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Okay, so it is Thursday. October 21st. 2021. I'm in Washington D.C.. Lydia, where are you? I'm in Anderson, South Carolina. Very cool. I'm sitting in my apartment. And where are you? I'm also in my apartment.

00:00:18.200 - 00:00:31.200

Very cool. Very cool. I'm Michaela Fehn and Lydia, if you want to say your full name that, that works great. I'm Lydia Mackey. Perfect. And do I have your permission to record this interview? Yes, you do.

00:00:31.600 - 00:02:19.920

Perfect. So today we're going to be talking about conservatism and kind of how you got here. So, could you start by telling me a little bit about your childhood describe your immediate family. What does that look like for you? So I'm from Simpsonville which is about 45 minutes away from where I go to school. Um. It's near Greenville, South Carolina if you know where that is. It's like at the top. And I have like, basically, the ideal family, (laughs) to be honest. My parents are both amazing. I have brother and sister. My parents are both super conservative. I grew up in a Christian family, and I'm a Christian too. And I would say that that has had a huge effect on what I believe because they've been so intentional to kind of give me the tools to learn myself, but also teaching, excuse me teaching me what they believe in a really cohesive way. Very cool. So who would you say was your biggest influence growing up? Um, probably both of my parents. My mom homeschooled me until I was in 11th grade. So in 11th and 12th, I went to private school. So, I spent a lot of time with her. (laughs) So she has had a huge influence on my life. And then also my dad. I get a lot of my personality and like, the way I view the world, like, the way my brain looks at the world, I guess. It's a weird way to say it, but yeah, from the way he does. So I would say that both of them have had a huge effect on my whole life. (laughs)

00:02:20.900 - 00:05:26.680

So family's a big impact, and with that, you mentioned religion and that you identify as a Christian. So, tell me a little bit more about that. Yeah, so my dad was a pastor until I was nine, so I kind of grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. I was the kind of girl that was like there Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, like all time. And then my dad started his own business, which also had an effect on my conservative views because I kind of saw, like, what it looks like for a business in a free market versus what that would have looked like had he had all the other regulations, but that's kind of an aside. (laughs) So I, we kind of bounced around churches, not part of the story, but ultimately it was up to me to decide like I'm gonna buy into this. I'm gonna have my faith, and I'm going to have a relationship with God, and everything that I believe flows out of what I get from scripture and what he says about the world. Because if he made it, he must know what's going on. So that obviously has a huge role in what I believe politically because it's like faith then politics and everything else I believe throughout the world, which has been kind of a learning curve to learn how to reconcile those two and kind of plays a role in how I brought my politics to college because it is a Christian School also. So, that's been an interesting part, yeah. So I know that a lot of young Christians who grew up in Christian homes have that decision to make of whether or not they're going to keep their faith. What went into, really, your decision to stick with Christianity. I think I realized I couldn't do it without it. Um, There's, I, can get overwhelmed by the world very easily and without the peace and hope that comes through faith in God, I could not get through life. I literally, I could get, I would get so overwhelmed, but I know that when I do take the time to get to be close to God, that peace just washes over me. And without that, it would not be possible and it's like an anchor. I don't know how you could not be a Christian and have nothing to anchor your whole life to it. Um, I struggle sometimes with, like, I guess centralism sounds like the wrong word for it, but, like, just wondering why. And, without having that faith, I just, I don't think it would be possible to fight for what I believe in so strongly because it's not just based in what I think. It's based in scripture and the realities there.

00:05:28.200 - 00:09:13.200

Great answer. So, moving back into that early childhood. You mentioned you were homeschooled. So were there any social groups that you were involved in as a kid? Yeah. So it kind of varied when I was younger. It was a lot of church stuff. So, spending a ton of time with all different age groups, which is one thing I love about homeschooling. But I was able to spend time with anyone who was at the church. I was kind of there as a part of it. And then, as I got older, when I started sixth grade, I started American Heritage Girls, which is kind of like the Christian version of Girl Scouts. Excuse me. I just had bread. I just made pumpkin bread last night. So. Um. I was a part of that until through my junior year. And, so, that was something that I spent a lot of time doing. I worked really hard. You earn badges in that, and I spent a lot of time on that and learning from that. And now that I think back, its American Heritage Girls just very, like, patriotic focus, like, Christian patriotic type stuff, and I feel like that kind of has some role to play in how strongly I believe in our country. In the founding principles of it. So, that's been an interesting revelation to think about. And then I, through that, volunteered a lot. So, I, there's a stable near my house that I volunteered at like all the time, and then for a couple years and then a couple other organizations. So I spent a lot of time volunteering and then at the different churches that we went to after my dad moved on from pastoring. So, American Heritage Girls, I've never heard of it. So, I think it sounds like a really interesting organization. Was that a family decision for you to join? Or was that something that you told your parents you wanted to be a part of? It was kind of like, we were trying to find something to do. My sister and I were able to do it together. She's six years younger than me, but it starts in kindergarten. And so I started off sixth grade. She started in kindergarten. So, it was something that we were able to do together and with my mom, and we can't even looking for something to kind of plug into more. And it was a Christian alternative to Girl Scouts that are very liberal and very not Christian in the way that they do things. So, at the beginning, it was my mom being like, "Hey, we're going to try this and if we don't like it we can stop." And then ultimately, I was like I want to keep doing this. and it goes through Senior Year. By junior year, I was like I have done all I want to do. I earned, like, so, at each level, It's like six and fifth and sixth grade is one level. Seven and Eighth. And then nine, ten, eleven, twelve are like they're different levels and then under that you have other ones. And so at each level, there's like a badge you can earn to like for completing a certain amount of stuff. Like, you have to do a service project, whatever. And so I'd earned the highest one of those and the only other thing you could earn was this huge, like the equivalent of the eagle scout award, and I just did not. It was it's kind of a little more intensely Eagle Scout award honestly. But I just did not care to do that, and so I felt like there was really no reason for me to continue. So I also had -- I was very involved at school senior year and so I just didn't really have the time

