THIS IS BIG NEWS…
The International Police Union Associations serving over 100,000 members were early endorsers for the re-election of President Trump.
The International Union of Police Associations Formally Endorses the Campaign for the Re-election of President Donald J. Trump
Today President Sam A. Cabral announced that the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO, has formally endorsed the campaign for the re-election of President Donald J. Trump.
President Trump has done more for Law Enforcement in the past two and a half years than was accomplished in the eight years that preceded his election. He has even undone some of the harmful acts of his predecessor.
– He signed an order that once again provided law enforcement agencies with life-saving surplus military equipment, especially armored vehicles that have saved the lives of
countless police and civilians.
– He directed the Attorney General to develop a strategy that will aggressively prosecute criminals who attack law enforcement.
– He provided more than 100,000.00 dollars to help communities hire more law enforcement officers.
– He championed and signed the Mental Health and Wellness Act that improved police access to Mental Health Service.
– He has resumed capital punishment of Federal Prisoners sentenced to death after a nearly two decades pause.
He has made our communities safer. Despite the daily news of violence, murder, and mayhem in the Democratic strongholds of Baltimore as well as Chicago and the absolute deteriorable situation of the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco, the national crime rate has decreased during his presidency.
HUGE union & law enforcement endorsement for @realDonaldTrump – International Union of Police Associations, representing 100,000 cops!
IUPA has history of bipartisan endorsements.
Trump stands WITH POLICE OFFICERS who keep us safe in our neighborhoods.https://t.co/c30zCctChO
NYT deleted this tweet pic.twitter.com/UMaRTTZlfs — Anders Hagstrom (@Hagstrom_Anders) September 9, 2019 They deleted it sometime after posting it, noting it “lacked historical context.” We’ve deleted a previous tweet about Mao Zedong that lacked critical historical context. — NYT Archives (@NYTArchives) September 9, 2019 That killing and oppressing millions of people is some “historical context” […]
Democratic congressional candidate Valerie Plame’s (N.M.) campaign on Monday released a new ad, where she ended it with a message of having a "few scores to settle."
The ad, which is titled, "Undercover," shows liberal activist and ex-CIA operative Plame driving a Chevy Camaro backwards on an empty road in rural New Mexico while narrating her background throughout the ad.
"I was an undercover CIA operative. My assignment was preventing rogue states and terrorists from getting nuclear weapons. You name a hot spot, I lived it," Plame said, as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, and North Korea flashed as text on the screen.
Plame, who is running for New Mexico’s open 3rd Congressional District seat, then accused former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, of leaking her identity to get revenge against her now-ex-husband Joe Wilson for repeatedly criticizing the war in Iraq. While Libby was charged into obstruction of justice and perjury stemming from the investigation on who leaked Plame’s identity, it was former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage who admitted to leaking her identity. Plame then mentioned how President Donald Trump pardoned Libby last year.
"I come from Ukrainian Jewish immigrants. My dad was in the Air Force. My brother almost died in Vietnam. My service was cut short when my own government betrayed me," she said. "We left Washington to raise our kids in New Mexico, one of the best places on Earth. Now I’m running for Congress because we’re going backwards on national security, health care, and women’s rights."
"We need to turn our country around," Plame said while braking and getting out of her Camaro. "Yes, the CIA really does teach us how to drive like this. You’ve probably heard my name. Mr. President, I’ve got a few scores to settle."
While Plame mentions she comes from Ukrainian Jewish immigrants, she has a history of anti-Semitism. Back in 2017, she tweeted an article from the fringe site UNZ Review in Sept. 2017, accusing "American Jews" of "driving America’s wars."
She acknowledged she "messed up," but the Washington Examiner reported back in March she posted nine UNZ articles over the course of three years. Two of the articles included one titled "Why I Still Dislike Israel" and another about "Dancing Israelis" on 9/11.
When pressed by MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt back in May she claimed, "It’s not who I am and it’s not what I believe. It was extremely painful. I had not read the whole article all the way through and when I realized what it was, it was embarrassing and hurtful, so I apologize deeply and sincerely, and I’ve done it multiple times both privately and publicly."
