Dennis Prager interviews Charlie Kirk about his new book The MAGA Doctrine and Turning Point USA's reach across high schools and colleges. They discuss a University of Montana MLK essay contest won by four white students who were called racist, and Kirk's argument that the left treats politics like religion, worshipping the welfare state and racial division.
That's correct. Even the living martyr is nodding. You don't understand. That is like a passionate thing from him.
All right.
Okay. The MAGA Doctrine is coming out. It's Charlie Kirk, Charlie Kirk, who founded, created ex nihilo in almost a divine manner. He created Turning Point USA. How many, how many people are, how many young people are affiliated?
Hundreds of thousands.
Hundreds of thousands.
Activists.
Out of nothing, out of nothing, hundreds of thousands of college kids. It doesn't go to high school, correct?
We have high school and college.
Oh, so do we. Good, so good. College and high school. I could spend 3 hours with you, just, I'm serious, talking about what's happening. It's really, in effect, what you're doing, what we're doing, but especially you on the ground. I have no problem in saying that. Versus the universities themselves. Do you know the University of Montana story about the Martin Luther King essay?
No, I do not know.
No, no, you can't know everything. This is my job. But this is an example. I wonder if you have University of Montana turning point. We do.
We have a chapter there, yes.
You do. You ought to contact them, and I would even like to talk to them on the air maybe. So in a nutshell, the African Studies Department or Black Studies Department, I don't remember the name, sponsors an essay for Martin Luther King Day, which we just had. Write an essay on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. So essays were submitted and they posted the winners. This is again the Black Studies Department. The winners were 4 white girls. They were called racist for the whites winning the Martin Luther King essay. 2 points, Charlie, and then I want to get your reaction. Number 1, it's the University of Montana, which reflects Montana where there are very few Blacks. Number 2, no Blacks submitted an essay. Is that awesome? And they were called racist. Now, as I've pointed out, if only Blacks won, they would be called racist because no whites submitted an essay.
Well, and the obvious is Martin Luther King's most famous quote is he cared— would care more about someone's character than the color of their skin.
That is only quoted by conservatives now.
No, no, but the left is more focused on skin color.
Yes.
And reading your book, Dennis, was a revelation to me, Still the Last, the Best Hope, where you said leftism is a religion.
Right.
And I never analyzed it that way.
Oh, it's really very important.
But it's— if people have to to look at leftism as an institutionalized belief system that is similar to organized religion. They evangelize, they worship the welfare state, and racial division is paramount in the leftist religion. And your book was very instructive.
Well, thank you.
Informing me on that.
Thank you. He's one of the few authors— he's here to talk about his book and he talks about mine. No, that is a statement about the character of Charlie Kirk.
No, but it's true.
It is true. It's a great book. So is yours. It's just coming out. I have it in my hand. Very few people do, because it's not out yet, but you could pre-order it on Amazon. The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas That Will Win the Future. And if anybody— it's up at DennisPrager.com— if anybody knows ideas that will win the future, it's you, because you are working with the future young people. Is this your first book?
Uh, no, it's, it's my third. The other two were, uh, somewhat, you know, successful, but I think this one will— this one I spent the most amount of time on the most energy, and I think is the most timely of—
What's— of the ideas, there are about 15 of them here?
More or less, yeah.
So give me your— do you have a favorite, or are they all tied for first?
Um, yeah, the one I do want to talk about is I think we're more and more divided between the ruling class and the working class in our country, and recognizing the two-tiered justice system that exists. And we see that, and the president has exposed that large in part. But also, the Republican Party and the conservative movement becoming a party, and Dennis, I know you'll appreciate this, that appreciates people that shower before work and after work, the trades, the carpentry, electricians, plumbers, that you don't have to go to 4-year college to succeed. And what I talk about in one of the chapters of the book is through public polling, you see the media basically characterize America for us without us even realizing it. What's your approval of the president? College-educated and non-college-educated. What are they really saying? Here's what smart people think and here's what dumb people think. The media's already organizing us into two different buckets, when in reality, I think the people that didn't go to college might actually have more wisdom than the people that went to a four-year university. Part of the president's doctrine though is giving a voice back to these people. And dignity.
That's correct.
And so I think that's one of the main reasons.
That's part of the reason they hate him though.
[Speaker:DAVID] That's correct.
[Speaker:LOUIS] Because he is stripping the elite of their elititude. That's really why they hate him.
[Speaker:DAVID] I completely agree. And it's actually, it's built on vapor. There's nothing elite about the individuals that have been making bad decisions for our society over the last 40 years, except going to the same Ivy League schools, you know, recirculating the same bad ideas. And I think the president has been a phenomenal disruptor in this regard. And something we can learn from. And again, bringing dignity to communities that predominantly didn't even vote for him. For example, the Black community. He's delivered more for the Black community than any president in well over 100 years.
I will be watching the Black vote more than any other single thing in the November election on pure interest grounds. It's hard for me to believe that he will not make inroads. And I'm not an optimist by nature, believe it or not. I'm a happy man, but I'm not an optimist. It's just— I'm odd in that way because people think optimist, but that's a separate issue. But I just want to give credibility to what I'm saying. If I'm not an optimist and I think that— do you think that?
Yes. Candace Owens deserves a ton of credit for this. And, you know, Candace does great work with PragerU, and she worked with us for a couple years, right? And she kind of— she deserves credit for having the courage, yes, for starting what's now become thousands and thousands of black influencers that are standing up in their communities.
I think so. I do believe that. Anyway, why would a black believe he's a racist? It's such a bizarre notion. Or anti-Semite or any of that. Charlie's book, The MAGA Doctrine: The Only Ideas That Will Win the Future. It is up at DennisPrager.com. We will be back in a moment.
The Dennis Prager Show, live from the Relief Factor Pain-Free Studio.
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