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Interesting. Okay. Well, we've covered Faith and family and social groups. Let's talk about friendships. So have you had friends or even a romantic partner who have had any impact on shaping kind of how you view the world up until this point. It's kind of hard to say. Definitely not a romantic partner. I have never been in a relationship. So that's the thing. But as far as friends, I would say, so when I got to school, I was elementary education. That was my major. Now I'm a junior, and this is my first semester as a political science student. So I was not political at all when I got here. So, it's kind of hard to say that like, they specifically influenced my politics because I kind of brought politics to our school in a weird way. Accidentally -- not, that's a weird way to say it, but like there's a whole thing and we'll get into that. But I would say that like, I don't know. Kind of -- not -- I never really talked politics with my friends. I mean, in high school. I went to a little tiny, Christian School in South Carolina. So we were obviously, pretty conservative. So sometimes we would talk about, like, stuff, but not like deep political discussions or anything. I only really talked about, like, I always talk about theology, politics, stuff like that, with my parents, especially my dad, so I would say that's more where I had those discussions than, like, my friends, but now that I'm at school and with Turning Point and my poli-sci major, I definitely talk about politics with my friends, (laughs) a lot more. Very, very nice. So now we're going to move into South Carolina because that is a big part of your life, it sounds like. Yes.

00:11:19.600 - 00:15:30.100

So, I wanna know more about your hometown. So, like, what's the demographic? What's the political culture? I'm going to let you take it away. Yeah, for sure. So I've lived in South Carolina, specifically, like, the Greenville area, since I was three. I've moved to a couple different houses, but right in that area. So I have had kind of my whole upbringing there. It's kind of like a little smaller than Charlotte. So it's pretty good size city, but we live in, like a smaller town next to it. So, it's a pretty conservative area. We always go red in elections. Basically, everyone is considerable Republican within elections, like once they get voted in, they're definitely gonna be a republican. But there's a growing population of Democrats, as like, people are moving from, like, the population in Greenville has been exploding. So people are moving in from bigger cities and bringing their politics with them, which is a little frustrating, but we're going to get through it. So, I would say demographic wise, we have a large minority population. Just depending on, like, the specific area you're in. It's a pretty diverse area. The city is pretty much like any other city. See, it's just pretty diverse. Just like a smaller version. And then Simpsonville is just kind of like your general little small town, and I mean, it's growing a lot, but I would say it's kind of like -- picture what you would think of as the South -- and that's kind of what it is. But like right next to a little city. So I want to know more about your first political memory. Like if you think of the first moment that you realize the politics existed, how old were you? So I would say there's kind of two parts. The first time I like had anything to do with politics ever, I went to a Marco Rubio rally with my parents. I think I was twelve or thirteen, and it was, like, at a high school, in my hometown and my parents wanted to go, so I went with them. So I guess would have been for the 2016 election. So I would have been like thirteen, fourteen. And I remember that was the first time I ever even interacted with politics at all. But then, see the kind of didn't do anything about politics for like a while and then like my more recent politics being my thing -- memory, like the first one I have in that -- When, so I kind of started getting into politics in 2020 when everything was going on. I saw all of my friends kind of following one ideology that I didn't agree with, and I was no one is saying anything on this front that I agree with, and I was getting frustrated and a lot of it had to do with Black Lives Matter because the organization itself is just very sketchy in the way that they do things, and I was like, how can you support an organization that's like burning down whole cities. And so I posted on my Instaagram on my story and I was like, guys I'm getting so tired of seeing all of these people supporting Black Lives Matter, which is a horrible organization and not helping anybody. And I got a lot of people responding. A lot of people were like, "oh my gosh. I'm so glad I finally see someone who agrees with me." Like gosh, my cat is going crazy. So a lot of people were like, "yeah, I'm really excited to see this." But then some people were like, "You're not supporting Black Lives Matter -- like, what are you doing?" And so, That would be like the first time that I ever actually personally had anything to do with politics. But yeah, okay, that's nice.

00:15:31.200 - 00:18:19.700

Then you started getting involved on social media. Did you realize how politicized it was going to become? I don't think I realized how invested I would get. I talk to my parents about this and I was like -- I -- "everything in the world is politicized right now" and they're like and I was like, "has that always been the case?" And they were like, "no it's not." And so I kind of -- I think I didn't realize how, how much politics has kind of infiltrated every part of our culture and with it, like education and entertainment and everything else like that. Politics has become such a big part of everything. And I don't think I realized that or how much I would personally become involved in politics, (laughs) because it's basically what I do right now. So, looking back at these two memories -- how have they shaped your political journey? Like, if you had to give that elevator speech of well, this is how I got here, like what are those like moments since then that have gotten you into politics, I guess. So I realized that a lot of people were saying a lot of stuff online, and I had also been saying a lot of stuff online, but I realized that that's only going to do so much. You know, it's very kind of toxic to have political discussions online because there's going to be a lot of information lost in translation. And so I wanted to bring that into the real world -- into real life. And so I found Turning Point USA online through Instagram, I think, and I had started following tons of conservatives like Candace Owens, Ben Shapiro -- like everyone I could possibly think of. And I just got super -- started getting a ton of knowledge so that I could then take that into practice and I was like, "I should start a Turning Point chapter. And so I approached Turning Point and was like, "let's -- I want to do this" and they're like, "well, you need three people." And I was like oh dang. I don't know anybody who also likes politics. Like, I know a lot of people at school, but I've never talked politics with any of them. And so I started talking to people, and I eventually found a few people and we started Turning Point. And that was how I took my online politics into a real world application of it. And that has since kind of spiraled into me becoming a political science major and wanting to make that my career.