She went on to say, "We all make mistakes" and that sharing the article was a "doozy."
State Attorneys General launched the largest, bipartisan antitrust investigation against Google Monday, encompassing nearly every state in the country.
State attorneys general announced Monday that they will begin an antitrust investigation into Google, primarily looking into whether Google’s dominant control of the online search markets and search traffic may have stifled competition, restricted access, and harmed consumers.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton started the conference by noting that the search giant “dominates all aspects of advertising on the Internet and searching on the Internet.”
The investigation includes nearly all state attorneys general– except for California and Alabama. The attorneys general from the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico joined the investigation as well. The probe features Republicans, Democrats, and politicians across the political spectrum.
Google collects more than $48 billion in digital advertising spending annually and captures more than 75 percent of online American searching ads.
Paxton added that Google’s dominance on Internet advertising stretches from all aspects of the online advertising markets.
“They dominate the buyer side, the seller side, the auction side, and the video side with YouTube,” the Texas attorney general charged.
Louisiana Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry said, “We’re here because there’s an absolutely existential threat to our virtual marketplace.” He went on:
The Internet was once a revolutionizing home for ideas, debate, and content – a place that could benefit countless Louisiana consumers and businesses. However, Google’s dominance of online advertising and searching may have undermined the free market, harmed consumers, and stifled the free flow of thought and information.
Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody said that the Google investigation revolves around Google’s data collection. He explained:
Google monitors our online behavior and captures data on every one of us as we navigate the Internet. This investigation will initially focus on capture of that information and whether Google embedded itself on every level of the online market [for] ad sales to monopolize this industry.
Meanwhile, 11 other attorneys general, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, started an investigation against Facebook, investigating whether the social media company violated competition laws and abused Americans’ privacy.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a former Missouri state attorney general, said during a press conference call that the antitrust investigation was “very significant” “for those who believe in holding the big tech companies accountable.”
Utah attorney general Sean Reyes said that their investigation is not “anti-tech,” but will “level the playing the field” in the technology marketplace.
Reyes added that the question today is whether Google “strayed” from its “founding principles to not do evil in its search and relentless drive to be the market-dominant player.”
Landry said that Google’s dominance in the digital advertising market could “kill online publishing,” or Google could decide “who stays and who goes.”
Landry asked rhetorically, “How’s that for the fulfillment for the Internet promise for open places, ideas, debate, and content?”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
Hong Kong Executive Council adviser Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun made waves during a radio interview on Monday by claiming young girls are giving free “comfort sex” to Hong Kong protesters to keep them motivated.
Law was responding to a listener who repeated a claim that has been circulating on pro-Beijing social media that very young girls have been “misled” into serving as sex toys for protest “warriors.” Although the gossip is unsubstantiated, Law claimed, “we have confirmed that this is a true case.”
“I am so sad for these young girls who have been misled into offering free sex,” she said during an RTHK radio program.
“There is evidence!” she insisted later in the show. “That is the daughter of a friend’s friend. That’s second-hand knowledge, but it’s direct and it’s real. The girl actually wrote a piece.”
The “piece” Law referred to is evidently the anonymous social media post that spurred the online “comfort sex” controversy. The post was purportedly written by a “14-year-old Hong Kong girl” and describes a brief flirtation with the protest movement quickly declining into a nightmare of drugs, alcohol, and group sex resulting in an unwanted pregnancy.
Law’s accusation prompted a literal “wait, what?” response from pro-democracy politician Avery Ng, who was also a guest on the RTHK show. Ng argued, in essence, that teenage boys have much easier and safer ways of meeting girls than wading into a hail of rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
Another caller to the radio show accused Law of credulously repeating “outrageous” disinformation spread by the Chinese Communist Party, which is known to be running a major online operation to discredit the Hong Kong protest movement.
