What I learned when Turning Points USA came to my campus | Cas Mudde

TOn his Tuesday, Charlie Kirk brought his “You're Being Brainwashed” tour to the campus of my public university in a Republican-controlled state. It was very different than the last time Kirk and his organization Turning Point USA (TPUSA) visited. While the difference in timing is important – this was literally two weeks before Election Day – the differences between the events of 2018 and 2024 in many ways reflect the dangerous radicalization of the right wing in the US.

When Kirk came to my university in 2018, he had a very similar intention: “to expose left-wing lies and progressive propaganda at US universities.” I wrote a column about the rather boring event, describing it as a “safe right-wing space” in which Kirk railed against the “cultural Marxists.” Most students seemed more amused than offended. How different this week’s event was.

When I arrived on campus early, I saw them setting up their stalls. I drank my coffee across from a lone student wearing a Trump hat – a rare sight even at my university. I then taught my course on far-right politics, with the TPUSA event being the topic of class discussion. I told my students that I completely understood if they wanted to observe the event – who am I to stand in the way of being “brainwashed”? – and about half of my students actually left school in the middle of class to attend the event.

After class, I walked to Tate Plaza, the open space in front of the student center, and was amazed by the sight. In the large open space I saw what looked like a sea of ​​Maga hats. I met one of my students who told me that TPUSA was giving out the MAGA hats for free and that he was leaving because you couldn't hear anything anyway. In the background, Kirk talked about Kamala Harris, wokeism, and his other favorite enemies. But there was something about the meeting, an energy that was missing six years ago. Not only was this a safe space, it was an exuberant and proud rally!

Sure, almost everyone who wore their own MAGA hat was older and unrelated to the university, but a few hundred students happily accepted the hat and wore it. Additionally, most kept them on when they left the rally and went to the food court, to class, or even downtown. It turns out that a hat, which is the most recognizable symbol of support for a man who has been loudly and openly authoritarian and racist in recent months, is a pretty cool gimmick for privileged young white men.

There are important, broader lessons to be learned from the differences between these two TPUSA events. First, the 2024 meeting shows the radicalization of conservative America. While Turning Point endorsed Trump back in 2018, it still had a largely independent program that ostensibly focused on traditional conservative values ​​like small government and capitalism. In recent years, Kirk has not only fully embraced Trump's authoritarian and nativist agenda, he and his organization have also embraced fully Christian nationalism.

Second, Turning Point USA is aimed at college and high school students, i.e. those under the age of 21. These children and young adults have been socialized in a world where 1 Trump is a former president; 2 The Republican Party is the party of Trump; and 3. The US Capitol was stormed by Trump sympathizers. For those who grew up in Republican households, most of the students at my university, this means that Trump and the far right are completely normal. What we see as right-wing extremism, they see as mainstream conservatism. They have no idea about the Republican Party of George Bush Sr. or Jr.

Third, radicalized organizations like TPUSA have taken over the role of mainstream conservative organizations like the College Republicans, not only on campus but also as a training ground for the next “conservative” elite. Kirk has literally trained the cadre for the next Trump administration, should it come to that. This is a whole different breed of “Republican,” if they are Republican at all. They are more assertive and extremist, but less tied to traditional conservative organizations, including the Republican Party.

Fourth, and most optimistically, the sea of ​​MAGA hats also gave me a glimmer of hope for the upcoming elections. Since Trump's surprise victory in 2016, the media has been obsessed with “shy Trump supporters,” people who support Trump in the election but don't say so in polls for social reasons. Although the empirical evidence was always weak, the “shy Trump voter” never disappeared from the public debate. Seeing these students wearing MAGA hats not for fun or provocation, but as a “normal” expression of support for the “conservative” candidate in the presidential election, confirmed my suspicion that there will be no “shy Trumpers” in 2024. there is more.

And if this is true, there may still be hope in the sense that the current polls overrepresent the Trump vote because they overcompensate for an outdated phenomenon: the timid Trump voter, another victim of Trump normalization.

• Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia and author of The Far Right Today