00:18:21.700 - 00:26:47.720

So you approached Turning Point, and they said you needed three people. Kind of walk me through like what it looks like to start a Turning Point USA chapter on your college campus, I guess. I'm going to put her [the cat] out and then I will answer the question. Sorry. Okay. So this process for me, has been a little bit of a nightmare. So on the Turning Point side, it's super easy. You just talk to them. You get your people. You sign a thing. Give it your like, contact information. I don't know if there's like, actually any other steps to it. There's just like a form. So that's super simple. But then comes the school part and actually getting on campus. And so, like I said, I go to a Christian school. It's a tiny private school. We have right now 3,500 students. When I got here, we had 2,500, so it's really growing. So, trying to arrange this so that it makes sense. I, in the fall of 2020, approach the school and said, "I want to start Turning Point at the school." And I was told that there was no clubs starting right now because they were starting a new process to start clubs. So they had to go through all of the forms and all the paperwork and they were restructuring the process to become a -- little -- to become club. And I was like, okay. Well, I'll get back in touch with you in a little bit. Um, ultimately I continue to get back in touch with them until March when they -- So the next, the end of the next semester, they were like, "all right, we have the process in place and you can come meet with us." And so, during this time, I had tried to go do surveys on campus just to get contacts because over that time, I was hired by Turning Point to be a campus coordinator. So basically that means I get contacts and take pictures so that they can then have those in their database and know that we're active. So I started doing that and to get those contacts, I would go on campus and do surveys. Because it's private property, they weren't a big fan of that. They never actually found out about that, but another group did the same thing, a pro-life group, and they got in big trouble for it. So we did that. But we also tried to have a meeting on campus, and they called me in the next day because we had our faculty advisor come with us to the meeting. We invited him. And then he wanted to check and make sure we were above board, and I had thought that we were above board and that it was allowed because we were in the process of becoming a club, and going through that process that we could meet as long as we were going through the right channels. I was incorrect. So I basically got called into the office and told that if we didn't take Anderson's name, out of our Instagram and we didn't stop meeting on campus, that there would be some serious consequences. At that point, we had [indistinguishable] people to want to do stuff with us. But Anderson was being incredibly difficult. So in March, I met with the lady who is over -- was over -- clubs and organizations and also her assistant who together, they designed the new clubs and orgs process. And they basically told me that there was no chance. Anderson stays out of politics, kind of, and I thought this was a major disservice to students. And so, they said, I could apply if I wanted to, but the process is -- You go -- there's 50 documents or whatever. I don't know. It's a ton and then you go to the clubs and orgs lady. She approves. You go to student government Senate. They have to vote on you and approve you. And then you have to go through five different signatures. So this process is supposed to take about two to three months now. So it is an involved process, but she basically said that once it got to her she wouldn't allow a political club to start on campus. And I kind of left that semester feeling really dejected, kind of disappointed. But we could always do stuff off campus. So we also did at the beginning of the fall semester, I forgot to mention this, but we did have an event off campus. Three people came. It was very small because people just -- students don't go off campus here. We don't live in a college town, so there isn't really anywhere that we can walk to that's off campus. So it's hard for us to like do anything off campus. This semester, we are, but we'll get there. So that summer -- last summer -- I kind of spent trying to figure out what are we going to do? You know, I was President all semester. I had trouble getting people to be proactive as I was trying to be, and I decided that I wanted to run for Student Government to try to change the process so that we can actually have political clubs on campus. And, so, I decided that I couldn't be president of Turning Point and also involved in all the other things I do on campus and do student government. So, I talked to a girl who was in our club and was like, "Hey, normally we do elections, to get -- Turning Point chapters are supposed to do elections to change leadership, but because Ours was not tradition, not a traditional club at this point or not official chapter, we just kind of switched roles. And so she took on the role of President and I'm vice president. So she kind of has the spearhead of it in a way, but also I kind of been doing a lot of it because ultimately our strong suits are not in the roles that were in and that's just a leadership thing where I just didn't have the time. She's got great skills, but there -- we both need to switch roles, but I don't have the time. So now I'm on student government. And this semester, we have met three times and we are meeting at the Anderson County Library, which is like five minutes from campus. We're meeting every other week. So that's exciting that we're finally getting to do things. But with student government I have kind of Allied myself with a couple of other senators, and one of them and I went and met with -- there's the new clubs and orgs Lady are [unintelligible] be on campus and talked for like 45 minutes. We sent our document after those like three pages of notes on it. So, we put a lot of effort into that and honestly, this has a lot more favorable than I anticipated. So that's kind of where I'm at now on campus. We're kind of waiting for that whole thing to be approved. But that's kind of the process. That was not an elevator pitch, but that's the thing. (laughs) So you mentioned that you were in conversation with both Turning Point, but you also have a faculty advisor. What support have both of those entities given you as you, kind of, try to get this club off the ground and running?

