As the “No Kings” morons practice political theater in left-wing enclaves across the country, most of us are living our lives as normal. Here in the South, that includes tailgating at college football games.
I don’t know how many tailgates take place at the University of Georgia every home Saturday, but there are a couple of dozen just in the area where our tailgate group hangs out. But one tailgate that took place about three-quarters of a mile from me got my attention enough to warrant a visit.
I saw the social media posts for Turning Point USA’s tailgate at Myers Quad throughout the week and thought it might be cool to check out.
TPUSA advertised free FREEDOM t-shirts to any students who showed volunteers their student tickets. Volunteers would also be around to help young people register to vote.
After hanging out at my usual tailgate spot for a couple of hours, I decided to check out TPUSA’s tailgate. It wasn’t as big as I expected — just a couple of tents — but the buzz around it was electric. Volunteers registered people to vote, and entire families were around to check out stickers and shirts. I even got a shirt without a student ticket, which is nice since I haven’t had a student ticket in 30 years.
I spoke to a couple of people at the tailgate to see what drew them there and what Charlie Kirk’s legacy means to them. Banks McCommons, who will be a freshman at UGA in the spring, said that he appreciated what Kirk was doing and loved that TPUSA was continuing his legacy.
“What I would like to see personally is just everybody becoming a Charlie Kirk,” McCommons told me. “Just talking. Just debating. When people stop talking, that’s when problems start, and everybody’s afraid to talk.”
McCommons said that Kirk’s faith inspired him.
“Charlie was an inspiration to me because, as a Christian, I love that he spread the gospel like he did,” he said. “And that's pretty inspirational, just him being open with his faith like he was.”
Related: Charlie Kirk’s Memorial Proved His Legacy: Pointing People to Jesus
Skyla, the volunteer who gave me a shirt, told me that she started a high school chapter of TPUSA. She said that conservatism has always been part of her life.
“I've always been conservative,” she said. “I grew up in a conservative household, but I just decided to take things into my own hands and make myself uncomfortable and put myself in these positions because that's what helps people grow.”
Skyla said that she believes that Kirk lit a fire that will continue to burn brightly. She told me that the conservative movement is “only getting bigger. There's so many people I've seen on X and everywhere. People are going to church for the first time. People are getting Bibles for the first time. And I truly believe this was Charlie's purpose on Earth, everything leading up to this moment, to where he died; this is why. It just — it means so much. And that is his purpose. That is what God wanted him to do.”
Henry Smith, a pre-med student studying biomedical physiology, told me that his main reason for stopping by the tailgate was to pick up one of the FREEDOM shirts that Kirk sported so often. Kirk’s boldness on social issues caught Smith’s attention.
“I love that he never backed down on the conservative social side,” Smith said. “I feel like a lot of modern Republicans, they sort of give leeway in that area. They just sort of fight for lower taxes, whereas Charlie, he wasn't afraid to fight against abortion or fight against transgenderism.”
Smith said he’s looking forward to 2028, and he’s curious to see who emerges as the GOP presidential frontrunner.
“I'll be interested to see what the battleground looks like in 2028 if it'll be JD or Marco Rubio,” he told me. “I really don't know. If I had to guess, it'd probably be JD, but I'm not really sure.”
Smith also said he takes inspiration from Kirk’s “faith, his relationship with his family, his wife Erika, and his two kids.”
“That was super inspiring, and I've seen a lot of podcasts and stuff with him, and just the way he treated them and the way he prioritized them is really cool,” he added.
Seeing not just young people hanging out with the TPUSA folks but also entire families was encouraging. It was a marked contrast to the “No Kings” yahoos I saw as I was driving home for the game, a crowd that was mostly Boomers. I have plenty of reasons to be excited about the future of conservatism.
Author's note: The featured photo on this article is our tailgate from a few weeks ago. I didn't get any photos of the TPUSA tailgate.
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