TOn Tuesday, Charlie Kirk brought his You’re Being Brainwashed Tour to the campus of my public university in a Republican-controlled state. It was nothing like the last time Kirk and his Turning Point USA (TPUSA) organization were there. While the different timing is important – this was literally two weeks before Election Day – in many ways the differences between the events of 2018 and 2024 reflect the dangerous radicalization of the American right wing.

In 2018, Kirk had a fairly similar agenda when he came to my university: “exposing left-wing lies and progressive propaganda” at American universities. I wrote a column about the rather boring event, describing it as a “right-wing safe space,” with Kirk railing against the “cultural Marxists.” Most students seemed more amused than offended. How different was this week’s event.

When I got to campus early, I saw them setting up their booths. I drank my coffee across from a lone student wearing a Trump hat – a rare sight, even at my university. I then went on to teach my course on far-right politics, where the TPUSA event was the talk of the day. I told my students that I completely understood if they wanted to observe the event – ​​who am I to stand in the way of them being “debrainwashed”? – and about half of my students did indeed leave mid-lesson to attend the event.

After class, I walked to Tate Plaza, the open space in front of the student center, and was stunned by the sight. I saw what looked like a sea of ​​Maga hats in the wide open space. I ran into one of my students, who told me that TPUSA was giving out the Maga hats for free, and he left because you couldn’t hear anything anyway. In the background, Kirk droned on about Kamala Harris, wokeism and his other favorite enemies. But there was something about the meeting, an energy that was missing six years ago. Not only was this a safe space, this was a boisterous and proud rally!

Sure, almost everyone who wore their own Maga hat was older and unrelated to the university, but a few hundred students happily accepted and wore the hat. Furthermore, most kept them on as they left the meeting and went to the food court, to class, or even into town. It turns out that a hat, which is the most recognizable symbol of support for a man who has been loudly and openly authoritarian and racist in recent months, is a pretty cool gimmick for privileged young white men.

There are important broader lessons to be learned from the differences between these two TPUSA events. First, the 2024 meeting shows the radicalization of conservative America. Although Turning Point backed Trump in 2018, it still had a largely independent program, ostensibly focused on traditional conservative values ​​like small government and capitalism. In recent years, Kirk has not only fully embraced Trump’s authoritarian and nativist agenda, he and his organization have transitioned to full-blown Christian nationalism.

Second, Turning Point USA targets college and high school students, meaning students age 21 and younger. These children and young adults have been socialized in a world where 1 Trump is a former president; 2 the Republican party is Trump’s party; and 3 the US Capitol was stormed by Trump sympathizers. For those who grew up in Republican households, which is to say most students at my university, this means that Trump and the far right are completely normal. What we see as the far right, they see as mainstream conservatism. They have no idea about the Republican party of George Bush Sr or Jr.

Third, radicalized organizations like TPUSA have overtaken the role of mainstream conservative organizations like the College Republicans, not only on campus, but also as a training ground for the next “conservative” elite. Kirk literally trained the cadres for the next Trump administration, should that happen. These are a very different breed of “Republicans,” if they are Republicans at all. They are more assertive and extremist, but less tied to traditional conservative organizations, including the Republican Party.

Fourth, and most optimistically, the sea of ​​Maga hats also gave me a glimmer of hope for the upcoming elections. Since Trump’s shocking victory in 2016, the media has been obsessed with “shy Trump supporters,” that is, people who support Trump in the election but don’t say so in polls due to social desirability. Although the empirical evidence has always been weak, the “shy Trump voter” has never disappeared from public debate. Seeing these students wearing the Maga hats, not for fun or provocation, but as a “normal” expression of support for the “conservative” candidate in the presidential election, confirmed my suspicion that there will be no “shy Trumpers” in 2024 be more.

And if this is true, perhaps there is still hope, in the sense that current polls are overrepresenting the Trump vote because they are overcompensating for an outdated phenomenon, the shy Trump voter, another victim of Trump’s normalization.

• Cas Mudde is the Stanley Wade Shelton UGAF Professor of International Affairs at the University of Georgia, and author of The Far Right Today