The host of the show pointed out that discussions of “comfort sex” uncomfortably evoke the “comfort women” controversy from Japan’s brutal occupation of other Asian countries during World War II – a very hot topic of acrimonious debate between South Korea and Japan at the moment – as well as the Islamic State’s practice of sexual slavery.
Law pushed some more of the wrong buttons during the show when she dismissed some of the protesters as mere “actors.”
“I think it is nonsensical to see people crying, kneeling on the floor, claiming six lives have been killed at Prince Edward Station. This is all acting. The whole purpose is to incite anger and to encourage more people to come out to sustain the momentum of the so-called revolution,” she charged.
Fanny Law became a trending topic on Twitter in Hong Kong after her RTHK interview, and not in a good way. “Fanny Law’s spurious claims are disgusting on so many levels and also reveals she has a very screwed up attitude to sex where she sees it as something women ‘offer’ to men,” read a characteristic critical tweet.
Law appeared to back down in the face of controversy, perhaps in part because the social media post from the ostensible 14-year-old girl has disappeared and remains unverified, but then she doubled down on her claims in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
“People are free to decide whether or not to believe it. Of course, I can trace the origin of the information through a trusted friend’s friend who knows the girl, but to reveal more details would be traumatic,” she said.
“Preventive advice cannot be wrong. Girls have to be alert and stay away from alcohol and marijuana in gatherings with ‘new’ friends whom they only met in various protest activities,” she continued, as though she had merely been offering general advice to 14-year-olds that they should refrain from getting drunk and having unprotected sex with swarms of political activists.
University of Hong Kong political scientist Joseph Chan Cho-wai pointed out to the SCMP that Law initially spoke as if there was an epidemic of “comfort sex” keeping the protest movement fired up, rather than a single dubiously-sourced incident.
“She should explain if it’s just an isolated case or if it reflects a general phenomenon,” he advised.
The Baltimore County Fire Department has reported that they are on the scene of a second suspicious van carrying 660 gallons of gasoline, hours after one holding 1,000 gallons was found in a parking structure .8 miles from where the House GOP is scheduled to host their retreat on Thursday.
The fire department tweeted that no explosives or hazards were found and that it appears to be related to a theft.
#bcofd// Hazmat // Ebenezer Rd & Pulaski Hwy// units on location for a report of a suspicious van carrying 660 gallons of fuel. No explosives or hazards found. Appears to be related to a theft. MDE on location. Fire dept units are clearing location. ^MJ
The department is clearing the area and has not stated whether or not there is any connection to the van found earlier in the day.
President Trump will be attending the 2019 House Republican Conference Member Retreat in the city later this week, a six minute drive from where the first van was located.
A search by a police robot turned up a device used for stealing diesel fuel.
When a police robot searched the van in Baltimore, "it found a device for stealing diesel fuel and two bins full of possibly-stolen gasoline." pic.twitter.com/fiPw2SGe7W
Police were called to the parking garage of 100 E. Pratt St., where the T. Rowe Price office is, around 11 a.m. on Monday morning about the first van.
“After several hours of investigating a suspicious vehicle, no bomb was detected,” Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young tweeted. “We are currently in the process of conducting precautionary sweeps in an effort to ensure public safety. These sweeps are expected to take several hours.”
Mayor Young asked that people remain outside the evacuated area and find alternate transportation to get home. He said that he will send out an update when people are able to pick up their vehicles.
Again, we want to ensure everyone remains safe as we work through this matter.
The evacuated areas are: East Baltimore Street to the north Conway Street to the south South Charles Street to the west Commerce Street to the east pic.twitter.com/kYtnW8O2ZE
No motive or explanation for the vehicle has been announced at this time.
