BREAKING: Charlie Kirk kicks off AmFest 2022–’We want a country where our kids love America again’

Addressing the excited room of attendees, Kirk marked the start of the weekend’s conference by poking fun at Maricopa County and their election day troubles.

"One of my favorite takeaways from today, is to show that Maricopa County, you can get people through lines effectively and print badges… Maricopa County, if you wanna learn how to get 10,000 people through a line and print something with almost no problems come to a Turning Point USA event. That’s all I gotta say.

Thanking the crowd for making the journey to the conference, Kirk continued, "you see, we’re in a very important time in our nation’s history, and we as a movement, as a conservative movement, need a vision. Without a vision the people perish, is what it says in the Scriptures."

"I have the opportunity to travel the country and talk to lots of different people, and we have been lacking a coherent vision of what we as conservatives believe in and what we are fighting for," said Kirk.

"Now, we know what the bad guys are fighting for. And. a movement with no vision, we’re noting more than just a gang, just a random group of people with kind of shared ideas and shared values, but a vision, something that we are aiming for, something as a movement that we strive for, that we for, all of a sudden, will make everything make sense again," Kirk added.

Kirk continued on to say that there are people within the conservative movement taking "bold and courageous" steps like homeschooling their children, running for their local school board or for government office, or knocking on doors for the midterm elections.

"This room is the room that always goes the extra mile, but one of the things we have to take a step back and say well, what exactly are we fighting for? What does success look like as a vision and as a movement?"

Kirk said that the vision of "our opponents and the Marxist totalitarian left is filled with venom, hatred, darkness, resentment, arrogance, and despair," and that "they want power, they want control," taking over schools and institutions.

"One of the reasons why I believe that Turning Point USA is the most important organization in America is because we go to places where there are not a lot of conservatives. At Turning Point USA, we play offense with a sense of urgency to go to places that we are in the ideological and philosophical minority and guess what, we are not always welcomed when we go to these college campuses, but we are going to win when we go to places wthat we are not always welcomed, and we go there anyway," he continued, noting the case of a campus stop in New Mexico.

"So what is our vision as conservatives?" Kirk asked. "We know their vision is one of despair and confusion, the destroying of distinctions."

Kirk noted that one of these visions for the "totalitarian left" is to "destroy the distinction between God and man, between man and woman, between good and evil."

"They want to blur these lines that allow us to live in a free and stable and civil society, because you know what, they get a lot more powerful that way."

"But our vision needs to be clear and bold," said Kirk, who continued on to propose that "we want a country where our kids love America again. We want a country where kids are taught about Jefferson and Madison and Jay. A country where they’re taught about Abraham Lincoln and the beauty of the Declaration and the Constitution, the Federalist Papers. We want a country where kids are taught that if you judge somebody on the basis of skin, you are a racist and we should instead care about character, not the complexion of somebody’s skin."

"Our vision for America, it’s hard to believe I even have to say this, is we want a country where kids can be kids again, we want a country where kids are safe from groomer teachers and predators who are trying to put prescriptive pharmaceuticals into their bodies that will do irreversible harm. We want kids to be kids again."

Kirk continued on say that America should be a nation where "puberty isn’t treated like some sort of illness," where "the innocence of children is preserved and protected," and where pedophilia is "non-negotiable."

"Our vision is that we want to value wisdom, eternal principles, prudence, common sense — more than someone who has a PhD in North African lesbian poetry. I believe there is more wisdom in the American plumbing community than at Harvard or Yale."

Kirk added that the US should be a country where it’s "easy to be a parent," easy to get married," and that "one of the most beautiful things you can do is to get married and have kids."

"One of the reasons why our generation is very sad, is the most depressed, suicidal, alcohol-addicted and drug-addicted generation in history is the stuff that gives you meaning they have been told is evil."

Kirk later added, "What gives me hope is that what we see on these campuses is a generation that understands the only way you beat the left is you never give up and you never give them an inch. Period."

During his speech, Kirk revealed that Americafest is "the largest multi-day event in the history of the conservative movement," with 10,800 tickets purchased. "That’s a sign that things are moving, that there’s momentum."