Graphic by Bell Jackson By Sam Rix
In the past few weeks since Biden became president, there has been a lot of controversy and discussion concerning the COVID-19 vaccine and the Southern Border crisis. After these events, I have seen only a few proposals to control the border crisis; Representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene proposed a bill that would impose a 4-year moratorium on immigration, as well as finishing the construction of the border wall. While all this has been going on, I have not heard a single thing from conservative activist groups, particularly Turning Point USA, or TPUSA for short.
I once supported TPUSA and its founder, Charlie Kirk, at one point in my life. I believed that they were the catalyst and leader of the conservative movement, and many others believed in what they believed: free markets, limited government, and individuality. I practically worshipped them once. But other events, such as my introduction to paleoconservatism and traditional conservative thinking, changed my view on TPUSA, and went so-far that I oppose the messages they espouse.
My issue with TPUSA is that they are not conservative. They don’t seek to preserve tradition and maintain order but wish to see our country become only an economy, with no emphasis on American history, heroes, or culture TPUSA believes in unlimited legal immigration, but they do not take into account the economic, cultural, political, and demographic consequences that mass immigration has on our economy, politics, culture, and way of life in America. They believe in free-market capitalism, but they don’t care what happens to the workers of a transnational corporation that gets rich from exploiting the workers by doing cheap labor so that the big businesses make trillions while the workers make nothing. TPUSA doesn’t care about America’s culture and its people, with Charlie Kirk once stating that “America is just a placeholder for timeless ideas.”
Now, the University of Montevallo has a TPUSA chapter; I saw someone last month carrying a sign that said “Kiss me. I’m a capitalist.” It made me very upset to see that generation-Z conservatives look up to people like Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk, who don’t care about what happens to America, so long as GDP is high, taxes are low, government is almost non-existent, and America is fighting wars for other countries.
Sam Rix is a second-year Political Science major, UM Swimmer and paleoconservative commentator. His hobbies include reading, writing and exploring the political landscape.
