Donned in fluorescent red “Make America Great Again” hat and light blue “Socialism Sucks” shirt, Charlie Kirk, the twenty-six-year-old founder and leader of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), has easily become one of the most recognizable figures in the youth conservative movement. The tall, lanky man-child out of Prospect Heights, Illinois is widely known for his media presence, his ability to energize young Republicans, his barrage of attacks against the left, and his stringent defense of President Donald Trump.
Before spearheading TPUSA, a popular “conservative” student organization, Kirk attended Wheeling High School in suburban Chicago and rose to stardom at a young age, initially receiving attention during his late grade school years. As a high school senior in 2012, Kirk wrote a piece about the alleged liberal indoctrination of academic textbooks for Breitbart News, a relatively controversial news source. This piece earned him an appearance on Fox Business—the onset of his lengthy, ongoing string of Fox Network appearances.
He founded TPUSA that same year at just 18 years old. At the time, he was taking classes at Harper College, a local community college, but subsequently dropped out to pursue a life in conservative activism as a quasi-politician. Thus, Kirk does not have any formal college education. He has, however, mentioned that his dream school was the United States Military Academy at West Point, of which he was denied admission. Kirk claims that this was because his slot went to “a far less-qualified candidate of a different gender and a different persuasion.” Essentially, he blamed affirmative action—possibly why he now opposes it so stridently.
TPUSA has received criticism for the tactics the organization employs to defend its goal of promoting “the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government,” with many arguing that the group strays from true conservative values in order to achieve its end. The means to achieve this end, according to them, is to change the fundamental left-leaning biases of college campuses. As part of this ongoing quest to rid campuses of liberal bias, Kirk is currently travelling the country on TPUSA’s “Culture War” tour, pairing up with prominent political figures like Donald Trump Jr. and Senator Rand Paul.
Kirk’s inexperience in actual campus culture and his lack of formal college education exacerbate the organization’s grievances regarding this “Culture War.” While some anti-conservative bias exists, TPUSA serves to fabricate it in areas where those biases are not present, and their methodology does nothing to address the actual issue. Instead of promoting healthy dialogue to bridge the gap between the left and right, TPUSA promotes an inherently inflammatory brand. Wearing “Socialism Sucks” paraphernalia will do nothing to change the hearts and minds of legitimate socialists. Traveling to various schools to debate liberals and “own the libs” will only deepen the political divide. There is also an amusing irony in that Kirk is the one trying to change the culture of college campuses. There are many people in this country you can consult regarding the conservative college experience, but Kirk, a man who has barely ever stepped foot on a college campus in an academic capacity, is not one of them. If you want someone to discuss campus issues accurately, perhaps it is better to start with someone who has experienced them firsthand—a current student or a recent graduate, for example. The Dartmouth bureaucrat who decided it was a good idea to cut off inter-housing system access might even have more reliable input.
This is not to say that Kirk is unintelligent. From his first TV hit alone, you could tell that he had a propensity for public speaking. He was eloquent, expressive, and crisp in his speech—remarkable for someone his age. He had so much potential to be a positive conservative voice. His quick rise to popularity made him a prominent media figure, and other young conservatives looked to him as a standard. Having a sound education should have been his priority, especially since he chose campus expertise as his selling point. Instead, this early transition into the spotlight, without first forming a firm ideological foundation, left him especially impressionable. While his intentions may have been to promote “fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government” at first, his end goal became distorted over time—as he would consistently prioritize alternatives that built his brand and pleased right-leaning media outlets.
An example of how his views changed due to media pressure is TPUSA’s progression into a “Trump-First” organization. TPUSA was founded on conservative values, yet it has let politics corrupt their ideology. As a 501(c)(3), TPUSA is not technically allowed to endorse candidates, or else they would lose their tax-exempt status. However, through certain loopholes, the group has held events with speakers directly involved in the Trump campaign. President Trump himself was even the keynote speaker at TPUSA’s Teen Student Action Summit, essentially turning the event into an oversized campaign rally for pubescent teens. Kirk even comes to Trump’s defense on nearly every decision the President makes, even when a defense is not warranted and the decision does not align with conservative values. “Trump is the first leader in the history of the world to be attacked for improving the lives of the citizens that voted for him,” Kirk said, clearly forgetting that Abraham Lincoln—a champion of civil rights—was assassinated during his presidency. The reason for his allegiance is because it serves as a transaction of mutual benefit. Kirk draws additional media attention, increases his following, and builds his brand, when he sides with Trump.
