Turning Point USA

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Turning Point USA
legal form 501 (c) (3) organization
founding 5th June 2012
founder Charlie Kirk, Bill Montgomery
Seat United StatesUnited States United States
purpose Political activism
Action space United StatesUnited States United States United Kingdom
United KingdomUnited Kingdom 
Chair Charlie Kirk
Website www.tpusa.com

Turning Point USA ( TPUSA ) is a US student, conservative , right-wing populist non-profit organization . According to its own statements, it advocates self-reliance , free markets and limited government powers. Turning Point USA runs a number of other conservative activism organizations, such as Students for Trump, Turning Point News, and Turning Point Action. In the United Kingdom, the Turning Point UK branch exists.

Organization and activities

Candace Owens and Charlie Kirk at the Student Political Action Summit organized by TPUSA (2018)

Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA in 2012 when he was 18 years old. At the 2012 Republican National Convention , he met Foster Friess, a prominent Republican donor, and convinced him to fund the organization. Friess also serves on the organization's advisory board, alongside Ginni Thomas, wife of the US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas .

Turning Point hosts several annual national conferences, including the Young Women's Leadership Summit (YWLS) and the Young Latino Leadership Summit. In 2017 and 2018, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was the main sponsor of the YWLS. According to the New York Times , YWLS is styling itself "as an alternative to a liberal culture of feminism, which many Republicans describe as oppressive" and by 2018 "has developed into an ultra- Trumpian event, with chants of" lock her up "and vulgar T Shirts that demean Hillary Clinton . " Candace Owens , who caught attention days before the 2018 conference by saying" #metoo's entire premise is that women are stupid, weak and insignificant ", was featured at the conference with Standing ovations welcomed.

Each of the paid employees at Turning Point should achieve a quota of at least 1500 student contacts per semester. The volunteers have several different topics to encourage conservative ideas including " The Healthcare Games ", " Game of Loans " and " iCapitalism ".

Turning Point USA is pro-military , anti-feminist and anti-Islamist . You support fossil fuels , the goals of the NRA and are critical of Black Lives Matter .

In February 2019, Turning Point established a website in the UK after having previously expanded to Canada.

Professor watchlist

Turning Point USA operates a website called Professor Watch. Charlie Kirk said the website is " devoted to documenting and exposing college professors who discriminate against conservative students, promote anti-American values ​​and promote left-wing propaganda in the classroom. " According to Politico, " [the] list [...] contains many inaccuracies, including professors listed for things they did not exactly say or did, and others for their rudeness to students or for their" wise remarks "about Trump are listed. "

The website has been criticized for distributing propaganda and monitoring to manipulate ideas of truth, equality and freedom. Critics have compared Professor Watchlist to the actions of US Senator Joseph McCarthy , who attempted to publicly identify American citizens as communists and communist sympathizers in the 1950s . The New York Times wrote that it was " a threat to academic freedom ".

Participation in the 2016 presidential election

Several former Turning Point USA staff and student volunteers alleged illegal collusion and collaboration between the organization and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio's presidential campaigns . Kirk himself and top consultant Ginni Thomas were involved in this. Among other things, Kirk sent students to support Cruz's election campaign and passed on the data of more than 700 students to Rubio's campaign.

In October 2016, Kirk attended a Fox News event along with Donald Trump Jr. , Eric Trump and Lara Trump , the tone of which was rather supportive of Donald Trump , another candidate in the 2016 presidential election . A Turning Point USA employee wrote on Facebook that students who attended the event were getting their expenses covered. The event led tax professionals to testify that the organization's conduct may have violated its tax-exempt status, which it denies.

Turning Point UK

Turning Point UK (TPUK) is a British offshoot of Turning Point USA, which is directed against the supposedly predominantly left-wing political ideology that is seen as dominant in British schools, colleges and universities. The organization has received support from several UK Conservative MPs , including Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg . Even Nigel Farage , a Member of the European Parliament , expressed his goodwill. Labor MP David Lammy, on the other hand, described the establishment of the group as evidence that “dark forces are taking power in our country” and that the Conservative Party openly supports xenophobia .

The chairman of Turning Point UK until 2019 was George Farmer, the husband of Candace Owens and son of Michael Farmer , a member of the House of Lords .

TPUK claims to be represented at the Universities of Sussex , Oxford , St. Andrews , York , Warwick , Nottingham , King's College London , University College London , London , London School of Economics and University of the Arts London and gives, like Turning Point USA, does not reveal the identity of their donors.

criticism

Charlie Kirk has repeatedly claimed that TPUSA has no relationships with alt-right groups . In 2017 TPUSA organized campus visits by former Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos to the University of Colorado Boulder and Miami University (Ohio).

In December 2017, former employees of the TPUSA organization alleged racist practices and potentially illegal participation in the 2016 presidential election .

In 2018, the Southern Poverty Law Center's Hate Watch documented TPUSA's links with white racists. It describes the organization as alt-lite .

Web links

Commons : Turning Point USA  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.tpusa.com/about
  2. ↑ This boy wonder is building a conservative MoveOn.org in a Lemont garage. May 6, 2015, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Rebecca Nelson, National Journal: The 21-Year-Old Becoming a Major Player in Conservative Politics. March 25, 2015, Retrieved March 7, 2019 (American English).
  4. ^ Right-wing media exploit the death of an NFL player-turned-soldier to rebuke Colin Kaepernick. September 4, 2018, accessed March 7, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Cas Mudde: I went inside a rightwing safe space to find out the truth about universities | Cas Mudde . In: The Guardian . April 7, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed March 7, 2019]).
  6. ↑ Conservative Activist Charlie Kirk Brings 'Campus Clash' Lecture to Cornell. October 15, 2018, Retrieved March 7, 2019 (American English).
  7. ^ A b Joseph Guinto: Trump's Man on Campus. In: Politico. Politico LLC, April 6, 2018, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  8. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/professor-watchlist-is-seen-as-threat-to-academic-freedom.html
  9. ↑ Jane Mayer: Allegations of Racial Bias and Illegal Campaign Activity at a Conservative Nonprofit That Seeks to Transform College Campuses. In: The New Yorker. Condé Nast, December 21, 2017, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  10. ↑ https://www.chronicle.com/article/Inside-a-Stealth-Plan-for/240008
  11. ↑ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2019/02/07/backlash-against-turning-point-uk-rather-proves-point-hard-conservative/
  12. ↑ https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/8350984/what-is-turning-point-uk-does-jacob-rees-mogg-support-it-and-why-are-they-controversial/
  13. ↑ Peter Walker: Tory MPs back youth group with apparent links to US far right. In: The Guardian. Guardian News & Media Limited, February 4, 2019, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  14. ^ A b Luke Barnes: Turning Point USA launches British chapter to rocky reception. In: ThinkProgress. February 4, 2019, accessed April 19, 2020 .
  15. ^ David Brown: Right-wing student leader Charlie Kirk will tour UK universities . Ed .: Times Newspapers Limited. ISSN  0140-0460 ( thetimes.co.uk [accessed April 19, 2020]).
  16. ↑ http://cherwell.org/2019/01/28/right-wing-dark-money-comes-to-oxford-student-politics/
  17. ↑ http://www.timescall.com/lifestyles/ci_30740081/2-000-student-fees-going-toward-milo-yiannopoulos
  18. ↑ https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/02/16/turning-point-usas-blooming-romance-alt-right
  19. ↑ https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/15/turning-point-usa-accused-%E2%80%98boosting-their-numbers-racists%E2%80%99-long-established- conservative