Posted on 06/15/2013 10:03:57 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
BOZEMAN – As a 19-year-old who thinks capitalism and free markets have a natural appeal to young people, Charlie Kirk has launched his own organizing group to bring them into the conservative fold.
But Kirk says the Republican Party and free-market candidates are blowing it with youthful voters, by failing to reach out to them and ceding the organizational battleground to the forces of Obama and the left.
“We need to do an honest autopsy of what happened to the Republicans in 2012,” he told Montana Republicans on Saturday at the party’s annual state convention in Bozeman. “The other side had behavioral modeling, what I like to call the 22nd Century campaign. It was unbelievable what they were able to do.”
Superior organization
Members of the GOP audience in Bozeman audibly gasped as Kirk told the tale of two acquaintances who he thought were “potential young Republicans,” but were swayed by the other side’s superior organization.
One was a female fan of pop singer Katy Perry. The woman obtained tickets to a Perry concert after agreeing to march in a gay pride parade last year. The marchers-concert goers also had to give their contact information to an Obama campaign group.
“She went from being uninvolved in March and being a Katy Perry fan to being one of the top community organizers in Chicago for Barack Obama,” Kirk said.
The other was a Latino high school classmate from Colombia, who had talked about his support of a less intrusive government and free markets.
But when the classmate returned to school after summer last year, he was wearing a T-shirt from MoveOn.org, a prominent liberal advocacy group.
Kirk said MoveOn.Org had had a booth outside the ceremony where the classmate and his family became American citizens, spoken to them in Spanish, and invited them to community events. The friend had become an organizer for the group.
“Now, why didn’t any of the organizations on the right have a booth at that swearing-in ceremony?” Kirk said. “There was nothing from our side of the aisle. Those were two young people who were potential young Republicans, who were both scooped up by the machine that the left built.”
Turning Point USA
Kirk, who graduated from high school in the Chicago area last year, said these and other such instances helped push him to found Turning Point USA, a nonprofit group trying to educate young people about the benefits of free markets, capitalism and entrepreneurship.
In an interview Saturday, Kirk said he founded Turning Point USA in part after becoming frustrated with the Young Republicans, whom he labeled as “too bureaucratic” and unwilling to try new approaches.
Turning Point USA’s website offers a mix of student columns, videos, events and the “student debt clock,” which shows students’ share of the national debt. While Kirk is the founder of the youth-centered site, the group has several adult advisers.
Kirk also has launched himself into the world of political punditry, appearing as a guest on national news shows, commenting about the youth vote, and speaking to conservative-leaning groups around the country.
Kirk came to Montana at the invitation of several Republicans who’ve been feuding with party hard-liners, arguing the state GOP needs to appeal to more than just doctrinaire conservatives.
Kirk said he talks to groups about how they can “better brand” capitalism and free markets for young people: “Young people want to be free. They want to be able to make their own decisions. They like to enjoy liberty.”
As for local Republican parties and groups, Kirk suggested they not turn their backs on libertarians or other subsets of the right, and that libertarians – social and economic – should be talking to conservatives about where they can seek common ground.
I appreciate the response. I agree with your take on it. When I see an article that tries to game the topic, I try to jump in. That’s what I believed was happening here, and I’m glad you thought so too.
That doesn't follow. Most who "scream" about the free market also beg Big Government to "protect" them.
Have you given any thought as to how we should stamp-out the scourge of free-market belief among the younger generation?
GeronL: “Those people were never going to be Republicans if they were marching for Move On and other lefty groups”
I don’t know if that’s true. People are pretty malleable at that age. Many (most) conservatives were once liberal, then reality intruded.
Like the other poster posted, we need articulate Conservative candidates who can resonate with a majority.
>> They are liberal-tarians.
Snowden is a Libertarian and seemingly a hero here at FR.
I think it’s a mistake to disregard the young folks that believe they’re best represented by the Libertarian Party.
Let me be clear that I’m not speaking in favor of the Libertarian Platform which is obviously corrupted with an array Leftwing tenets.
Turning Point USAI thought the Meme Gallery was amusing, though the self-promotion was over the top.
Second... we have already performed an autopsy on the 2012 election and it was lost for the following reasons. Since 2000, karl rove has controlled the republican election machine and when he won elections, it was by losing the popular vote the first time and by a thin margin the second time. His losses are mind boggling.
Next, we have a party leadership that has been actively moving the party to the left since the day that Reagan retired and ghw bush was elected... only because he had been Reagan's VP and had promised to continue Reagan's work. He and the party started undoing everything that Reagan had accomplished and 2011 saw rove, gingrich, michael steele and others proclaiming: “The era of Reagan is over”. They thought so at the time... but because of the Conservative backlash they caused with their proclamation, they each to a man had to retract and rationalize “what I was trying to say”. These people have little in difference with the rat party.
Then the gop/e for the fifth time in a row... rammed a progressive “moderate” candidate down our throats... a man (romney) that shared much in common with his opponent... the worst and most progressive president to ever soil the office... and even wrote much of the nation destroying “affordable care act”... a man that had to flip 180 degrees from who he had always been... a man that had to shift 180 degrees from how he governed when he was the Governor of Massachusetts. mitt then claimed Victory in the Iowa Caucus and retracted a week later... but by then the mo had switched from Santorum to romney. Couple that with the manipulation of ballots in certain states (through reince preibus pressuring certain republican SoS)... which ended with keeping the two candidates that were leading romney... off the ballots in those three states.
Lastly, we have the entire federal machine... the NSA... the CIA... THE DOJ etc all conspiring against Conservative organizations and groups... candidates were smeared with allegations born of these illegal surveillance methods... and through voter fraud in many urban areas... and all of this is well documented... and that is why we lost the 2012 election and why we lost to what truly was a very weak candidate... an incumbent that had overseen his first term leading our country into depression and the collapse of America looking to be certain. Anything else claimed is just gazing at belly button fuzz.
LLS
That’s a fairly long essay, that I regret to admitting I read. I’ll simply add this: piss off, statist . . . some of us are trying to save the country from your ilk.
You dim bulb. You dig into your trunk for ‘staist’ so you can label me because you can’t refute a word of what I stated.
Rant on you destructive little termite.
With some notable exceptions, businessmen favor free enterprise in general but are opposed to it when it comes to themselves.Seriously, the level of your mental retardation is astounding--that you would "think" to use it to go after me or some young kid who believes in free markets.
And by the way, I use “statist” as an all-encompassing term. One that refers to people who run crying to the government to help them, much like babies who cry for milk.
Agreed. They always concern-troll us, we can do it right back.
I was never liberal. I certainly wasn’t far from it in high school and college, but I was never a moonbat.
Ah yes, but running to the government for tax breaks for corporations that move jobs overseas isn’t statism huh?
Yeah, I know...
So take your comment about the English Language, and stuff it. Or learn it.
Cute, I remember that one. Obama, in 2012, right? During one of the debates?
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