Kirk ultimately let his fame and opportunities determine his beliefs, rather than building up beliefs that would later shape his fame and opportunities. Conservatism may have started out as his cause, but it soon turned into a vessel to achieve notoriety. He has fallen victim to the praise of the right-leaning media, and instead of defending the core values that TPUSA was founded on, Kirk made a Faustian bargain, trading pure and original conservatism for short-term success.
It is unclear where he will go from here. As Fox Business host Stuart Varney claims, Kirk “will be President someday.” I would contend that this is highly unlikely, as his lack of education severely harms any prospect of a career in office. As Kirk has become known as “Trump’s Man on Campus,” it becomes even more uncertain what he will do after the Trump presidency. Although I speak harshly of Kirk, he has still made massive contributions, drawing a considerably large following into the conservative movement. However, he may be stuck with TPUSA for quite some time, or at least until he becomes too old to continue talking about campus politics.
True conservatives must eventually outgrow TPUSA and devote their efforts elsewhere. We must challenge ourselves by pursuing an environment of rigorous inquiry, instead of being coddled by the intellectually devoid echo chamber of TPUSA, compromising our values for recognition—I challenge Charlie Kirk to do the same. For the time being, thank goodness the Dartmouth TPUSA chapter never got off the ground.
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Urasymus -
Wow, this is written by someone who is addicted to the traditional liberal bias ideals of higher education. So of course you bring absolutely no personal bias to this subject. Typical elitist sissy, now go back to getting pegged by your feminist girlfriend! 😂😂😂
Typical misogynist who cannot defend himself with any reason or logic, instead, chooses to go down the road of attacking people, personally, and calling them “sissies”, “soy boy”, “snowflakes”, “sensitive”, as if there is something wrong with that. If anything you, incel, are the one being sensitive here. So sorry somebody hurt your feelings, Jay.
You are very closed minded in your writing. This is unfortunate and sad. You should welcome those who disagree with you into that echo chamber so you can expand your mind and grow. I sense that you are rigidly holding onto ideas that are obsolete. Good luck with that. Wake up for God’s sake.
He is absolutely brilliant and I would rather hire him than you and probably most of classmates.
What a dumba**.
I ran a search wondering where he went to college. Wonder of all wonders, he is self educated and in the “great books” no less. He clearly could teach himself economics, philosophy, political science, etc… and without the liberal bias of most Universities in America today. Wish I would have “home schooled” my kids college education. Go Charlie, Westpoint’s loss.
Have you ever heard Charlie speak? He has a depth of knowledge of political philosophy and American history that should be the envy of any doctoral candidate. He is the latest in a long line of self-taught Americans who have become amazing success stories.(read Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Rush Limbaugh etc.)
“Depth of knowledge”. He spews lies and falsehoods with confidence to people who have no clue.
Nice critique. Charlie Kirk makes so many references to the flag, patriotism and how the the sacrifice of veterans is disrespected Without having served himself. He didn’t get into West Point? Then he should have enlisted! We veterans have a name for people like him. Chicken hawk.
Right on the button
Just another white guy who thinks he knows everything. He is racist scum.
It really doesn’t matter the age of the human, when said human spouts divisiveness and refuses to acknowledge that MAYBE his candidate actually has major flaws. Trump is teetering on the precipice and as a FORMER conservative, I will be glad to see him booted off the American political scene. I would be willing to bet that as soon as Trump makes his inevitable fall, Charlie will follow.
No, he tells you what you want to hear. Just like Rush, another college dropout who blames their own mediocrity on others. Jobs and Gates are intelligent success stories. Rush was just a hateful bigot who pumped up other hateful bigots. Doctoral candidate? LOL
This is just the typical liberal bias that does not tell the truth only the twisted version of the left. Sorry you only post this crap!
