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.
Those people were never going to be Republicans if they were marching for Move On and other lefty groups
They probably didn't want to be firebombed by DNC, crapped on by the students, or shot by the police.
It is also bit easier to win when you are the POTUS and ignore numerous laws, and use every lever of the Federal government for partisan means. (Ignoring all of the problems with Romney.)
“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.”
I hope this isn’t what it sounds like.
They also had meta data from the IRS and the NSA to help them out. Plus brainwashing from their teachers and professors who are shameless shills for Marxist ideas. You can bet on it.
They also had meta data from the IRS and the NSA to help them out. Plus brainwashing from their teachers and professors who are shameless shills for Marxist ideas. You can bet on it.
I'm guessing it is, but probably refers to the social con vs. fiscal con thing.
Bingo! Give the man a cigar!
Free Market Flea Market...
I believe in free markets at home. I don’t believe in sacrificing our nation on the alter of international globalist (anything but) free market pipe dreams.
I believe in global trade, that is rational and logical.
What we have been doing has utterly failed our people and nation, and has utterly gifted China with our wealth, technology, and the future that should have been ours.
I am very leery of people hawking free-market Capitalism these days. It’s code folks. Don’t ever forget it.
How the Hell do you know that for sure? You don’t. Your attitude is EXACTLY what this article is about and it only took two posts to prove it.
Learn to accept new ways to reach out to the younger voters or get out of the way. You are part of the problem.
Young folks are very impressionable, we need not lose them as soon as they leave our family homes. This group of American’s are going to be the payers for all the new government and need to be educated to the lies the progressives like to spin. Foolish folks who whistle by the graveyard like yourself, only make it easier for the left to capture these youngsters.
You should be leery of people hawking crony capitalism as free-market capitalism. That is the “code” to which you refer . . . you should direct your attention at them, and not the “free-market capitalists.”
Oh, come on, now. We don’t need these young, up and coming voters! Why, we’re about to get 20+M new hispanic voters...once amnesty gets passed! /s
If one cannot convince a young lefty, here and there, of the benefits and desirability of free markets, then we are in dire shape indeed.
I meant what I said, and I provided enough reason for folks to grasp why I said it. Thanks for playing...
I don’t want to reach out to raging leftwing radicals, if the GOPe wants them they won’t have me
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.And, it sounds like he'll be next.
“Young free-market activist says GOP blowing it with young voters”
With people like Boehner, McCain, Graham, Flake, Rubio, Christie etc. they’re blowing it with older people like me as well.
No need to be condescending about it . . . if you prefer socialism to capitalism, just admit it . . . no need to claim that you are “leery” of capitalists. See? Two can play.
That is true. They are liberal-tarians.
The GOP should be talking about helping middle class small businesses (everywhere and not limited to buying ghetto scams and votes in “Enterprise zones”) and global(ist) business competition. Every time McCainish wackobirds run a small business out of town, the GOP should be posing an yelping about government abuse. A lot of small businesses are middle class Hispanic and Asian owned. Leftists are killing the middle class. Screw the global corporations and banksters! Lets get American business rolling again.
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