Dear President Trump,
Unlike liberals, who tend to always be bitter and angry about something, as a conservative I enjoy Thanksgiving because it is my nature to be thankful. America’s Constitution and free-market system have provided its people with a fulfilling bounty. This year, though, beyond God and family, the thing for which I am most grateful is your presidency and the work you have undertaken since your inauguration.
What you have accomplished to this point, without any significant level of Party support, has been significant and, in some cases, course-changing. Your rollback of regulation has enabled enterprise to operate more freely. The tax cut legislation has led to the repatriation of wealth and jobs to the United States and has directly caused the rebirth of manufacturing; an impossibility according to your predecessor.
The Supreme Court has now been saved for what could be a generation. It is not just who you appointed, but it is how you showed such strong leadership during the Kavanaugh confirmation process. What I and people like me have grown accustomed to over the years is a conservative Republican president or governor receding into the shadows during an attack like the one ravaged upon Judge Kavanaugh, ultimately emerging to withdraw the nomination to live and not fight another day.
The battle over Judge Kavanaugh was about more than just a court vacancy. It was truly about permitting legend to replace fact in the course of governing. It was about allowing people to simply declare a truth by fiat about someone and destroy them in the process.
You recognized it and you stopped it.
You have been unapologetic in your criticism of globalism, to the extent that of late you have chosen to embrace the term nationalist to assert American hegemony. That single act alone of rehabilitating the word “nationalist” and allowing the rest of us to use it without fear will change the nature of the discussion for decades. You understand the disproportionate accomplishments of Western Civilization in general, and United States’ particular role as accelerant of those accomplishments.
You continue to fight on multiple fronts against the invasion of the United States by those choosing to enter illegally. The assault against your effort comes from the courts, the press, the Democrats, the Republicans, and the activist mob on social media. Yet you fight.
From a foreign policy perspective, you have been willing to assert American primacy and strength at every occasion and you have done so where it might be comfortable with enemies (North Korea, China) and where it is less comfortable with allies (European Union, Canada). You seem to be guided by the idea that if it is right for America then it is right to pursue. I like that idea.
What you have done by taking on the mainstream media makes me want to come out of my seat the way I do when my beloved Chicago Bears score a touchdown. There is fake news. The media does lie. There is nothing about traditional America that the New York Times fancies. Everybody knows it. Every politician ignores it. You are the first conservative politician ever to publicly confront them. I am especially thankful for that.
Your presence in the American political landscape has been disruptive from the moment you began hinting at a presidential run. You were, and remain, an outsider; someone disturbing to the false and deceptive sense of calm derived from convention and pattern. To the professors of American politics, you were the student who wrote down the correct answer without showing your work. Accordingly, they have given you a failing grade, envious of your resonance and befuddled as to how you managed to get to where you now reside.
I know that your mission has not been to destroy the Republican Party but to stand it upright and lead it in a battle to restore First Principles and American exceptionalism. It saddens me to see that many in the conservative movement still don’t realize that is what you are trying to do.
It saddens me more to see that others who say they are conservatives do understand your agenda, and yet they fight to subvert it because they do not truly share it.
I started on my own political journey in order to try to take back our campuses from the big government collectivists. I knew it was going to be a battle. I would be lying if I said over the last six years there weren’t times I have looked around at the national leadership within the conservative movement and found myself discouraged. So many times, I have asked myself “why won’t they just fight?”
Now your presidency stands every day willing to engage in the fight. You inspire me. You give me energy. You have also given me something else; the opening line to a speech I will give about 50 years from now at a venue, and to a crowd, to be determined:
“I stand before you this Thanksgiving to honor the legacy of the president who courageously reset the course of America more than two generations ago…”
Mr. President, I extend a heartfelt and personal wish to you and your entire family for a blessed Thanksgiving, thankful for you and your presidency.
Charlie Kirk is the founder and executive director of Turning Point USA, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group that seeks to encourage student civic engagement.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.