It really is amazing how powerfully repetitive and infinitely adaptable liberal bias is at causing every annoying evil and uncomfortable opinion humans may encounter.
Course descriptions, college policies, clubs/organizations on campus, etc are readily available online, and paired with a regular reading of to Inside Higher Ed, Chronicle of Higher Education and the Journal of Associations of Governing Boards is sufficient to learn about college campus culture. The a Great Books curriculum is excellent, hence its longevity. “Education” is not to be found in just one place, and is not to be equated with intelligence, though that is a common error, and one particularly loved beloved by faculty, as it supports their power and pocketbook.
There’s a comma after Illinois in the 2nd sentence. Plus a million subjective quotation marks. Did this Leftwinger actually spend $150,000 on a degree at Dartmouth while Kirk was reading Aristotle & Locke in the 8th grade? When a person has a gift, why ruin it with a leftwing-biased university degree? Even Laura Ingraham stopped donating to her Alma Mater.
A comma is not necessary. Check “The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation.” The only book I use in my eighth grade English class.
The author considers himself a conservative. He just has standards. Kirk is a moron.
👍👍👍👍
Hold on now, all of you people commenting are idiots. You need a college education to be president, you can’t just be a good public speaker, even though that’s a good asset to have. The person who wrote this article is not closed minded, they are telling the facts about this mans life. He didn’t prioritize a college education and bases all of his opinions on what Trump says, and this TPUSA is most likely going to tank after Trump is out of office for that reason! It would be his dream to give the president a blowjob for crying out loud. All the man does is go on college campuses to debate with liberals. Reminder that a college education is extremely important. You cannot self-teach, that’s extremely idiotic and absurd. According to the 2018 midterm vote, 66% of voters who are white and did not go to college voted republican. I mean of course, self-teaching is the way to go. You people have the audacity to call this writer closed minded? Look at yourselves. On top of that he just wrote a book about Trump, so what message is he trying to send? To get people to support Trump for the last few months that he’s here, or to try to spread the conservative mission and get more people on his side? He’s only doing one of those, because arguing with liberals and advertising vulgarity against them only divides the left and right more, doesn’t convince anyone to go right. This guy doesn’t do anything meaningful, and when Trump is gone he will be too. When he has no job and no education, hopefully there will be a dem in office that will have policies to help the lower class. That is, of course if mommy and daddy can’t save him with their money, which is probably what he used to start his company in the first place. A small loan of a million dollars, I’m assuming?. Hopefully a conservative who agrees with the prior comments reads this. You’re lucky i’m bored enough in quarantine to waste my time learning and arguing over this idiot (Kirk that is). Sincerely, a liberal who is only a senior in high school that has a bigger brain than all of you idiots (commenters) combined.
I’m guessing you haven’t taken a writing course yet. All you’ve done in your train wreck of a comment is smash together a number of unrelated statements. There is a complete lack of a coherent theme other than a demonstration of arrogance on the part of a half wit.
BTW- you don’t need a college education to be president.
Hi, FYI, there are a lot of millionaires who are auto-didacts including Robert Redford, Rush Limbaugh, Abraham Lincoln, just to name a few. Well, Abe was probably not a millionaire but he was famous and did accomplish a lot (including the Emancipation Proclamation-you know freeing the slaves and all that.) You didn’t have to really tell us you are a liberal because you have resorted to the usual pattern of insulting everyone around you. But you’re young and after you have had a few hard knocks in life you will maybe change your tune. Meanwhile, you can go to college and enjoy immersing yourself in the liberalism there, until you grow up. Good luck.
