If you were on campus the first week of in-person schooling, you might’ve noticed a stand with a sign that read “Turning Point USA.” If you were like me, you probably didn’t know much about it, but the big American flag sign promoting “Free speech” along with bright red and blue pins scattered on the table reading “Democrat”, “Republican” and “Freedom” caught your eye. The representative there would have told you the group is inclusive of all political ideologies and is a site for productive discourse. The history of TPUSA tells a different story.
For context, TPUSA is an organization that played a major role in advocating for Trump during the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Their founding promise is to educate students about the importance of fiscal responsibility, free markets and limited government. They spread their message by campaigning on college and high school campuses. Its founder, Charlie Kirk, has helped fuel Trump’s message of election fraud and supported his post calling George Floyd a “scumbag.”
Most glaringly, TPUSA openly opposes the existence of COVID-19. In a recent TPUSA article titled “It’s Time to Stop Appeasing the COVID Crazies,” they claim there should be “No more complying with anti-science authoritarian rules from overpaid bureaucrats. And no more letting the left dominate the country with a narrative that will never match reality.”
At a time of peak anti-Asian hate crimes, the group reportedly passed out stickers at Emerson College reading “China kinda sus.” This action is insensitive and marginalizes the Chinese and Asian-American students on campus, who admitted to feeling less welcomed after this.
Its website claims, “The Left has permeated American institutions at every turn, poisoning American youth against our great nation. In our taxpayer-funded public schools, young people are taught that America is fundamentally evil, that the government is always the answer and that the free-enterprise system is immoral.”
Organizations are allowed to spread their views and ideologies freely. Though without a sensitive touch and appropriate attention to social issues, TPUSA invalidates their trustworthiness. Consider this before attending its meetings.
Lizzy Rager is a copy-editor for the Express.
