazing pastor summit, over 400 pastors and wives at our pastor summit.
[00:15:05]  And if you ask me, one of the most important things that needs to happen in American Christianity is we need to excommunicate the demonic, anti-biblical idea of wokeism out of the American church immediately.
[00:15:26]  The chapters that we're starting on college and high school campuses, it's not just a matter of having a group on campus, but we are creating students that are having to persevere and endure criticism, backlash, slander, smear, opposition.
[00:15:42]  One of the reasons why I believe we are going to win is because our young people are tougher than the liberals.
[00:15:51]  Our opposition is fragile.
[00:15:55]  Our opposition can't hear a speaker without trying to deploy the shock troops.
[00:16:00]  Our opposition has not had to contend or fight for their beliefs.
[00:16:04]  You go talk to some of our amazing students at Turning Point USA here, what they have to go through.
[00:16:09]  And yes, we could say, oh, yeah, feel sorry for us, the persecution, the graded differently, getting kicked out of class, all of that.
[00:16:15]  But guess what?
[00:16:16]  You are seeing a conservative movement that is growing stronger the more they fight.
[00:16:21]  What gives me hope is that what we see on these campuses is a generation that understands the only way you beat the left is you never give up and you never give them an inch, period.
[00:16:34]  It doesn't matter what they call you.
[00:16:36]  It doesn't matter the names.
[00:16:37]  It doesn't matter the smear.
[00:16:38]  It doesn't matter the slander at all.
[00:16:40]  The media department at Turning Point USA reaching hundreds of millions of people at daily shows with Jack Posobiec, Drew Hernandez, Alex Clark, millions of people on Instagram and Facebook every single day, impacting culture, making persuasive content.
[00:16:56]  Not to mention the newly launched Turning Point Academy, which we're actually having the Educator Summit right now.
[00:17:03]  And if any of you want to homeschool your kids, or if you want to get your kids at a government school, you should do that yesterday and talk to us at Turning Point Academy how we can supply curriculum, training, and have you execute a rescue mission for your kid or grandkid out of the government schools and at a Turning Point Academy and say, well, Charlie, you know, what do you stand for at Turning Point Academy?
[00:17:25]  Super simple.
[00:17:26]  We believe there is a God and you are not him.
[00:17:28]  We believe in the natural law.
[00:17:31]  No CRT, no wokeism, no queer theory, no LGBTQ nonsense, no postmodernism, no post-structuralism, pro-American, pro-freedom, pro-liberty ideas and curriculum for the next generation.
[00:17:45]  Unapologetically educating the next generation around truth.
[00:17:56]  Now, I got to really brag on our team here because what you are seeing from the beauty of the stage here to the entire experience is being pulled off mainly by people in their late 20s.
[00:18:10]  This is an amazing thing.
[00:18:11]  I got to be very honest with you.
[00:18:14]  There's a lot to be critical of, the younger generation.
[00:18:18]  I get it.
[00:18:18]  But it's getting a little tired when I have to hear that, oh, you know, young people are just miserably liberal and lazy and hopeless.
[00:18:27]  Some are.
[00:18:28]  But I want you to look around these next couple of days.
[00:18:31]  Introduce yourself to a Turning Point student.
[00:18:34]  Go up to one of our booths.
[00:18:35]  You will see some of the wisest, most courageous, most well-educated, the most committed citizens that you could come of any age whatsoever.
[00:18:47]  You say, Charlie, I'm looking for hope.
[00:18:49]  I'm looking for optimism.
[00:18:51]  Look around you.
[00:18:53]  Look at what's been pulled off from the thousands of high school chapters, thousands, you know, thousand high school chapters, the hundreds of college chapters that we have, from the media enterprise that we have, the Turning Point Academy, all these different things.
[00:19:04]  It is mostly and mainly led by a younger generation that knows that we do not have the luxury to give up.
[00:19:13]  That this is being led against the totalitarian Marxist left.
[00:19:18]  And so this is really the question in front of us the next couple of days.
[00:19:21]  It is the challenge of our generation.
[00:19:23]  The challenge of our generation in front of us is which direction do we want to go?
[00:19:28]  The direction of a free society, a direction where we are never going to mandate a vaccine again and someone will lose their job.
[00:19:35]  Are we going to do that?
[00:19:40]  Are we going to go in the direction that reasserts the principles of the independent judiciary and consent to the governed and separation of powers?
[00:19:49]  and the greatest political document ever written in the U.S. Constitution.
[00:19:53]  Or are we going to go in this other direction?
[00:19:55]  Here's what I do know, is that there's a fair amount of people that are disappointed and upset because of things that have happened in the last couple months.
[00:20:04]  And that's understandable.
[00:20:06]  But the test of this generation, the test of all of us, the test of our country that is unfolding in front of us, I truly believe is, are we going to give up against an opposition that is so entrenched, doing so much damage?
[00:20:25]  And I'm going to read an email I received.
[00:20:27]  And we get lots of emails on the Charlie Kirk Show.
[00:20:29]  Thank you, by the way, all of you that watch our program.
[00:20:31]  It really blesses us, truly.
[00:20:33]  Thank you.
[00:20:34]  It's a great blessing.
[00:20:36]  I'll read an email.
[00:20:37]  Charlie, and you might have saw this episode.
[00:20:39]  Charlie, I intentionally no longer vote.
[00:20:42]  I have disengaged from the system.
[00:20:44]  It's time to watch America burn.
[00:20:46]  It's been nice while it lasted.
[00:20:47]  Now, you might say, Charlie, that's a troll.
[00:20:49]  No, he's actually a donor to Turning Point USA, which is super weird, right?
[00:20:53]  It's like, why would you donate?
