One for the Ages
I can honestly say that last Wednesday’s TCU TP USA/College Republicans event was one of the best nights of my life! It was such a wonderful way to end my college career at TCU and with Turning Point USA/College Republicans.
For those who don’t know, some up-and-coming conservative political commentators came to my school: Texas Christian University (TCU).
The event’s speakers were John Doyle, Blake Kresses, Gabe Victal, and Kaden Lopez. All four of the speakers are based conservatives, epic chads, and overall genuine guys!
John Doyle is the host of the YouTube show Heck Off Commie—which has over 320 thousand subscribers and 26 million views in just three years. He also makes frequent appearances on multiple shows on the conservative media network The Blaze.
What makes John special is that he “gets it”. He doesn’t just recycle neo-conservative talking points and libertarian economics in his videos/media appearances. Instead, he accurately analyzes the collapse of the Traditional American society
The other three speakers (Kaden, Blake, & Gabe) are all co-hosts for the YouTube channel The KGB Show. The KGB guys—as I call them—got their political starts by making political Tik Toks. They all amassed huge followings in Tik Tok—with over 100 thousand followers on their personal accounts—and spread conservative ideas to numerous young Americans. They also were a part of the well-known Tik Tok group the Republican Hype House–which had over 1 million followers before the account got censored/banned.
The theme of the night’s speaking event was titled “Battle for the Soul of America”. I came up with theme based off of Pat Buchanan’s famed “Culture War” speech at the 1992 Republican National Convention.
The speakers for this event discussed some of the different facets of the ongoing “Culture War”. I thoroughly enjoyed the speeches from this event, and I hope all the event attendees did too!
Everything Happens for a Reason
Before I talk about the event, I wanted to share how the event even happened.
The short answer is divine intervention, but I know y’all still want to hear the full story.
After I met John Doyle at the 2021 Student Action Summit, I sent him an email to see if he wanted to come speak at TCU. I didn’t hear back from him for a while—probably because he was busy making content for his YouTube channel ( that’s a joke because John rarely posts on his channel).
I didn’t hear back from John for a few months, so I didn’t expect anything to happen. That all changed on a fateful Saturday night in October. While I was watching the LSU vs. Auburn football game, I checked my email and saw that the John Doyle sent me an email.
John said that he was interested in coming to speak at TCU! That got me hyped!
Several weeks later, the TCU chapter hosted the Turning Point USA chapter hosted TP USA Contributors Alex Clark and Isabel Brown. At that speaker event, I noticed that several conservative social media influencers/content creators came to the event.
After the event, I reached out to one of the guys who I remembered from the event—Turning Point USA Ambassador Blake Kresses. I started looking at his content, and I was definitely impressed with his work. So, I decided to DM him on Instagram to see if he was interested in coming to speak at TCU for the John Doyle event.
Turns out, both Blake and his co-hosts on the KGB Show (i.e. Kaden and Gabe) are all good friends with John Doyle! The conservative political world is indeed a small world.
Blake and his buddies agreed to come speak at TCU, so the future speaking event at TCU was starting to shape up well. Fortunately, I was later able to meet up with Kaden, Blake, Gabe, and John, and we were able to iron out the details for the speaker event on December 1st!
Overall, I can’t tell you how many hours went into planning this event. The whole event-planning process was time-consuming and even frustrating at times. Still, it was all worth it in the end! I am so thankful that this event was able to happen.
Now, we’ll move onto discussing the epic event itself!
A Night to Remember!
I will freely admit that I had no idea how the event would go. I was definitely afraid of that the event might flop. Nevertheless, I just prayed and kept doing everything in my power to make sure this event would work.
The event consisted of two main parts. First, the KGB Show guys delivered a discussion panel primarily on the topics of “Big Tech Censorship” and “the Meaning of Conservatism”.
During their panel, they showed how conservative politicians have failed to use their duly-elected powers for the benefit of their constituents. Instead, they are afraid to act or just simply don’t care when Big Tech companies crack down on freedom of speech or mega-corporations enact vaccine mandates on employees.
As Blake pointed out in the panel, much of this unwillingness to use government power stems from a libertarian mindset that many conservative politicians and commentators carry.
The KGB Show guys also discussed what they thought is the true of meaning of conservatism—to make it easier for Americans to have families. The natural family is the bedrock of this nation, and our country will remain weak as long as the family unit remains weak.
I truly believe that the KGB Show panel acted as a red-pill for many of the audience members who were more neo-conservative or libertarian.
For the second part of the event, John Doyle gave a speech on the “goal of American conservatism”.
In his speech, John pointed out that the goal of conservatism is the preservation of the “Traditional American society”. It is not about promoting abstract principles such as “the free market”, “limited government”, or “liberty”. Instead, those principles are the tools that bring about the goal of conservatism.