The city police are being assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
All kinds of agencies on the scene in #Baltimore investigating the latest on this suspicious white van found in a parking garage with 1,000 gallons of gasoline @wbalradiopic.twitter.com/vWh9x4lF2C
You may want to avoid downtown #Baltimore today. A bunch of streets are shut down because apparently they found a van filled with gasoline. pic.twitter.com/nWEEFtrrve
NEW: Police say 26yo Oluwakayode Adebusuyi raped an intoxicated woman in his car. Per ICE, the Nigerian native is living in the U.S. illegally. This is at least the eighth undocumented immigrant charged with rape or sex abuse of a minor in Montgomery County, Md. since July 25. pic.twitter.com/cBHXDZeYqC — Kevin Lewis (@ABC7Kevin) September 9, […]
Gun expert Dana Loesch dissected a new ABC News/Washington Post poll on gun control on Monday and explained why polling on the issue is oftentimes misleading.
Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch released new documents showing that Hillary Clinton supporters/donors in Obama’s State Department were fiercely working to improperly disseminate classified information to multiple Senators shortly before Trump’s inauguration.
The classified information contained raw intelligence supposedly showing Russian interference in the 2016 election
Among a few of the Senators who received the classified documents prior to Trump’s inauguration were Mark Warner (D-VA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Robert Corker (R-TN).
A January 13, 2017, email from Hera Abbasi, a former congressional advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Legislative Affairs, suggests that the intelligence community was providing “raw intel” to Sen. Warner. Such an exchange almost certainly would have been coordinated by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI): “Yes, that is correct. Warner/raw intel stuff is going thru IC channels.” (Abbasi previously worked in Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office and was a 2017 Next Generation National Security Fellow at the liberal Center for a New American Security. Abbasi donated $725 to the Clinton campaign and Act Blue during the 2016 election cycle.)
The documents uncovered by Judicial Watch show early in the process of gathering and clearing classified information – beginning a day after Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) formally asked Attorney General John Kerry for “intelligence products” and “raw intelligence” on Russian involvement in the 2016 election – Assistant Secretary of State Julia Frifield brings Senior Advisor and Investigations Counsel Zachary Schram into the loop in a January 5, 2017, email chain, in which she says Schram would help “figure out the best way to get these to the Hill.” Frifield was an Obama appointee who previously served as Maryland Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski’s Chief of Staff. (Frifield contributed $2,700 to the 2016 Clinton campaign.)
On January 11, 2017, former State Department Senior Congressional Advisor Katherine Harris sends an email to Abbasi; Naz Durakoglu, who was a senior advisor to the Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs; Kathleen Kavalec, and others: “If we are not going through our standard CDP [Collection Due Process] process, others in H need to weigh in on how to move these to the Hill.”
“These documents show how the Obama State Department, staffed by Clinton donors, improperly, and perhaps illegally, rushed classified information to their anti-Trump allies in the U.S. Senate,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Obama State Department was central to the conspiracy to smear President Trump with Russiagate lies and innuendo. The Justice Department must expand any Spygate criminal investigation to include this agency.”
Obama State Dept, staffed by Clinton donors, improperly, and perhaps illegally, rushed classified info to anti-@RealDonaldTrump allies in U.S. Senate. State Dept central to conspiracy to smear Trump. DOJ must act! https://t.co/XXff8Npf4w
CJ Pearson says he has been conservative since second grade. Now a senior in high school, Pearson has gained national attention for his conservative activism.
On today’s episode of The Daily Signal Podcast, Pearson, 17, shares why he is fighting back against left-wing policies.
Listen to the full episode or read a lightly edited transcript below.
Rob Bluey: We are joined by CJ Pearson. He’s a young conservative activist located in Georgia. CJ, thanks for joining us.
CJ Pearson: Rob, thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.
Bluey: Absolutely. We’re excited. It was great to see you recently at The Heritage Foundation, and appreciate you coming on The Daily Signal Podcast to share a little bit about your story.
I want to begin by introducing you as, of course, a high school senior. You’re somebody who’s gained national attention because of your conservative activism. In fact, you’ve been described as the left’s youngest nightmare. You were raised, though, in a liberal household. So, how did you become a conservative?
Pearson: You know, it’s an interesting story. And I do come from a house divided, which has certainly made for interesting dinnertime conversation and definitely has been the subject of much discussion. My videos are definitely the subject of much discussion within my household.