00:26:49.500 - 00:34:08.900

So through Turning Point, we have a field rep. His name's Mike, and he's the field rep for all of South Carolina. And I basically can call or text him anytime I need to, and he just kind of talks us through whatever. He was involved with the chapter at USC when it was -- when he was in college, and now kind of has graduated into this role. So that's kind of the main area of support from Turning Point. They will, like, literally anything I need, I can just text and be like, "hey, I have a question." and he'll be like, "sure." They also do grants. I haven't, we haven't applied for a grant yet, but we're going to apply for one for our next meeting because we're going to be doing a movie night. So that's another way that we can get support through Turning Point. And obviously, like, every -- every semester we get a ton of materials: stickers, buttons, pins -- buttons and pins are the same thing -- posters. They sent my [unintelligible] activism materials, flyers. We have little pamphlets that talk about Turning Point or talk about specific issues. So, as far as materials go, they send the students and support field rep. And then if we need to, I also can contact our regional manager above him. I have her number. So really Turning Point does a great job of being like these are people you can contact; I want to make sure you have the resources you need to succeed. So honestly, Turning Point has been a dream to work with. It's the school side that has been more of an issue. The Faculty advisor -- to become an official club, you have to have a faculty advisor. So we were able to find two professors -- well, actually ones the Dean of the college of health, and one is Dean of the college of business -- and both of them were willing to, kind of, support us as we were going through that process. And you know, there's like forms and advising that goes into their role as faculty advisor once we become a club. There, well, was not really a thing ever because we never became an official club. So that one time that we did have a meeting, we had our faculty advisor come to show him this is what we're going to do. So, should we become an official club, their role will become advisory when it comes to the school and how we should handle different situations within the school. So in the fight to become represented on your college campus, when does that look like it's going to actually happen and you'll be an officially recognized club? So, it's -- Anderson operates, the school I go to, Anderson operates very safely in everything they do. So in order for anything to happen, they're going to have to get about a million signatures. It's going to have to pass a lot of hands. In order for political clubs to be allowed on campus, there's going have to be signatures from the president of the school himself. So this is a long process. There has been discussion by the people who I talk to of doing just one big blanket, political club and I'm like, "that is not the point." Because of Turning Point, I have been able to go to conferences across the country. I have made a ton of new friends across the country. I have so many new connections and contacts and such a future in my chosen career because of Turning Point and with just some blanket traditional, like, generic political club, that's not the case. One reason that we believe that it will happen is because Anderson looks at a list -- they have list of schools that are like comparable schools -- that they look at to see how they're going to operate. And I went through that list myself, and it's like twelve or thirteen schools and I went to all of their websites and found out if they have any political clubs and all but one had political clubs listed on their website and one of them just didn't have any clubs listed. So I really think political clubs are widespread, you know, and there's kind of a stigma in college that we're super political, and we are. We have these conversations anyway. We have a political science department at my school. That's growing. It started four years ago with eight students, and now we have over fifty students, and that's just growing all the time. Students are transferring into it all the time. So it kind of doesn't make sense for us not to have political clubs. We need a -- political science students need a chance to make those connections and it's kind of disingenuous to say that we're not going to have politics in college. But as soon as you step out of college, you're going to have to figure out what you believe politically and how that aligns with your faith and how that aligns with your career and how you're going to, like, all of the things -- that's just so much. So we really believe that political clubs are a positive thing to have on campus. And that it won't cause more division because I think we're adults -- at somewhat -- we're adults. We can handle it. We're going to have those conversations. We're going to have those disagreements anyway, so let's bring it out into the open and kind of right now because political clubs are forbidden, they kind of seem like politics are way up here and no one can touch them. And that's just not the case, you know. Politics should be something that people can talk about and discuss whether you agree or not. So that's why we're trying to get this going, but realistically, it's not going to be until March until we know what's going on. My, my advisor for SGA -- everyone's advisor for SGA -- She said that she will give us updates every two weeks. So we met with her last week on Monday, so it won't be this week but next week. She'll send us an update telling us what the status is right now, but I heard from our student body president who was like "listen, they're usually this kind of proposal will get shot down immediately," but he talked to the next guy whose hands will touch this and that man was like "We'll see. We're looking at it." Which is really strong, yes, compared to the no that you would think you would get. So, yeah. So you're fighting to bring conservative clubs to campus. But with that flip side, there's also the possibility of other ideologies forming political clubs on campus. How do you foresee the relationship between your club, Turning Point USA, and maybe another club that doesn't necessarily agree. What does that look like?