From the time of Barry Goldwater’s seminal work The Conscience of a Conservative until the election of our beloved President Cheeto, freedom became the overarching goal of American political conservatism. The emphasis on “freedom” came out the cost of preserving the Traditional American society—the family, the Church, etc.
Another interesting point from the speech was about the relationship between fiscal conservatism and social conservatism. John flat-out said that fiscal conservatism cannot exist without social conservatism. Limited government cannot exist without a moral fabric holding the society together. This point rings home with how America has changed in recent years.
John’s speech was also objective funny too. For instance, he said that “Washington didn’t cross the Delaware so that your daughters could have OnlyFans accounts!” John is able to come up with so many unrehearsed, funny quips on-the-fly. So, it’s always a treat to hear some of John’s funny comments in his speeches.
After John did a brief Q&A, the event finally came to a close. What a night!
However, I was in for one more surprise.
Once John Doyle finished his Q&A, the presidents of the TCU TP USA & College Republicans thanked everyone for coming to the event.
However, the president of TCU TP USA Reagan Gates called me up to the front of the room. I had no clue what was going on. Reagan first said some genuinely kind compliments about me and mentioned that I am about to graduate. What followed next blew me away.
Reagan pulled out a gift box for me to open up. In the box was a Turning Point USA graduation stole. I felt so blessed in that moment. All of the praise and appreciation that everyone showed me at the event was so amazing.
Thanks be to Christ Jesus for all the opportunities I’ve gotten with Turning Point USA and College Republicans. I hope everyone who came to the speaker event enjoyed it a lot too!
Best Moments from the Night
I’ve decided to list off some memorable moments from the event & from hanging out afterwards. I won’t make this part too long since this post is getting long:
-Taking a photo with the KGB Show, John Doyle, Red Eagle Politics, Kai Clips, and Lance videos. In the photo, I held up a sign that all the guys signed. The sign was originally a “Cuteservative” TP USA sign. But, one of the guys crossed out the “cute” part of the word and added “dude” to make the sign read “Cute Dude-servatives”
-John Doyle signing a copy of his speech and giving it to me as a gift for my brother (my brother’s Instagram: Screwoffcapitalist)
-Smoking cigars with Kaden, Gabe, Blake, Kai Clips, and Red Eagle Politics
-All four speakers signing a copy of the event of the flyer—as a gift to me.
-Getting to introduce John Doyle before his speech. I felt like a absolute champ for getting to do that.
-Singing “Dixieland Delight” with Kaden in my car after the event
-Honestly, pretty much everything about the event was fantastic! I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
A Thank You
I want to personally thank everyone involved in making this whole event!
Here’s the format I’m using to thank everyone: “I want to thank ____ for ____ …”
-I want to thank Aldo: for helping me broker the event with John Doyle. He definitely helped me with
-… My Brother (Instagram: Screwoffcapitalist): for making the event advertisement & for listening to me vent about the event-planning process. Please go follow @screwoffcapitalist on Instagram for some hilarious political memes.
-Kai Clips: for travelling all the way from Utah for the event! He’s truly a dedicated America 1st patriot and a cool guy to talk to.
-Lance Videos, Kaylee Campbell, Red Eagle Politics, & Red Boy Hickabilly: for attending the event and promoting it on their social medias! Their marketing of the event definitely went a long way.
-Kaden, Gabe, & Blake: for doing their 1st ever panel together as the KGB Show! The guys also helped market the event a ton—from promoting on their social media to coming to TCU to help with on-campus tabling. This event wouldn’t have been possible without their help
-John Doyle: for giving such an epic speech and for being my personal hero. We may be the same age, but I truly admire John for what he is doing for our nation. I am so grateful that he came and gave a talk at TCU before my graduation.
-Reagan Gates (TCU TP USA Chapter Prez): for giving me the opportunity to join the TP USA Executive board. Without her, I would have not have met some many fantastic people and made so many lasting memories. I can’t thank her enough for everything.
-CR Exec board: Cole, Gavin, Nate, & Cullen: for putting up with my hard-headedness at times. I appreciate the patience y’all showed me in the event-planning process.
-Ben & Audrey—for travelling over 1000 miles each to come to TCU and attend this event
-Nikkelle (TCU TP USA Field Rep): I appreciate all the support you gave me in making this event work. You really helped me make sure that this event was going to happen.
–Dedicated members of TP USA & College Republicans: Alex, Josh S, Josh P, Chloe S, Chloe A, etc. I appreciate all the help y’all gave at tabling and for setting-up the event.
–The TP USA exec board: for helping me figure out how to plan and market an event. I did not have much experience in these areas prior to this event, so it really meant a lot that y’all helped me a bit there.
Pictures & Video from Event:
To finally close, I included some pictures from the event.
The KGB Show also posted a video of their panel at the event. Definitely check it out. Here’s the link to it: KGB Panel video