A brief Fox News clip shows a young liberal student from UNC Asheville describing how he found himself welcomed by a Turning Point USA chapter — and conservatives should take notice of what that moment represents. Too often the media paints campus politics as an endless culture war with no room for basic decency, but when a student willing to engage is met with a handshake instead of a shout, that’s a win for free speech and civil discourse. Fox & Friends Weekend has been carrying these campus moments into the national conversation, and they matter because they strip away the caricatures each side uses to demonize the other.
This isn’t about handing out praise cards to anyone; it’s about the conservative movement showing it can be generous, persuasive, and patient where today’s campus left too often demands purity and punishment. Turning Point chapters across the country exist to build relationships, run events, and recruit voters — and those chapters succeed when they reach students who don’t already agree with them. That kind of outreach is what wins the future: not campus denunciations, but conversations that leave students thinking differently about liberty and responsibility.
For hardworking Americans who watch this, let it be known: conservatives are the ones still willing to meet across the table and listen, even when the other person calls themselves a Democrat. The College Democrats and other leftwing groups on campus have every right to exist, but the difference is that conservative groups like TPUSA show up with a playbook for persuasion, outreach, and organization — and they do it unapologetically. That combination of principle and hustle is how you change minds and change the culture; the left prefers to shout and censor, while conservatives build and persuade.
Make no mistake: the mainstream press will try to sell this as some quaint human-interest piece, but conservatives should see it as a strategic moment. Every friendly conversation, every student who walks away curious instead of hostile, is a small victory against the campus cancel machine and the left’s monoculture. We should celebrate and double down on that approach — send more books to campus libraries, sponsor more debates, and flood student centers with voices of reason and common sense.
If you want the movement to grow, model decency and prove that conservative ideas can stand up to scrutiny without melting down. Turning Point USA’s materials and campus infrastructure allow conservative students to organize effectively and present conservative principles on merit, not intimidation, and those resources are exactly what campuses need to restore balance. This is how you win hearts and minds: with courage, conviction, and civility — the very qualities the left pretends to own but so often fails to practice.
A note on sourcing: I searched major outlets and public records to independently verify the full details of the named UNC Asheville student’s on-air appearance and could not find a robust body of reporting beyond the video description provided, so this piece draws on that clip and the broader, verifiable record about TPUSA’s campus activities and reach. For readers who care about accuracy, understand that the larger point stands regardless — conservatives should keep showing up on campus, offering respect and straight talk to the next generation of Americans.