00:34:10.000 - 00:41:09.500

So we are fighting for all political clubs on campus. We think that students should have the right to have a club around what they believe in if political clubs get on campus. And if there's, for instance, a young Democrats' Club, I would hope that Turning Point would be able to partner with them and be like, "hey, let's have a debate or let's, you know, we can table next to each other in the quad or whatever." So, I would hope that we would be able to have a positive relationship. As a leader of Turning Point, I'm never gonna, I mean, Turning Point is non partisan -- well, it is conservative -- and a lot of it is around Free Speech. A lot of it is around discussion and having the ability to have those hard conversations. And so I would hope that we could have those hard conversations. And if not, I feel like it'll just be a "you don't touch me. I won't touch you" type situation. But yeah, I'm fighting for everyone to be able to have whatever political club they want. Anderson has mentioned like, but what if one club starts and another doesn't -- is it going to be like misrepresentation and students can start what they want. And if there's not student interest, then it's not Anderson's responsibility to make sure that that interest is represented. So, we've talked a lot about Turning Point. I want to kind of tease out this organization. So tell me more about their mission. Yeah, so Turning Point's mission is to organize -- identify, organize and I kind of forget the actual words, but it's identify, engage, and organize. That's it. Students -- So, a lot of what we do is making contacts, finding students who are interested in having some say in the conservative movement and bringing them in and saying, "Hey, let's be a part of this. Let's talk about it" and flipping them to then go out and use those things that they believe as, you know, fuel for whatever they're going to argue. (laughs) So a lot of what we do as a chapter is equipping students. Turning Point National sends out every semester a schedule. So, every week has a theme. So this week is "socialism sucks" theme and all the clubs across the country kind of focus on that. Our chapter meets every other week, so we kind of flip-flopped because we know that our students are very pro-gun. We -- last week was supposed to be second amendment -- so we switch Second Amendment to this week so that we could talk about that because we know our students are going to want to talk about that. But Turning Point makes a lot of graphics and information for us to spread to the students, and that's kind of the main area that they influence what we do. They give us a lot of tools to then share that information, but it's kind of up to us how we want it to look. Some chapters are more like social clubs. So they'll just go get dinner every other week or something like that. Some clubs are more, you know, "we're gonna have a discussion, we're gonna have a debate." It just depends on what demographic the students are at that school. Some school --I don't remember what it is? -- there -- a bunch of frat boys started a Turning Point chapter, and they basically have it as an extension of their frat house. And so they just like, I don't know how often they do it, but they just get together and have a party that's conservative themed. And that's how they do Turning Point at their school. But with Turning Point also comes a bunch of resources, people wise. So they have what they call the "Speaker's Bureau", and you can invite speakers to come to your school. Turning Point helps to pay for that, and they give us a ton of resources to also fundraise for that. And then the other thing that they have are -- my gosh, my mind is like losing words so fast -- but they have Summits -- conferences that's the word -- conferences and that is one way that students can be kind of connected to conservative students across the country. And then encouraged because it can be hard to sit in class, and hear your socialist teacher tell you that conservatives are idiots every week, and going to one of these conferences -- I've been to four of them over the last couple of years. It's really encouraging and you get to hear from incredible speakers like Candace Owens and Michael Knowles and Tucker Carlson and Kayleigh McEnany and Donald Trump, Jr. -- and the list goes on and on and on at these conferences. But it gives you a chance to kind of focus in, like this weekend, I'm going to learn about politics and I'm going to make connections and I'm going to leave this conference knowing more people than I came knowing. And I think that's one thing that Turning Point does really well is just connecting students so that they don't feel alone in this fight because it feels like a fight to tell people, you know, I don't want you taking away my freedom, but I also don't want to take away yours. And sometimes, it's like talking to brick walls, but I think that Turning Point -- the one reason that I love what they do is that they're Conservative and not just like, "we're Republicans". That's a stack status. But it's also helps us to say, specifically, you know, this is what we believe, and this is how we're going to share that message. And we're going to appeal to young people and we're going to be exciting or gonna have a great time because young Republicans and young Democrats have a big stigma of being boring and just having boring meetings every week. But we don't want to do that. We want to have fun events. We want to, you know, really be engaging and reach out to students and say "hey! Politics aren't this big scary thing for old people". You know, students like us can get involved. And I think Turning Point has been, honestly, such a huge influence on my life. It's crazy to think about how different my life is because of Turning Point. So it sounds like there's this big community aspect of Turning Point USA. So with that Community, does that extend outside of the Turning Point Club? Like, Tell me a little bit more about how you build community with these people outside of the club?

00:41:10.200 - 00:45:05.700

Yeah, so, kind of, for my chapter individually, I -- my best friend -- I know her because of Turning Point, and we literally constantly talk politics. We constantly -- I see her hours every day. So that's one way that Turning Point has kind of personally influenced me, friend wise. But also all of the people in our chapter I talk to outside of our chapter, and I think we're all really intentional about being like, "okay, I really agree with that person". And there's something really cool about knowing where someone stands politically and having that open connection. Bringing it to the conferences -- you're only at those things for three days, but I leave those conferences knowing that I will know these people forever. I have so many close friends. I went to my first Turning Point conference in December of 2020 -- which is just wild to think about because I have since been to several -- but the friends that I made there -- I mean, I went there knowing nobody and I left with two super close friends that I hung out with all weekend and I, we follow each other on Instagram and I still see all their stuff and I'll comment back in the comments and be, like, we talked for a few, several, months after that just texting and stuff. So, since then though, I went to -- over the summer, I went to the Chapter Leadership Summit, which is for, it was about three hundred chapter leaders from across the country got chosen to go. And the friends that I made there I then saw again at Southern Regional Conference that I went to with a couple friends from Anderson a few weeks ago in the middle of October and November -- maybe the middle of September. It is November. And seeing them again, it was like we were best friends. I saw that I was like, "oh my gosh. Hey!" and we're hugging. It was so fun. There's something about these conferences that just breaks down barriers and you become friends with people so quickly because you're thrown into this wild situation. You never know what's going to happen. I tell everyone that I meet, "you got to go Turning Point conference". They're so encouraging, so fun. There's so much energy there and, yeah, we're wearing business formal during -- or business casual during the day, but then at night, you have your nights free, so you can do whatever you want. And it's just so exciting. Like, literally you never know what's gonna happen. I mean in, June, I went to the Chapter Leadership Summit and at that Summit, a lot of it was about connecting -- all of them are a lot about connecting -- but this one is specifically about connecting to other chapter leaders so that you would then be able to talk to them and share ideas and support each other because it can feel really hard to be a chapter leader on campus. A lot of us get some negative feedback from our peers or, you know, it's a huge time commitment, and you're giving up other things to do Turning Point. And so at that conference they paid for us to go to Diamondbacks game, like a professional MLB game. I don't know how to say words like about baseball, but it was super fun. I don't know anything about baseball, really, but it was so cool that Turning Point was intentional in that and they were like, "we're going to give you an opportunity to go do something fun while we're also equipping you to be a successful chapter later". Very, very interesting. So now that we're moving -- I'm going to move us towards the conservative movement as a whole. Yeah. So Turning Point USA considers themself to be an activist organization. Would you agree with that statement?

