The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: Charlie Kirk’s Fight to Rescue a Generation From University Indoctrination

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Universities have long been captured by liberal academics, and the fight for America's youth on campus at times feels hopeless. What made Charlie Kirk effective was that he did not run from that problem but ran head-on into it. Victor Davis Hanson explains this key aspect of Charlie Kirk’s legacy, emphasizing how his approach was effective, and what our job is now to carry on his mission in saving our country from the campus on today’s episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “He did not go in the traditional academic pathway. He dropped out of college at 18. And he had to live by his wits, not in the artificial bubble of academia or the la-la land of the campus, where there are no consequences to behavior. … He learned to organize and galvanize people in a practical way. “And he said, ‘The universities are training generation after generation after generation in this seriously dangerous leftist dogma.’ In other words, if you're worried about this bizarre transgender movement, this cult-like effort to have biological men compete in women's sports, to take one example; or you're worried about the idea that you can steal $950 and not be prosecuted; or if you think that race is essential and not incidental to who you are—where did these things come from? And he said they came from the campus.” 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1    👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273    👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  (0:00) Introduction (1:01) Charlie Kirk's Mission and Approach (1:50) Addressing Youth Issues (4:17) Charlie Kirk's Unique Path Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk. Business. I think we all want to put the passing of Charlie Kirk in perspective, and it's been a terrible week. What are we to make sense of this terrible incident? One thing is to remember what Charlie Kirk did. He didn't go to the campuses and say, this is a conservative agenda, and I want you to vote along this ticket. And he said, the universities are training generation after generation after generation and this seriously dangerous leftist dogma. Where did these things come from?

And he said they came from the campus, and therefore I'm going to the campus and trying to stop this indoctrination by offering a different pathway. He was trying to address the cultural, the economic, the social maladies of this country that express themselves in politics. And he thought if he took care of that, then he would be successful elsewhere. Hello, this is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal. I think we all want to put the passing of Charlie Kirk in perspective, and it's been a terrible week, and what are we to make sense of this terrible incident. One thing is to remember what Charlie Kirk did. He was a political organizer.

He was a media figure, but he was not trying to persuade people on the basis solely of politics. He didn't go to the campuses and say, this is a conservative agenda. This is the big, beautiful bill. This is the immigration. And I want you to vote along this ticket. That's what a traditional politician does. He wasn't. What he was trying to do was address root causes that make people vote in a particular way.

So he was saying to the Republican Party, we've got to address this existential crisis of young people. That was his forte on campuses and off campuses that can't afford. to buy a car, that can't afford to buy a home, that can't afford right away to have children. And that has enormous consequences, not just for the Republican Party, this alienation of the youth and its flirtation with socialisms and its false answers to these real problems. But more importantly, it's creating a social cultural problem called prolonged adolescence. People are not getting married at the age they used to.

They're not having as many children or as early in their lives as they used to. They're not buying homes in their late 20s or early 30s. They're going to school not for four years, but for six or eight years. They're not going and graduating after four years and getting a good job. They're graduating at six, eight years with the quarter million dollars in some cases in student loans. So he was trying to address the culture. the economic, the social maladies of this country that express themselves in politics. And he thought if he took care of that, then he would be successful elsewhere.

And so he was. So if you look at 2020, why Donald Trump was, one of the reasons was that the youth vote that traditionally goes to Democrats really went to Democrats, Joe Biden in 2020, that key demographic of 19 to 40-year-olds. However, in 2024, Donald Trump made amazing rebounds. He got nationwide 6 to 8, about 8% higher of that youth vote than he did in 2020. But more importantly, in the key swing states, that would be places like Michigan, like Wisconsin, like North Carolina, like Arizona and Georgia. In some cases, he got up to 18 to 19% flipping greater margin in 2000.

2004 than he did 2020, and that ensured him an electoral college, and that was largely, not exclusively, due to Charlie Kirk's efforts at addressing the real issues that young people were worried about. There's a couple of other things about him that were unusual. He was the most successful political activist under 40 of either party or liberal, Democrat or Republican, liberal, or conservative. And one of the reasons is it's very hard for someone coming out of college to be a political organizer, a political activist, to create a business-like organization. Although it was a 503, a 503 C3, it was non-profit, but it was huge with a $100 million budget. He was a writer. He was a podcaster. Part of that was because he did not go in the traditional academic path. He dropped out of college at 18, and he had to live by his wits, not in the artificial bubble of academia or the la land of the campus where there are no consequences to behavior, but he had to earn a living.

And he had to form an organization, and he had to appeal people. So pragmatism was his benchmark. And so he learned to speak to people in a practical way. He learned to write with people in a pragmatic way. He learned to organize and galvanize people in a practical way. And he said, the universities are training generation after generation after generation in this seriously dangerous leftist dogma. In other words, if you're worried about this bizarre, transgendered movement,

this cult-like effort to have biological men compete in women's sports to take one example, or you're worried about the idea that you can steal $950 and not be prosecuted, or if you think that race is essential and not incidental to where did these things come from? And he said they came from the campus, and therefore I'm going to the campus and trying to stop this indoctrination by offering a different pathway. You put it all together, and if people want to remember Charles Kirk's legacy, I think the best thing they could do is register. According to your station, get as many people as you can to register to vote and try to upset the historical laws that says a president will lose and lose

badly in his first midterm. If that should happen, Donald Trump will have an agenda that will be derailed and he will not be able to fulfill the promises that he made and the Democratic House and its lunatic fashion will try to impeach him. But if you do go out and register and you show the same energy and creativity that Charlie Kirk did, then you can, can pull off a historical upset and defeat the out party and ensure a large Republican majority in both the House and the Senate, and that will force-multiplify the Trump agenda. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal. Thank you for tuning in to The Daily Signal.

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