Breana Noble | Collegian
Radio host Glenn Beck broadcasts his radio show on The Blaze from the Conservative Political Action Conference’s radio row Thursday.
National Harbor, MD – Conservative leaders at the Conservative Political Action Conference called young people to action Thursday.
While speakers covered topics across the board from tax policy to foreign affairs, the message to share conservative values stood out among the rest. This was especially important, they said, during an election season.
“Young people are in control of the future,” radio host Glenn Beck told The Collegian. “They are the next greatest generation, like when we pushed for change the last time in the 1940s.”
Filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza said through conversation, conservatism spreads.
“I would like to see more young people being active in articulating conservative values and how they apply to young people,” D’Souza said.
National Review writer Charles Cooke added that young people need to educate themselves on the issues to defend constitutional principles.
“You look at really the vast majority, and they don’t seem to know a lot about candidates,” Cooke said. “The best thing to do is get involved locally. You don’t have to be the next George Will, just the guy next door.”
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., echoed the notion of community involvement.
“They need to get out, get the Y-O-U-R network engaged so that we can win the White House and send some conservatives to the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate and make sure our state legislators are elected conservatives,” Blackburn said.
Grover Norquist, founder and president of Americans for Tax Reform, emphasized the time for millennials to do that is now.
“Get involved and don’t wait. Don’t let someone tell you to wait to get involved, when you’re in school,” Norquist said. “Make politics a part of your life…Don’t be that person who says, ‘Well, I don’t do politics.’ You should be – wherever you move, whenever you move to a new town, a new state – one of the things you do is, ‘How do I plug into the poltical life here?’”
Several freedom fighters said the defense of conservative principles is especially important during the election.
“Literally, your freedom is on the line. I don’t mean a campaign slogan – I mean actual freedom,” former secret service agent Dan Bongino said. “If it’s on health care, it’s not your choice. You won’t be able to decide where your kids go to school. You have the Bernie Sanders’ version of America, and the freedom version of America.”
Cooke criticized Donald Trump as a candidate the Founders didn’t want to lead.
“A candidate like Donald Trump is exactly the sort of person the country is set up to avoid,” Cooke said. “The prospect of someone leading with the sheer power of will is something the Founders tried to avoid. He threatened the speaker of the House – that’s not how change works.”
But Beck provided advice on how to decide who to support: “Decide not by emotion but by reason and experience, and then check it with your heart.”