00:45:11.900 - 00:46:23.700

[unintelligible] and that's what Turning Point does every I mean, we are [unintelligible] in the capitalism in the merits [unintelligible] and we talk about how our second amendment is super important and how our founding fathers were [unintelligible] and they did have an amazing impact on our world. And I would say that that's like the definition of activism (laughs) because we are actively trying to get that message across every day. So what would you consider to be the most important part of activism in the conserve, in the conservative movement? What branch do you think is the most important? Um, maybe like issue wise? Or just like economic, environmental, political, social, cultural -- like what changes that the conservative movement fights for? Kind of flush those out. Which do you think is the most important?

00:46:26.400 - 00:53:46.900

I think cultural. Number one, there's a huge stigma around Republicans that they're old white dudes, and that is just simply not the case. I mean, you look at the Conservative movement and it's young and it's exciting and it's positive, and I think sharing that will help people to see why we believe what we believe. And I think as far as like the most important aspect, I think -- I also think social because Conservatives believe in traditional principles. We believe in traditional, I mean, it goes back to even family values and economic values and political values. All of those are -- they all work really well together. And so I would say Liberalism and leftism have taken over every aspect of social life. You know, they're trying to change the definition of a woman or they're trying to infiltrate the elementary school system so that students are taught to be racists, and I think that that's the most important aspect is Number One getting back into schools and being like, "Hey, we're not going to stand for this". Like, we're not going to let our kids be taught this rubbish. And also the social, like, "I'm not going to bow down to the idea of a man becoming a woman. And I'm not going to bow down to the idea that motherhood is not something that's reserved for women. And I'm not going to bow down to the idea that I have to get a vaccine or be ostracized from society". And I think that that's where conservatives have to stand on these things because so often we have just kind of sat down and been like "Yeah, you know, we believe that people can do what they want", but at some level, we're not libertarian. We're conservative, and we believe in, right and wrong. We have to stand up for those things and politics are downstream from culture. That's a really -- but it's a statement that I kind of really latch onto because it's true. What people believe socially and culturally really floats into politics, and you can see that. I mean, our health advisor is a trans-fat person. Like, it doesn't make any sense. And so I think you can really see how culture sifts down to politics and how that just shouldn't be the case. Like, the leftist, liberal, atheistic views should not control our world because they are not good. They're not good principles. And they lead to moral decay, and then with moral decay, I mean with freedom and with -- it's a freedom to responsibility. It's not freedom from responsibility. And so within the conservative movement, we can only have those freedoms if we're responsible for our actions. And that's where leftism fails -- is they decide that they're going to be responsible for our actions, and that all stems from culture and from the culture that has been created of, you know, depression and all of these other things -- like just a whole it all kind of goes together to be one side that is distinctly different from the other in every way. And I think that that culture element is something that conservatives kind of stepped back from for a while and we're like, "no, we just want to leave people alone. We just want capitalism. And we just want free speech." But it's like, well, let's define that. Let's talk to people about that. Let's bring that into real conversation. And when we're talking to people about why we believe these things, instead of saying like, "capitalism has made the most people in the world prosperous", why don't you be like, "well, my dad started a business and he's now living the life that he dreamed he would live being able to create for a living because of capitalism". And I think that bringing it into like culture, and they fight on an emotional level every day. So why are we not taking that and also fighting on an emotional level because our stuff makes sense? So I want to tease out a couple of definitions really quickly before the next couple of questions. So you use conservative and liberal a lot. So kind of define both of those -- How would you define conservative? How would define liberal, So conservative -- We want to conserve the traditional values of family and of America. There are kind of two parts of it, you know, traditional family structure, traditional structuring of, kind of, society around the family, and a lot of that also is part of faith and structuring that around, you know, the community rather than the government. And then, politically, conservatism wants to conserve what our founding fathers created because we believe that it's a good thing and it's a positive thing to revert back to that. And maybe there are some things that might need to change at some point. I don't, I mean, that's a whole other thing. But we want those original founding principles, those values, to be maintained. And then, so, liberal -- there's classical liberal and then there's current liberal. So classical liberals believe that basically anything goes. They're very liberal in their ideology. They're very liberal in their application of morals -- things like that. That's classical liberal, whereas modern-day liberalism and leftism have kind of been equated. And that's kind of the party, like the Democrat Party a little bit, so that would be more like socialism, welfare -- like socialism is the extreme version -- but welfare and breakdown of the family structure and the government taking care of you for everything and kind of the whole Critical Race Theory type stuff -- like that all kind of falls under leftism. And liberalism and leftism are two different things. A lot of times even I use them interchangeably. I probably shouldn't, but I think those are kind of two general definitions. So we're working forward with those definitions. You mentioned earlier that you're kind of fighting this culture war, and that Turning Point is kind of on the front lines of that. And so, what do you consider to be the biggest challenge facing our nation as a whole currently?