[00:20:54]  People are sometimes walking contradictions.
[00:20:57]  I understand that there is a temptation to give up.
[00:21:02]  Charlie, it's overwhelming.
[00:21:04]  They seem to be able to do everything they want to do whenever they want to do it.
[00:21:08]  But look at what we accomplished in just this last year.
[00:21:11]  Not politically.
[00:21:14]  No.
[00:21:15]  A year ago, we were up on stage here talking about how the fight on social media was largely helpless.
[00:21:22]  A year ago, we talked about how we were never going to get our speech back and maybe we'll have to start an alternative or whatever it is.
[00:21:29]  And one year later, yes, because of the courage of the world's richest man, but also because we created the environment where it was popular and necessary, Twitter has been purchased and liberated from the Marxist Silicon Valley left.
[00:21:47]  And let me just re-emphasize, God bless Elon Musk for what he has done by purchasing Twitter.
[00:21:59]  I was debating whether or not to come out with a do not amplify shirt.
[00:22:04]  It was a debate.
[00:22:05]  That's the only way they can win.
[00:22:09]  We are going to win in the end because the only way they've been able to have even a slight advantage against us is by suppressing us without our consent, censoring us, outright cheating.
[00:22:22]  You see, part of the moment that we are in is all of a sudden recognizing and realizing that the other side is playing for keeps.
[00:22:32]  I don't even think we've started the fight, to be perfectly honest.
[00:22:34]  I don't think we've even begun to get into the arena to start to fight.

=== The Challenge of Our Generation (04:01) ===

[00:22:38]  Homeschooling has nearly doubled in the last two years in America.
[00:22:42]  Nearly doubled.
[00:22:45]  You look around here.
[00:22:46]  This, by the way, congratulations, you are now part of the largest multi-day event in the history of the conservative movement.
[00:22:52]  Look around.
[00:22:53]  Well over 10,800 people.
[00:22:57]  Tickets purchased.
[00:22:58]  That's a sign that things are moving, that there's momentum.
[00:23:01]  And I'm going to close with this, which is this room is the greatest room of untapped potential the Republic has ever seen.
[00:23:12]  Yes, you are doing a lot.
[00:23:14]  You're giving money.
[00:23:15]  You're sending your prayers.
[00:23:16]  You're praying and fasting.
[00:23:17]  You're educating your kids.
[00:23:19]  I totally understand all of that.
[00:23:21]  This room can change America by deciding to change America.
[00:23:26]  The untapped potential in this room will lead to somebody who's inspired by this speech.
[00:23:30]  Similar, by the way, to kind of turning point alumni, we could call her.
[00:23:34]  She started with us, Ana Paulina, who was with us for three years and will now be a member of Congress coming into January.
[00:23:41]  Similar to Austin Smith, turning point alumni who will now be the youngest member of the Arizona legislature coming into Arizona this January.
[00:23:56]  I could go story after story after story, but my charge to you these next couple days is to be willing to be challenged.
[00:24:07]  Do not have the attitude where you say, Charlie, I'm doing a lot.
[00:24:10]  I'm doing too much.
[00:24:11]  Maybe you are, but we can all do more.
[00:24:13]  In fact, it requires us to do more.
[00:24:16]  10,800 people that decide to up their game in the next calendar year terrifies the left.
[00:24:24]  10,800 people that will then be dispersed across America.
[00:24:28]  We have all 50 states represented, by the way.
[00:24:31]  All 50 states that then go back and say, I'm going to focus on school boards.
[00:24:36]  I'm going to focus on getting rid of the groomers and our public education system.
[00:24:40]  Maybe I run a business and I'm going to double the size of my business so that I can compete against Goldman Sachs or I can compete against Coca-Cola.
[00:24:47]  Whatever it is, whatever you're called to do, do more of it.
[00:24:50]  And that is the challenge in front of us.
[00:24:53]  You see, the temptation that I believe the enemy is putting towards us is to say, my actions do not matter and we will not see victory.
[00:25:04]  If you find yourself getting into that thinking, you have to stop yourself and say, wait a second, we live in the most amazing nation ever to exist.
[00:25:11]  And I'm so tired of people saying, well, Charlie, nations come and nations fall.
[00:25:15]  But there's never been a country like America.
[00:25:17]  It's the freest nation ever to exist in the history of the world.
[00:25:20]  There's never been a constitution like our constitution.
[00:25:23]  And guess what?
[00:25:26]  You look around in this room.
[00:25:27]  Don't give me this nonsense that Americans are giving up.
[00:25:30]  That is not true.
[00:25:31]  In fact, after the developments of the last couple of months, I'm actually more convicted than ever to fight.
[00:25:39]  I am more charged up to make sure that we fight the evil entrenched in our land, to support the good guys, to put in more hours, to grow to more chapters, to get more pastors and more churches to speak out boldly.
[00:25:50]  No, no, no.
[00:25:51]  The bad guys would love nothing more than for us the next couple days to have a pity party of misery and say, feel sorry for us.
[00:25:58]  And maybe, you know, it'll work out in the future.
[00:26:01]  No, we are the masters of our own destiny.
[00:26:04]  We are the recipients of a nation that we did not build, but we inherited it.
[00:26:08]  We are going to celebrate that nation.
[00:26:10]  And the next four days, we are going to commit to a plan of action to take back our country and to create something bold and beautiful for the next generation.
[00:26:20]  God bless you guys.
[00:26:21]  Thank you so much.
[00:26:25]  Thanks so much for listening, everybody.
[00:26:27]  Email us your thoughts as always, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:26:31]  Thank you so much for listening and God bless.
[00:26:35]  For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk.com.