TPUSA has announced the launch of its new “180” digital video series featuring today’s top political thinkers, who will share their most compelling argument on a political position in 180 seconds or less. “The 180 Series” debuted on Wednesday with its first video, featuring Americans for Tax Reform founder Grover Norquist.
“We’re not going to tell you how to think, we’re just telling you to think,” states the tagline for The 180 Series, which will give its presenters the chance to convince viewers of their political position in 180 seconds or less. TPUSA says that this way of presenting information is “perfect for the busy millennial and gen-z American who’s constantly on the go.”
“In a country infected with cancel culture and outrage mobs, we need to get back to a place where we can civilly present our best ideas and hash things out with our words, not our fists,” said TPUSA and 180 contributor Rob Smith. “I want to give you my best take on a topic and if you’re not convinced, that’s okay. At least you’re thinking and considering what I have to say.”
The 180 Series will release a new video every Wednesday, which will be uploaded to its new Facebook and Instagram pages and TPUSA’s YouTube page, as well as cross-posted on other TPUSA social media accounts.
The debut video features Grover Norquist, who gives his argument in 180 seconds on why taxation should be limited to the absolute minimum by societies and governments.
Watch the debut video below:
“Right now the government takes about a third of our income and spends it on our behalf. That doesn’t have to be the case,” said Norquist, who noted Americans had been paying 1 to 2 percent of their income in taxes — with temporary spikes during wars — until it spiked during World War II and never came back down.
“The government decided, ‘we have all this lovely money, why should we ever let the American people have it back just because the war’s over?’ and that’s when we got up to 15 percent at the federal level, and now up to about 20 percent,” continued Norquist.
Some politicians are even calling for a 70 percent tax rate in the United States. We’ve done that. It didn’t work. That’s why we stopped it. We even had 90 percent after World War II, and John F. Kennedy said 90 percent is ridiculous, it’s slowing economic growth — they took it from 90 down to 70, and in the 1960’s we had strong growth. Then Reagan came into office, he said 70 percent is too high, took it down to 50 [percent], down to 28 [percent]. Every time they cut the rates — the economy grew, because the American people were wealthier and more successful. We walked away from 90 percent, we walked away from 70 percent, and the whole world followed our model. We need to take a look at what worked.
While the goal of The 180 Series is to change minds by convincing viewers to the presenter’s way of thinking, TPUSA says that even if young people simply watch the videos with an open mind and don’t change their opinions, the organization will still find the series successful, because young people would have a least heard the other side.
Thus, “a positive cultural and political outcome is inevitable,” said Turning Point USA.
“Most college students haven’t thought critically about many of the topics we plan on presenting in these videos. This is mainly because they never hear about them from academics on college or high school campuses. I firmly believe that these are the ideas that will win the future,” explains TPUSA founder and president Charlie Kirk.
“Young people aren’t opposed to the common-sense philosophy of freedom,” added Kirk, “they just simply aren’t exposed to it and 180 is designed to ensure they are.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Twitter at @ARmastrangelo and on Instagram.
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