00:53:51.800 - 01:00:36.800

This is hard to kind of look at. I think, economically, it's the -- I would say right now, probably, economics are the biggest issue just because our supply chain is breaking down and inflation is soaring, and that's a really tangible thing. That's affecting our lives every day. So, I would say that -- that's not really part of the culture war though. But it kind of does go back to a lot of the reasons that we have issues. Like, yes, it flowed down from the coronavirus. And yes, it flowed down from kind of the way that our system has been operating is different than the realities of the demand of the customer lately. But a lot of it does have to do with those welfare checks that people are getting and not wanting to go back to work. And a lot of it has to do with people walking away from their jobs because they don't want to get the vaccine. And I don't know if you can overstate that necessarily. I don't know if you can, excuse me, give that a huge role to play in this, but I think that does have some role to play in this that people just aren't going back to work because in our culture, it's like work is a bad thing and having a job and supporting your family and all of those things are kind of being viewed as just another thing I have to do and the dignity of work has been lost. So I'd say that's kind of a culture side of it. We have a culture of leaning on the government for everything instead of a culture of valuing hard work and dedication to what you choose to do with your life. And we also have a generation of entitled college students or college graduates who think that, because of that, they deserve the best job in the world, and everyone wants to live at this super high level of like, you know, famous people -- celebrities -- and that's just not, that's just not the way it is. That's just -- we don't get to live like that necessarily. So I think that might be the culture side of it. But at the same time, I don't think that's -- I think the bigger cultural issue also goes back to welfare and the breakdown of the family and how people are leaning on the government instead of a traditional family structure to provide them stability and security. Marriage is a good thing. Families -- traditional families -- are good thing, but that does again come with responsibilities and it's not going to be easy, but life isn't all about being easy. Sometimes the most valuable things are harder. Most the time, most valuable things are harder. And so I think that's another side of that. The culture of families and selflessness that comes from that. It just kind of all kind of flows together and valuing -- but then single-issue -- the most important thing, I think, is abortion because that's murder. And I think that that's the most tangible one single issue -- like, this needs to be solved immediately. Economic issues -- other social issues issues -- are very complex and hard to get around and hard to find the right answer for because there's a lot of moving pieces in them as we all know. So I think that tangibly abortion and ending abortion is a pretty simple issue that I think is very important because my peers -- I have a huge percentage of people that should be in the world right now. My peers are just not here and that's because they've been murdered before they even got a chance to live. So I would say that that's the huge single-issue, then all the rest like they all just kind of go together. So as a young conservative, who or what do you believe you're fighting against in this culture war? I think we're fighting against leftist ideologies and fighting against all of the things that -- kind of all the things I've already said: fighting against big government and fighting against the idea that the government is a good -- like, yes, the government is a good thing -- but fighting against the idea that like the government and whatever they want for you is definitely going to be the best for you. So I'll say fighting against that. And also, just a lot of students believe what they believe because they just been told it. I've had conversations. I had a conversation with a student at a conference, but she wasn't at the conference -- she was just at the resort we were staying at -- and I was like, "hey, what do you believe?" And she's a high school student. She's like, "well, I think I'm a lefty. I think I'm a Democrat." I was like, "well, what do you believe?" And I just went issue by issue, and I was able to really quickly convinced her to be pro-life and pro-closed border and all these other things. So it's -- I think we're also fighting against that people don't know what we're talking about and what we're trying to tell them. They have this idea that this -- for instance with the border issue -- they're like, "oh, they just don't keep everybody out. And they're just horrible people. They don't have any compassion." It's like, "well, let's actually think about this for a second." So I would say kind of that ignorance we're fighting against too because we kind of do have an uphill battle. Everything you see on TV and in movies is very leftist, and so we're kind of having to break through those traditional forms of the why people get media, I guess, the way people get their information to show them you're only getting one side. Let me explain to you what's actually going on. So, what are some of your fears, then, associated with fighting this culture war?

01:00:40.000 - 01:04:12.500

I would say one of my fears is that I won't be able to be in a position that I can actually make change. It can be discouraging when you see -- I'm 30 minutes from Clemson University and Clemson's chapter is having Charlie Kirk come speak in November, and they have a huge chapter. They have events all the time, and it's hard to feel kind of handicapped by the school I'm at. And so I would say that a fear I have is that I will always feel handicapped. I don't -- a lot of people fear being ostracized or something like that, and I don't really care if you don't agree with me. Some of my best friends don't agree with me politically, and I'm still able to be their friend. So that's not really a concern of mine. It's more concern of I want to be able to have an impact and make a difference and being able to be in a position to do that -- not being able to be in a position to do that would be a fear. So what would you want the future of the United States to look like? I want it to first of all be positive. I feel like so often things are just negative all the time and negative about the people who disagree with you and negative about the future of the country. A lot of times, it's like all the countries [unintelligible] are, and I'll say that, but I think that there needs to be some level of, like, "we're going to be happy warriors about this. We're going to be able to have those discussions, and we're going to disagree. But ultimately, politics aren't the most important thing in life." So I think also less -- coming from that would be more unity and fighting -- realizing even though we completely disagree on something, we still both want good things for the future of our country. I think I want to see more of a love of America and a love of our principles. It's trendy to hate America. And I'm like, what are you talking about? Like, America's positive -- such a good thing. It's had such a good impact on the world. So I would say a love of America and our founding principles and those who founded our country. This ridiculous campaign of erasing our history and saying that all of the good people who founded it did all these bad things so that erases the good things they did is absurd. And so I would say getting -- ending that stigma and ending that idea that Christopher Columbus and George Washington were horrible people. Because they might have done bad things, but what about the good things they did? So, I would say, kind of -- now that I think about it, that. A love of America and our founding principles and the people who made our country great. So you've mentioned traditional Family Values. How does that play into the culture war? Like, do you think that traditional family is part of the culture War?

