The Unf*ck America Tour made its final stop at UC Berkeley on Wednesday evening. A democratic counterpart to the conservative Turning Point USA, the event saw speakers debate issues of abortion access and foreign policy.
The goal: sway young people to vote blue.
Five months ago, TPUSA also ended its nationwide tour at UC Berkeley, which was met with hundreds of protesters and police.
Hosted by National Ground Game, or NGG, and its UC Berkeley student chapter, the event opened with a student from the Berkeley Turning Point chapter arguing against panelists Jake Gould, Guy Cohen, David Mauricio and Brian Shapiro on abortion rights. Other students later debated U.S. military intervention in Ukraine, Iran and Palestine.
“The goal of all this is to … just engage in civil discussion,” Gould said. “Honestly, as Charlie Kirk said, ‘when people stop talking, bad stuff starts happening.’”
The tour began in response to TPUSA’s growing prominence in youth politics. Zee Cohen-Sanchez, executive director of NGG, described its mission as an “electoral strategy” to “combat the red pill pipeline.”
Since its inception, the Unf*ck America Tour and members of NGG have gained traction for hosting their own debates or confronting Turning Point USA panelists. Cohen-Sanchez said one of its creators asked the last question to Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University before his assassination.
“We were sort of at a heightened state after that,” Cohen-Sanchez said. “But I think it’s very important for us to be still showing up and showing people that fear is not going to stop us.”
While members of the Berkeley TPUSA chapter and Berkeley College Republicans butted heads with the panelists, other campus community members also took the mic.
“It opens up the floor for opinions, which is very important, especially now, but I also find it contradictory … you’re kind of ragebaiting people for content,” said UC Berkeley student Jose Arizmendiz. “The majority of the students here are liberal or left-leaning, they’re not going to get a lot of interaction beyond the actual Turning Point USA members or undercover liberals.”
NGG plans to continue its efforts over the summer by canvassing for Democratic nominees as midterms approach. It will begin another tour across college campuses in the fall.
While the Unf*ck America Tour came to UC Berkeley due to the large NGG student chapter on campus, Cohen-Sanchez said NGG intends to focus its efforts on more colleges in the South.