The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Charlie Kirk Did the Unimaginable. He Turned the Youth Against the Liberal Establishment.

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. After that quite amazing and moving memorial for Charlie Kirk, there's been a lot written about him. His legacy, his achievements, we all were quite enthralled by his efforts as probably the most successful political organizer of any party on their age of 40. He understood that young people are by nature rebellious. You're full of energy. They're full of hormones. They're full of ideas. They haven't lived a long time. And they question authority. That's innate to all of us at that age. But what he was trying to tell them was use that natural inquisitiveness, skepticism, maybe even rebelliousness at the establishment.

Starting point is 00:01:08 The baby boomers of the 1960s and 70s are now the establishment. The establishment is not conservative. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hanson for the Daily Signal. after that quite amazing and moving memorial for Charlie Kirk, there's been a lot written about him. His legacy, his achievements, we all were quite enthralled by his efforts as probably the most successful political organizer of any party on the age of 40 with Turning Point USA. It's now up to, I think, requests for 75,000 new chapters. He was a columnist. He was a successful podcaster. He did it. He did it all. But one thing I think that hasn't been remarked about, what was the essence of his appeal to young voters? Why was he able to reverse the turnout in 2020 of young voters getting more of them out and getting somewhere from 6 to 20 percent more of the youth vote in particular states? And he may have got as many voters. for Donald Trump of those in the more narrow category, 18 to 29, then voted for Kamala Harris.

Starting point is 00:02:39 Even the 18 to 39 was almost 50-50 in Michigan. So in some ways, he might have won the election for Donald Trump. So what was the secret to his success? I think what he did was quite brilliant. He understood that young people are by nature rebellious. they always as you're full of energy they're full of hormones they're full of ideas they haven't lived a long time and they question authority that's innate to all of us at that age but what he was trying to tell them was use that natural inquisitiveness skepticism

Starting point is 00:03:16 maybe even rebelliousness at the establishment but you're mistaken the establishment is not conservative. The establishment as defined by the network news, PBS, NPR, as defined by higher education, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Berkeley, Stanford, as defined by the corporate boardroom at Budweiser or Target, as are Disney, as defined by the popular culture. If you look, I could just direct you to the halftime show at the typical Super Bowl extravagan. We could go on, but you get the message. So what Charlie Kirk was telling young people is you are living in a society in which the baby boomers of the 1960s and 70s are now the establishment. And they are ossified.

Starting point is 00:04:12 They are calcified. They have no new ideas. They still are trapped in amber of a sort of revolutionary idea of the 60s and 70s, D.E.I. critical race theory, critical legal theory, radical green environmentalism. And the result, open borders. The result of all this is that you, the youth of America, are told not to do what history says will make you happy to get married, to have more than two children, or at least two children, to buy a home, to be active in your community, to be patriotic, to be traditionalists.

Starting point is 00:04:50 These are things that are not establishment, Kirk was telling young people on campus. These are counter-revolutionaries. You are revolutionaries. So what he asked young people to do is to say, rebel. But remember what you're rebelling against. It's not some conservative 1950 stereotype of an uptight America. America is not uptight. It has no rules.

Starting point is 00:05:18 It's completely without order. It's in utter chaos. Whether we look at transgenderism or D.I. or an open border or a legal system, it is a mess, and you've suffered. So you are going to be revolutionaries. But the trick is you're not going to try to destroy the old order. You're going to try to restore it. The old order is what was normality and common sense. What you grew up under is an aberration.

Starting point is 00:05:46 So as good counter-revolutionaries, tie your youthful zee. to formal efforts to overthrow this dominant paradigm that has made your life in some ways miserable. So if we look back at his career, Charlie Kirk came up with the idea that he was going to go throughout higher education, indeed youthful America in general, and encourage that natural skepticism and not to say, please don't question authority, please be stayed, please be true. He was trying to say, be a counter-revolutionary because the establishment is not you or me. It's radical and it needs to be changed. Thank you very much.

Starting point is 00:06:28 This is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal. Please like, share, and subscribe to be notified for more content like this. You can also check out my own website at victorhansen.com and subscribe for exclusive features in addition.

The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Charlie Kirk Did the Unimaginable. He Turned the Youth Against the Liberal Establishment.

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