So, I think for me, when I was first embarking upon my journey in politics, I wanted to find myself. I wanted to find out what I believe, personally. I wanted to find my political values, and wherever that led, I was OK with it.
Where I started was with … [reading] the Federalist Papers, I read the Constitution, I studied the platforms of both of the major parties. I actually even read a couple white papers on The Heritage Foundation back then. And this was like when I was like 10 or like 12.
Of course my parents have always voted Democrat. But what I always tell people is that—and this is a common story within the black community—my parents may have voted Democrat, but the values they instilled within me from when I was a child were conservative values. They were pro-family, they weren’t traditional, they were about personal responsibility.
So moving toward conservatism wasn’t a difficult thing for me. It was how I was raised. And for me it was just about discovering the evidence and the things that support what I believe now. For example, pro-growth policies, fiscal conservatism, the right to life, all of those things. It took a thirst for knowledge for me to figure out, “Yes, these are my values.”
It all started kind of after the 2008 election. We had an assignment in class where … we had to do what every good citizen in the country was doing at the time, we had to research the candidates and then we would ultimately cast our vote.
I remember watching the debates, not necessarily understanding at that time—I was like 7—what Iran was doing that was so bad, or what health care reform [was]. But realizing that what they’re doing on that stage was really, really important. And that kind of gave me the political bug and I’ve been hooked ever since.
Virginia Allen: That’s great. You know, CJ, as Rob mentioned, you have gained so much national attention—largely in part due to your disapproval of left-wing policies. Was there maybe a specific policy or instance that really led you to engage in political discourse at such a young age?
Pearson: I think it was more so the debate story. … During that time, I was 7 years old. I had never thought about politics before in any way. I was your average 7-year-old kid. I was playing with Legos, watching cartoons every Saturday morning. I was living my best life as a 7-year-old boy. So, we get this assignment, I totally shrug it off in the beginning. I was like, “Oh my God, literally what is even politics? I don’t care.”
And then I just remember, though, watching the debate—this was back when Candy Crowley was back at CNN, so this was way back when. And I remember just watching it, hearing them talk about these really important issues, realizing that they were important.
But I think what really got me, like pushed me toward political activism … I don’t think it was a singular issue, but I think it was the overarching belief that I believe that young people have an obligation to fight for the future that we want in this country.
No one’s going to give that to us. No one’s going to hand it to us. And I think that unless we’re involved, we can’t complain. At the end of the day, the decisions that politicians today make are going to affect our generation for years to come. So we might as well have a seat at the table because if we don’t, we will most certainly be on the menu.
Bluey: And CJ, let me take you back to that period of time. How were you perceived among your classmates, teachers? What did they think of somebody who was not only well-educated and articulate about these policy issues, but also maybe coming from a perspective that differed from their own?
Pearson: I think when it first started out … I wasn’t really overtly political back in elementary school. It was something that interested me. I read the newspaper front to back every single morning with my dad. But that was pretty much it.
I didn’t really talk about it much in school because it never really came up. We were learning the Fact Families and things like that in math class. We weren’t really talking about politics yet.
But in fifth grade it was the 2012 election. We actually had another mock election. That year was Romney and Obama. And it was just a lot different.
So, we did have this political conversation, they did begin to start. And I think a lot of my classmates were just kind of baffled by the idea that I even found politics remotely interesting. But also that I kind of knew what I was talking about.
It’s definitely shifted now. … It’s not always easy, because people are more politically in tune now at this age. And they may not have the most informed opinion, but everyone has an opinion.
So, I think that there is a certain element of, I have to defend my beliefs more than I had to when I was younger. But there’s also the fact that I had to grow up doing that. I live in a household of card-carrying Democrats. If I have an opinion about Trump, I have to defend it. If I believe that this particular conservative policy is a good idea, I have to defend it.
