Kirk: America's culture war begins on campus

COEUR d’ALENE — America is deep in a culture war.

According to Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, that war is being waged on university and college campuses.

"Universities are teaching hatred for America to our youth," Kirk said. "The greatest threat to our country is college and universities right now. No. 1 threat to our country, without a shadow of a doubt. They are programming hatred into the minds of our youth — to hate America, to hate free markets, to hate the idea of God, to hate the flag, to hate everything that we stand for."

Kirk was the keynote speaker at the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee's annual Lincoln Day fundraiser Saturday night in The Coeur d'Alene Resort. It was attended by a record 475 guests, 40 more than the previous record held in 2008.

Republican legislators, supporters and dignitaries gathered to celebrate their party and hear from speakers including Rep. Russ Fulcher, Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin and Sen. Jim Risch. Signs that read "Idaho is Trump country" and "Make America Great Again" hung on the walls. A few red ball caps could be seen, including a "Make Space Great Again" hat that was auctioned off for $1,000 to support North Idaho STEM Charter Academy's Project DaVinci Cube Satellite program.

But the main event came toward the end of the evening as Kirk, 25, who formed his nonprofit when he was just 18, delivered strong rhetoric about the divisions between the parties and what he has witnessed while visiting America's campuses and engaging with the country's youth. Kirk is the author of "Campus Battlefield: How Conservatives Can WIN the Battle on Campus and Why It Matters."

"Far too often I hear people say, 'Well, Charlie, college campuses are a place where different ideas are allowed to be exchanged’," Kirk said. "You must be talking about a far different place than universities today. These are islands of totalitarianism where Marxist ideology has become mainstream, where students are indoctrinated, not educated, where if you dare disagree with professor, your grade will be lower, but if you might start a college conservative group called Turning Point USA at University of California Berkeley, you might get punched in the face, which is what happened two weeks ago."

He warned that what happens on campus will soon happen in Congress.

"If you look at the most parallel reality of where the Democrat party is, their base stems from the college universities. I hear a lot one big thing in Republican circles far too often, 'The Democrats, they mean well. We want the same thing, we just have a different way of getting there,'" he said. "The Democrats do not want what we want anymore ... And never again should we say, 'we want the same thing, we have different ways to get there.' They want to take us in a completely different direction. They don't mean well."