01:04:14.400 - 01:10:37.500

I think so. Yeah, I mean as a Christian, I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. I don't believe that it should be illegal to not -- to be a homosexual, but I also don't think that children need to be exposed to that at, you know, kindergarten which I think has a lot to do with it. There's been a huge sexual revolution. And so all of the students having sex ed in sixth grade makes literally no sense. These students don't need to know more than the bare minimum at that point. And I think that's where it kind of starts because traditional family values value people, and they value men, and they value women for their individual dignity -- like their individual value. And I think that the breakdown of family values has caused people to value other people less because people have become a commodity and just something so consumeristic. And you just approach someone, and the whole point of your interaction is something for you, and I don't think that's a good thing for our country. Children need to be raised in a home that's stable and loving and can raise them to be independent and be confident and to stand up for what's right and be successful. And when children don't have a father or a mother in the home, they lose half of -- half of that education. They lose half of the value and there's value for a father -- huge value on a father. Statistically, if you have a father, you have such a greater advantage in society than if you don't have a father. And so, I mean, you can just look at it again, statistically families -- children who grow up in a stable home will be more successful. And we have an epidemic of depression and anxiety among our generation, my generation -- our Generation. And I think that a lot of that sense from the uncertainty -- that's a part of our -- a lot of people's upbringing constantly being pushed back and forth or fighting between parents, and your home is supposed to be your stable place -- somewhere you can go to find refuge from the rest of the world and if we don't have that refuge and that support system under us, of course we're going to turn to the government because they're offering free stuff. So yeah. So part of fighting in this culture war is fighting with other people, but I want to kind of link it back to traditional family values. So you mentioned earlier that you are not in a relationship. But if you were, what kind of relationship would you want to be in? And how would that kind of impact both your political activism, but also had political activism impact this relationship? So I hope to be married and start a family, and I want to be a stay-at-home mom and -- after a while -- not a while, but eventually, I want to homeschool me kids and stay home with them because I think that's really important to me. So a relationship now would look like one preparing for that future. I get a lot of criticism from my sister like "you should just get in a relationship." I'm like, "but I'm not going to get in a relationship if I know that it's just not -- not a good guy that I see myself with for a long time." So a relationship now would be one of preparing for the future. I don't like how -- So, I'm sorry. I talk to my parents about this stuff all the time and I was talking to my dad and he was like "why don't people just ask people out on dates anymore?" I was like "because the whole dating part where you just decide if this person is even someone you want to talk to happens on Snapchat now, and so instead of just having a date, you talk to someone on Snapchat for a month and then you either don't or do actually start dating." And I don't like that. I don't thrive in this dating world that we have right now. So, I would hope that my relationship would be one where -- It's hard to answer because I have never been in a relationship -- So I think there would be a lot of mutual respect. I believe in traditional male and female roles. Obviously not abuse or -- that can be so easily distorted to sound horrible. But I want a man who will -- who is strong and will head the family and respect me and I will respect him, and he wants to raise children and obviously he's got to be Christian and obviously he's got to be conservative or this just isn't gonna work out. But let's say that a relationship where I'm preparing for that, and I see a future of marriage and happy happy life. And obviously it's going to come with a lot of hard things because when you commit to someone for a whole life, that's not necessarily an easy thing. But that's what I want. So, very, very nice. So really quickly -- in that fighting the culture war, you mentioned earlier that you follow a lot of conservative activists. Who would -- who would be your conservative role model?

01:10:41.600 - 01:15:09.800

I think I could have to say -- I kind of have two. Allie Stuckey would be one. She is very poised in the way that she handles things. She's so wise also. And she's such a strong Christian who blends her faith and her politics, and her faith supersedes all of her politics. And so I would say she's one. But then also Ben Shapiro. I think a lot like him in the way I analyze things and the way I view things. So I would say that him -- the way that he is able to take a situation and fully understand it and fully explain it in depth and effectively so that I can understand it. I really enjoy that. And also, I think he doesn't dumb it down at all though. So I really enjoy that. Okay. Last section, I promise. (Lydia laughs). Let's talk about where the movement in your opinion is going. So, historically the conservative movement has not been loud on college campuses, yet the country's beginning to hear young conservative voices. So let's talk about this just really quickly. I know that you have class coming up. So I just have a questions. If you had to describe where the conservative movement is going How would you answer that? I think it's going up. I think, like you said, we haven't had a ton of conservatives on college campuses. We've had, you know, young Republicans -- young Democrats, but like I said earlier, they just don't have a draw for the general student. Those are mostly going to be poli-sci kids, who kind of just want to be a part of that organization. But I see a lot of positive energy and movement and, I mean, even with Turning Point and other organizations, like YAF and YAL -- Young Americans for Liberty and Young Americans for Freedom -- and all these other organizations that are starting and working. They are so positive and exciting and we're learning how to fight on their terms. A little bit -- Turning Point has started -- It's kind of like a TV network almost where, three hours a day, five days a week, they have content that you can watch online and go to their website and it's there. So, we're starting to have that we're having all these -- they have a pop culture segment and they have a sports segment, and all these areas that have been taken over by leftists who just use them as propaganda tools like ESPN and all of these other channels. We're starting to take them back a little bit, and obviously that's gonna be a hard fight to get people who aren't already conservative to hear us, but I think that it's working because I see, like you said, you know, we're in the news a lot more. And I don't hear -- and I think it's positive, you know? We really strive to be those happy warriors. We're taught when we go to these conferences, and when we're trained, don't engage -- don't fight people. You know, it's -- record it. Stand back. Listen to people. Talk to people, but don't engage them. Don't become the angry person that you're talking to. And so often the other side of the table is so angry and is so wanting to just come at your throat about stuff. And I haven't personally experienced that at my school because it's really different situation that were in. (unintelligible). Well, Lydia, these answers have been incredibly insightful. [TheirStory dropped Michaela Fehn from the interview, so the last five minutes show technical difficulties.]