It’s been something that I’ve welcomed. I welcome disagreement, I welcome people challenging my ideas. I think it makes me a stronger advocate for my ideas. It’s definitely been interesting growing up kind of in the spotlight, especially as it relates to politics. …
I think when … my first video went viral, all my friends were just kind of going crazy about the view count. And it’s very different, because it’s like most kids my age, they’re famous for snorting cinnamon and doing things like that. So, it’s like I kind of got internet acclaim for a very good reason. It’s definitely been an interesting journey.
Bluey: Walk us through your use of social media because I think that in many cases, you’ve certainly outmaneuvered a lot of people in … older generations in terms of your use of it and your ability to attract that following and generate some national attention.
First of all, tell us how our readers can find you, and how you were able to have so much success.
Pearson: For sure. You can follow me on Twitter, @thecjpearson, and also on Instagram, @thecjpearson. Or you can just go to my website, cjpearson.org, which will give you links to all of my social media profiles.
To answer your question about how I did it, really it was native to me. I know a lot of people sit around big conference tables in very important places and churn out long social media strategies. For me, I grew up using Instagram. I grew up using Twitter. I grew up using Snapchat. So, when I’m posting my ideas or I’m posting my beliefs, it’s really natural to me. There’s no strategy behind it, I don’t tweet a certain amount of times a day—I probably tweet too much.
I think what really benefited me was kind of knowing the contours of the platform in a way … that I’m uniquely able to do as someone who is my age, but also someone who didn’t take it too seriously and was more concerned about just the ability to take my message in places where it wasn’t before.
Yesterday I started using TikTok, which is like the crazy new app that everyone is using, everyone in Gen Z is using. So, everyone listening right now, … if you want your kid to think you’re really cool, download TikTok. Or if you just want to be in the know, download TikTok.
I started using TikTok for posting little funny political videos. And I did it because it’s a new audience, and everyone’s there. Everyone’s paying attention to that platform.
I think the biggest advice I can give to people is be receptive to the changes and the dynamic of the platform, but also just be natural. Your audience wants authenticity and they want simple, cool content. That’s definitely been something that I’ve strived to do.
Allen: Speaking of social media, on Aug. 20 you tweeted, “The left equates blackness with victimhood, but I chose to be a victor and it feels good.”
Can you elaborate a little bit on that tweet and what you meant by that?
Pearson: All the time the left is constantly talking about how black people have gotten the short end of the stick in this country. How we are the victims of the white man, and how we are still suffering the blows of slavery hundreds of years after and how we need all the help that we can get from the government. I disagree. I think what that has done is hobbled the black community to the point that we can’t survive without the government.
I had a great conversation with the president of The Heritage Foundation, Mrs. [Kay Coles] James. The point that she made was that after the Great Society, that’s really when we saw a type of dependency within the black community we had never really seen before.
The black community before then was very self-reliant. They were self-starters. They owned black businesses. It was a huge thing. They prided themselves upon their independence. But after the Great Society, it became a crutch.
For me, I think victimhood is laziness, and it’s just not something I ascribed to. I think that the way you advance in this world, the way that you move forward, is by putting in the work, grinding real hard, and just seeking opportunity.
I don’t need anyone to give me an unfair advantage. All I need is a fair shot. That’s all I need. That’s all I want. I don’t need the government to take care of me. I don’t need the government to pay my bills. All I need is opportunity. And I think that’s all a lot of people of color want. But all you hear from the left is ways for them to continue to … attach [the black community] more and more to government than actually freeing them from that dependency.
Bluey: Thanks for sharing that perspective, CJ. It’s really refreshing to hear you talk about that.
As a young person, I have to ask you about this recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, which we’ve covered on The Daily Signal Podcast before. It involved the younger generation, as particularly compared to previous generations when they were the same age as you, and changing views when it comes to patriotism, the importance of raising families, commitment to a religious faith, for instance. And we’ve seen all of those numbers decline.
Whereas other polls show some alarming statistics about the rise of socialism and other concerning things on the minds of conservatives, and probably many of our readers.
So, what can you tell us about your peers, and how we as conservatives might do a better job of articulating those values that we hold so dear?
