To the shock and horror of the left, The New York Young Republican Club gathered last week to celebrate its joyous solidarity in the face of overwhelming evil. Gorgeously clad attendees of the 110th Annual Gala strode past mobs of protesters braying the usual insults (“Nazi!” “Fascist!” “White Supremacist!”) from behind police barricades.

“One party in the country wants to put the other party in a gulag, and the media carries their water,” Donald Trump Jr. told the crowd, delivering somber analysis with perfect comic timing. “We have a political party pushing pedophilia, as the schools attack mothers…We saw more cancellations of Mike Lindell than Balenciaga for running a kiddie porn campaign.”

“We’re dining in this beautiful room, but it’s like dining on the top deck of the Titanic,” Marjorie Taylor Greene said. “We’re a nation invaded on our southern border, and every day 300 Americans are dying from fentanyl. Since 9/11, over one million Americans have died of drug overdoses, while the Mexican cartels make $19 - 29 billion a year selling drugs.”

I attended the Gala as a reporter for American Thinker, interviewing a wide array of people to gauge their thoughts on this epic moment in American history. Several themes emerged:

We’re in a spiritual battle. And it’s one minute till midnight. “We want total war,” Gavin Mario Wax, the tough-minded President of the New York Young Republican Club, thundered from the podium. “We must be prepared to do battle in every arena – in the media, in the courtroom, at the ballot box, and in the streets…Use every weapon at our disposal.”

As the night went on, it became clearer that the ultimate war front is spiritual. Vish Burra, Executive Secretary of the Club, decried “the spiritual sewage polluting the soul of the nation.” And Jack Posobiec, Senior Editor of Human Events, said, “We are in a war, a new type of war not fought on fields of battle. This is a generational conflict fought on a spiritual level – fought in grocery stores, classrooms, trains. Today’s warfare is a warfare of tweets, memes, words, and narratives. We will not be silenced as they go after our children. God save the Republic.”

The room seemed to pulse with sober recognition of the weight of the hour, as well as excited determination to fulfill the mission. Everyone in the room had drafted themselves into the war. Amidst the harsh resolve, there was gentleness, too. An earnest young man named Calvin told me, “The people screaming and protesting outside have broken hearts, and they need healing. The way forward is through a spiritual path.”

The corrupt Republican establishment will not be tolerated. The dynamic success of The New York Young Republican Club is both a reproach to the failed Republican establishment and a template of how to move forward. NYYRC attracts hardcore activists who despise crony compromise, and as its membership ranks swell – it’s now up to 1,100 – so does its power.

Ron Coleman, who’s on the Club’s Board of Advisors, told me, “We’re fighting an uphill battle against unprecedented levels of nihilism, cynicism, and corruption but, otherwise, I’m optimistic as usual.”

And Gavin Wax laid it all on the line: “The Republican Party cares only about kowtowing to the donor class. Our donations were wasted; our energies were squandered. We’re putting the corrupt Republican establishment on notice.”

The new Republican spirit is young, diverse in background and thought, and hugely motivated. Forget the image of Republicans as boring old white men. The New York Young Republican Club is brimming with excited young members of every ethnicity. Proud members of the Asian, Black, Catholic, Hispanic, Italian, and Women’s Caucus mingled in the crowd, enthusiastically chatting about how to seize power.

Bill Spadea, a popular New Jersey radio host, told me, “The corporate media has two narratives: one, young people aren’t Republican. Two, Republicans aren’t popular. Both are false. Here we are in Manhattan, and this event is sold out. Most people here are in their low 20s, and they understand there’s an opportunity now to make big changes.”

Image made using celebrating young people by pressfoto.

I noted the presence of many Orthodox Jews to Ryan Mermer, head of Jewish engagement of the RNC. He said, “We’re proud of everything we’ve done. The Jewish Republican vote is now 33% nationally and, in Florida, it’s 45%, the highest it’s ever been.”

Charlii Sebunya, a media personality who got my vote for the most vividly dressed, told me, “We don’t look at people through their race. Why are you telling me I’m oppressed because I’m black and gay? I’m not oppressed, and I find this club refreshing because I’m among like-minded people.”

Expand the battlefield to other countries. The NYYRC energetically forges alliances with conservative forces overseas, in recognition that we face the same existential threats. Members of the European Parliament attended the Gala, along with the Polish General Consul and a Hungarian dignitary who accepted an award on behalf of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Good evening, American patriots! We believe in the family. We look on children not as a burden but as a blessing. And we believe in God!” he thundered to the rapt crowd.

I spoke with Dominik Andrzejczuk who works with the Polish Ministry of Defense. “Biden is a laughingstock in Poland. Everybody knows he’s senile,” he said. “The woke culture in the U.S. is frowned upon even by the left in Poland. Under Communism, we had everything forced on us, and woke culture is seen as Marxism 2.0. We still need the U.S. for military support, and we don’t know where we stand.”

Vish Burra noted the extraordinary levels of national, international, and local influence in the room. “Not only is the New Right horizontally consolidated, we’re also vertically integrated,” he said with pride.

Energize the battlefield on local levels. “The red wave was at the grassroots levels,” Bill Spadea told me. “We flipped four Congressional seats in New York, and in New Jersey, we won 447 school board seats. Good times are ahead.”

Legislator Ben Geller, who represents FDR’s hometown of Hyde Park, just won office in his first run by flipping a 70% Democratic district as a registered conservative. “I’m 25 years old,” he said. “I’m a first responder, and I knocked on 12,000 doors and met people where they are.”

Angie Wong told me she’s working to support the next generation of conservative leaders through Legacy Pac, bringing them up through the ranks. And, according to Vish Burra, local success in New York can energize greater success in the future. “New York was the canary in the coal mine,” Burra said. “New York is a beacon of hope, and tonight is a celebration.”

Find your army. “Everyone in this room is my family,” Raheem Kassam, editor-in-chief of The National Pulse, announced from the stage. To some, that might sound hyperbolic, but for anyone looking desperately to find like-minded souls in the middle of Manhattan, his words rang true.

On a personal note, I found it gratifying to hear praise for American Thinker from so many people, including Raheem Kassam: “I’ve been reading American Thinker for many years and it’s had a huge influence on me.”

And Jack Posobiec said, “I love American Thinker; I wouldn’t be thinking the way I do without it. American Thinker was one of the original outlets, like Rush, turning out fresh takes that made me realize there’s this vast spectrum of thinking out there. I’ve been reading it for twenty years.”

Never give up fighting. Never give up hope. America feels like it’s dying, but our spiritual task is to save it and restore it once again, as in Lincoln’s day, to “a new birth of freedom.” Donald Trump Jr. told the crowd, “We have to adapt our tactics and fight like they do. Stay in this fight. We can never ever give up.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene declared, “This is an information war and we’re losing…We have to get comfortable being uncomfortable. We have to dig in and do the work.”

I asked Natalie Winters, the wunderkind investigative reporter who’s now executive editor of Steve Bannon’s War Room, where she finds hope. “People have been so gaslit. But the extent to which the other side has gone to suppress the truth shows you that we’re right. I find hope in their actions.”

Tellingly, in the week since the Gala, membership in the New York Young Republican has surged. The more the press attacked the Club, the more interest in it grew. Our enemies may yet feel our wrath, because the flame of freedom is not easily extinguished in the hearts of Americans.