Opinion | The Loudest Cheers I’ve Ever Heard

Under cascading red, white, and blue lights, students and civilians paraded around the Iowa Memorial Union in white and red MAGA hats, Charlie Kirk “Freedom” shirts, and TPUSA merch. Posters were placed on every open chair, reading “Think Freely. Live Boldly. Love America.” and “It’s not a phase. I love America,” as if the organization were trying to capitalize on a phrase originally associated with LBGTQ+ community. 

On Oct. 8, Turning Point USA’s “Love It or Leave It” tour brought Ben Shapiro, Alex Clark, Russell Johnson, and Donald Trump Jr. to the University of Iowa. Aside from their physical presence, the event brought a message aimed squarely at people like me: leave. 

No matter who I told that I was going to the event, everyone looked at me in disbelief. And to an extent, yes, why would I willingly put myself through something like this? But I justified it, saying I wanted to see how these events unfold. I can guarantee, though, it is exactly as you would expect. 

The event treated patriotism as a loyalty test. But loving a country doesn’t mean applauding everything done in its name. Some of the most patriotic things Americans have ever done, from the civil rights movement to the suffrage marches, began as dissent. I came to the Iowa Memorial Union as an American, and nothing said on that stage made me less of one.

That message wasn’t subtle, and neither was the staging. Following a montage of Kirk and Johnson’s speech, TPUSA University of Iowa chapter president Kayleigh Jurczyk requested that each attendee hold up their poster for one big group photo, and made sure everyone cheered loud enough for Kirk to hear up in Heaven.

I felt sick. With every new sentence, there was something new, something so blatantly misogynist, racist, and extremist, followed by the loudest cheers I’ve ever heard. But what disturbed me most wasn’t any single line. It was how little the crowd hesitated.

When Johnson, the “holy” man, championed the R-slur in reference to the Democrats, the crowd erupted. When Donald Trump Jr. later called the left “pigs” for allegedly not going to the gym, the crowd chanted and chuckled. 

One of the most disturbing patterns was how quickly speakers deflected any disagreement or discomfort by mocking the left as overweight, ugly, or “intellectually challenged.” Trump Jr. told the crowd that Democrats protest because they are sad and obese, which is rich coming from a man who said he has never seen his father drink a glass of water. 

Yet, when Johnson, a pastor with lots of vigor, likened TPUSA founder Kirk’s death to Martin Luther King Jr., the silence from the crowd was deafening. Contempt got a standing ovation, and a comparison too big for the room got nothing. 

As seemingly one of the only people of color in the audience, I felt incongruous with the crowd. Every single eye seemed to turn on me, and maybe it was all in my head, but that is what an environment built on “us versus them” does to the people who are the “them.” Isolated.

My sense of isolation wasn’t more apparent than when I watched a UI student get dragged out of the room asking Trump Jr. about how much Donald Trump paid off the Cornell students who were accused for gang-rape. 

The posters might have said “Think Freely,” but the first person I saw test that slogan was removed from the room. 

In addition, that sense of “them” was on full display when Trump Jr. turned to political violence. He said that it is hard to believe constant violence is being normalized, and so are the assassination attempts on his father and other right-wingers Kirk’s murder. 

He constantly said, “We aren’t the ones on the street doing this.” It is extremely tone deaf, coming from an extremely vocal supporter of the second amendment. It is entirely ironic, coming from a man who posted a picture of himself on Instagram holding a semi-automatic rifle with his dad’s political opponent’s face on it. Yet, the left is inciting violence?

No one should be shot for what they say, but that principle only means something if it’s applied consistently. You can’t demand that the left own every extreme act while treating your own side’s violent rhetoric as a joke.

After a series of ‘80s top hits, Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” played for approximately 20 seconds before the speakers were introduced, until it was skipped. The song, released in 2011, has since become an anthem against gun violence. Skipping it makes sense, since the only thing these speakers do after a school shooting is give thoughts and prayers, and not address gun control, the root of the problem. 

The event’s treatment of women was just as telling. Based on what I observed, almost every single woman, other than my friend and I, were accompanied by a man — at least in the student section. On top of that, the first question asked of Trump Jr. was apparently for the ladies in the room. Clark asked if he had any dating advice, which is laughable coming from a man who reportedly had an affair while with his wife and the mother of his five children. 

Women were treated as an audience segment to be handled, not as people with serious questions about politics, safety, or their own futures. When Jurczyk mentioned that the UI’s TPUSA chapter was started by four women, no one clapped and no one rallied in support. 

I walked out of that arena the way I walked in: unconvinced, but not unchanged. What stayed with me wasn’t the speeches, it was the cheering, and how easily a crowd can be rallied around contempt for other people. 

I went to see how the right thinks and not be converted. Instead, I saw a movement that treats my presence as a problem.

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