Pearson: For starters, what I would say is that I wouldn’t read too much into those polls because I’ve seen the socialism statistic and most kids my age really don’t even know what socialism is. So, I think that that’s an education issue, right? We need to be educating our kids about what socialism is, what it entails, and the fact that it has literally devastated countries like Venezuela, like Cuba. And that socialism kills. It’s not something that makes everything equal. If it does make anyone equal in any regard, it makes us equally poor and equally unsuccessful. …
Also, from my own personal observation, I see—as far as attitudes go—one of the most conservative generations that I’ve seen in a long time. This is a generation that hates PC culture. We hate political correctness. Our memes are the most offensive things I’ve ever seen, but we love them and we pride ourselves on them. And cancel culture, we hate cancel culture. It’s literally asinine that we are bringing up things from 15 years ago and holding it over the heads of people who have changed and evolved.
… My advice to the right would be, let’s educate our young people, right? Let’s teach them that socialism is a bad idea. Let’s teach them a little about why the free market is the greatest pathway to success for them, their families, and their communities. Let’s talk to them about why President Trump isn’t the racist that the media constantly tries to depict him as, but is actually someone who signed into law the First Step Act, has led on criminal justice reform, and has brought about the lowest black unemployment rate in our nation’s history.
No one my age is hearing that. They’re not at all because they’re reading BuzzFeed, they’re on Snapchat all the time, or they get their news from Taylor Swift. And, love Taylor, but I just don’t know if she’s the best source for political news.
I think the biggest thing that we need to do as conservatives is meet young people where they are. We need to be on platforms like TikTok. We need to be on Instagram, we need to be on Snapchat, all those places. And we need to start educating young people about these issues. These issues are not just fancy little taglines, they have ramifications. They have consequences.
Socialism isn’t cool. Socialism is something that actually has devastated, again, country after country after country. I don’t think enough young people know that and it’s our obligation as conservatives to educate them on what those ramifications are.
Allen: CJ, thank you for sharing that.
You’ve just begun your senior year of high school, and it’s so exciting to watch everything you’ve done already at such a young age. Do you have any plans or thoughts for what you’ll do after you graduate?
Pearson: I’m open to a lot of different options right now. … I got into my first university, [I got] my first college acceptance earlier this month, that was really exciting. I’ll hopefully be hearing back from a few more colleges after December. But I really kept an open mind about it. I’m super excited to continue my activism, continue to fight to ensure that my generation has a seat at the table and that conservatism is advanced.
I think that what’s so important more now than ever is for people my age to rise up and speak out. Our country is at a crossroads where we will really have to decide what type of nation we want to be. Do we want to be a nation of open borders, of socialism, or a country where babies are allowed to be aborted post-birth?
I think the answer to that question is “no.” And I think that the only way that we ensure that that answer remains “no” is by being vocal, by being active, by being involved, and by ensuring that this next generation of Americans knows that conservatism is not the dirty word that their teacher said it was. It’s not the dirty word that Taylor Swift said it was. It’s something that is intrinsic to what it means to be an American. It’s a reflection of the values of our Founding Fathers who did the most audacious thing when they set out to found this country so that we could self-govern, which is one of the hardest things for any civilized society to do, but we’ve done it.
That is really what my ambition is after high school, to continue that work, to continue that effort to ensure that conservatism lives on, and that more young people are informed, are aware, and are educated about the most important issues that are shaping our society and our culture for years to come.
Bluey: Well, CJ, we certainly need you out there fighting that good fight, that happy warrior spirit that you bring. So, thank you for doing what you’re doing and we wish you the best as you finish out high school.
Remind our readers once again, if they want to follow you on social media or learn more about the work you’re doing, how best to go about doing that.
Pearson: Sure. Rob and Virginia, I want to first and foremost thank you guys for having me. It’s been an absolute pleasure. Great conversation. If your readers want to follow me, they can check me out @thecjpearson on Twitter, Instagram as well. And my website is cjpearson.org.
Allen: That’s great. Thank you so much, CJ. Really appreciate your time today.