Mikey,
I find your comments about not being able to be self-taught absurd. I have several degrees from small institutions to large ones and have accumulated a bachelor’s and 2 master’s degrees. They were a means to an end NOT very enlightening or rewarding. In my profession (teaching I receive higher pay based on units of higher ed and length of service. I have LEARNED way more information on my own than I EVER received from a college professor. In many of my classes, I would challenge the professor just to see if they really knew what their subject matter or were basically reading from a script. And to no surprise, as they were challenged many would become flustered and would revert back to threat tactics if a student wouldn’t come to their defense. I have heard Mr. Kirk in person and find he is well versed in the subjects he speaks on and HAS READ original sources and a wide variety of them! HE often puts college majors to shame with his knowledge compared to their talking points they received from some professor. It’s truly a shame what has happened to one of the most prestigious institutions we have-The University. It is no longer a place of discussion and debate but has become a one-sided affair and if you don’t agree with the flavor of the month then your professors threated you with public shaming and even grade deflation or outright failure. I look at my alumni magazine and it’s filled with stories that have nothing to do with educational achievements or updates on the University itself but has become a reaffirmation of leftist talking points like LGBTQ issues and stories, political left activism, and changing policies regarding safe spaces and other rediculous measures to stiffle free speech.
Charlie Kirk is a grifter who is going to end up going to prison for tax fraud and campaign finance fraud.
Beautiful. Fuck Charlie Kirk. I don’t know how you were able to stay even half this calm…
I found myself googling Charlie Kirk after his videos started popping up alongside coverage of the BLM peaceful protests. First to see if he went to college, and second to try to better understand his political ideology. I have a hard time following some of his arguments, the logic is all over the place and he uses big sound bites / random statistics to make his points.
I came across this article in my research – well put.
While Charlie might be a great orator, his combative style incites rather than creates a space for dialogue. For someone so talented, what a wasted opportunity to do good.
I love the open mindedness and no need for hostility from those that find this article just a completely bias article. Then those that agree immediately show hostility. This really further proves the point of what Charlie and those at Turning Point USA are doing. Trying to show that no matter who you are, you can become something great. Also no one said this man is running for president and doesn’t need a degree if he chooses not to. This man though could easily grab a degree if he so chooses in any field. He is currently on a mission to dispel all sorts of lies and does it in a well stated and calm manor.
Charlie Kirk is a genius and if any listener does not get that, well too bad for said person. Vote for life, liberty and the free pursuit of happiness. And yes, the Bible is the greatest book ever written. Come Lord Jesus. We need you now more than ever.
Love Charlie Kirk!
This young man makes me hopeful for America. Anyone on the other side is truly Left. Leave them for failure. Right is right. And to stand for righteousness, even in the midst of stupidity and hate is being the best of the human specie. Thank you God for Charlie.
Charlie Kirk is amazing. The guy is gifted in what he does. A prime example that with hard work and dedication, a person can succeed. Charlie, Tatum, and Candace Owens opened my eyes to the world of politics and they speak on facts, not feelings.
Charlie Kirk is a breath of fresh air and is the epitome of what we hope our youth has and will become. He gives comfort to this old woman in her 70s. There may be great hope for the youth of our country after all!
You rock Charlie Kirk and America needs you right now more than you’ll ever know!
DITTO!! From another woman in her 70s!!! Charlie’s ideology is the future of America, no?
This is the very definition of what he’s fighting against. A college with a left-leaning bias. I especially love that part that said “without first forming a firm ideological foundation”. You mean the indoctrination of America’s liberal campuses? You’re showing all your cards right now. You have shown us exactly why we need to continue fighting liberal bias on campus.
