Bestselling author and conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza was the special guest speaker at the Livingston County Republican’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner.

Roughly 550 members and supporters of the Grand Old Party gathered to hear the political commentator, D’Souza, at Crystal Gardens Banquet Hall in Genoa Township, Thursday night. Born in India, he shared stories of immigrating to the U.S., being tried and convicted for illegal campaign contributions, and what it is was like to get a phone call from Donald Trump with a presidential pardon.

D’Souza then used much of his remaining time warning Republicans about the political climate they are in and how they are in different time and new situation than before – one that calls for different tactics and psychology. He said that “we’re living in a time where the left doesn’t just want socialism, they don’t just want to take your money- they want to control your life. They want to control what you think.” D’Souza said they want to create an America in which all of us are worms, bowing down to their orthodoxy.

D’Souza said Democrats have 3 “megaphones,” being academia, the media, and Hollywood, and that they aren’t afraid to use them. He encouraged Republicans to toughen up and “upset the structures of tyranny they’re putting in place.” D’Souza said that for conservatives to preserve the “American Dream” they have to stop being conservative, not psychologically, but temperamentally. He harkened back to the time of President Reagan, calling it a more politically civil time, and challenging those in attendance, that if they want to return to those times, they have to show the other side they can’t get away with, "what they’ve been pulling the last several years."

He said the Republican Party has been nominating “Boy Scouts” like Mitt Romney, Bob Dole, and John McCain, and the left "beats them to a pulp." D’Souza said it’s now nice to have a leader like Trump who enjoys kicking back. He said the party won’t always have Trump, but they need a Republican party that draws on some “Trumpian” lessons for the road ahead. (MK)