High school and college students, dressed in a blend of Sunday best and Republican red, strained to hear the words bouncing off the marble walls of the Utah Capitol rotunda.

The air echoed with grief for slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who had been killed a month earlier at Utah Valley University. Then a statement of hopeful resolve cut through the garbled reverb.

“Our generation will be the most patriotic, the most courageous and the most prosperous generation in this country’s history,” the speaker said. “Why? Because we were born for this. Born to rebuild.”

Aubree Hudson, age 22, stood at the podium, her finger pointed skyward, urging her peers to rise above the contempt that seems only to have multiplied since Kirk’s death shocked the nation on Sept. 10.

Hudson, who serve

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