I would Charlie is easily more well read that most of the students at Ivy league colleges. Your pomposity as someone who goes to college vs those that do not bleeds through your writing. I wish more college spent time reading all ideologies rather than being sucked into the indoctrination. Fyi….I also went to an Ivy league school
Why lie about going to an Ivy? It’s obvious you’re just a bored Charlie Kirk fanboy, lett’n off steam cuz yah boy came out look’n stupid
You have to love the wild claims in defense of the mini trump incel. He’s read more than most every college student was my favorite, yeah sure that sounds likely. I garuntee that he has not read half of what I did while working towards receiving an English lit degree while minoring in philosophy. He’d be lucky to have read an eighth. Kids is an angry blow heart that is obviously in need of some help to get over whatever slight he feels has wronged him. Probably will never realize that he is why people don’t like him and will always play the vi Tim like his hero trumpy who we all know has had a rough go of life and always is being treated so terribly that he looks like he’s coining to melt. The poor precious snowflake. Charlie simply regurgitates the likes of Hannity, Carlson, Trump, and other intellectual giants from the right. If you try to debate universal healthcare he screams about the failure of Venezuela. Typical. He can’t have a productive conversation about much of anything because he lacks the mental agility to comprehend and then explain how maybe looking at the subject in a different light would be more beneficial. He just yells the Fox OANN rhetoric full of fallacy and falsehoods. Charlie is simply another right wing grifter lining his pockets thanks to trumpism and the spineless was victim hood that accompanies the modern conservative narrative.
If you got an English Lit degree with a minor in philosophy, you should request a refund for tuition. Your spelling and sentence construction are about the equivalent of a C student in the 6th grade. And you obviously don’t get it: Conservatives are NOT about victimhood. That would be the left. Conservatives are about personal responsibility, picking yourself up by your bootstraps, and not blaming others for your shortcomings or problems.
I could not even read three sentences into your rant. The grammar was horrid. Please continue reading and studying.
Bro this kinda wack. My favorite part was the caption below the image.
I agree with him
Bro this kinda whack.
I think Charlie Kirk is great-mind you I am not a college student, I am a grandmother. However I spent 5 years on campus and I had 3 kids go to school so I am well acquainted with the liberal bias in American colleges & universities. Charlie is an auto-didact evidently; he is well spoken, and his parents obviously did a great job raising him. His purpose in life is not to tell young people & college students what to think or how to think. It seems to me the best thing he does for America is to arm them with the ability to resist the liberalism they are slammed with at school and all around them today. And that is a good thing! Kudos, Charlie.
Trump lost lmao
To say there is a liberal bias on American college campuses is a great overstatement. Yes, liberal arts colleges get a specific stereotype for a reason, but let’s be honest, the majority of students are in the business school studying some form of business, marketing, and finance. My sister, a finance major, has had multiple professors and classmates voice their support of Trump during classes (and she goes to school in a blue state). I’ve had similar experiences within the college of engineering, where my view of the world was not aligned with the majority of my more right-leaning professors and classmates. Does this mean my sister and I received a conservative-biased education? No.
Also, while I do find Charlie to be very successful. I also agree his lack of education has hindered his argumentative skills. I don’t agree with Ben Shapiro, yet he’s a smart guy who can structure an argument. Charlie on the other hand, makes arguments like a high schooler i.e. someone who is not actually reading the entire source he is getting his information from or cherry picking sentences/quotes to back up his argument.
At Mike- you actually don’t need college education to be president. That is kinda unbelievable that Charlie doesn’t have college education, his vocabulary and understanding of society/life is so mature. I have my masters and proud of it but good for him! I can only imagine how many books he has read!
Going to college doesn’t make you smart and *not* going to college doesn’t make you dumb. It’s about how you interpret and apply what you’ve learned to the world around you. Outside of everything else, Charlie Kirk applies his knowledge like a real dickhead; it’s hard to respect a real dickhead.
This is just hilarious. Nobody give a great review of the person or organization that is exposing their hidden agenda and rapidly chipping away Americas delusions about them. A university with an article about Charlie Kirk is like a death row inmate critiquing his executioner. But I would love to see people reuse above name calling and slandering. It serves no purpose other than making you appear ignorant and very rude.
Anti-conservative bias surely permeates this article
I mean even Ben Shapiro was academically smart enough to get through college and law school but not Charlie or Rush. I mean lol. Also, he’s the classic incel and hate has really aged him and he didn’t have a lot going for him with looks anyway.
How many of these haters have been proven to be duped. TPUSA has become socially significant and they have been proven wrong.
Charlie Kirk owns 3 mansions because of ToiletPaperUSA, funny how you don’t need an education or even a real job to make millions of dollars when you have ignorant republicans to blindly give you money without investigating where it actually gets spent