Think Tank Networking

Codie shares her experience participating in an exclusive think tank event.

"I'm part of a group called the American Enterprise Institute. They have this idea that all ideas should be in competition. There should be a competition for the best ideas, and the best ideas should win to determine how we rule our lives and what our regulations are.

They're bipartisan, with both Democrats and Republicans involved. I'm part of a group that donates every year, and we go to a couple of events. At these events, they'll have people like Dick Cheney and Michelle Obama on a stage together, and they'll compete with their ideas. It's closed doors, you can't video it, and you can't talk about the specific things discussed inside. This allows politicians to be perhaps more realistic than they would be on news sites.

You go to this event where many of the leaders of the free world are there. You fly into a private airport in Sea Island, go to a private hotel, and there's all this security. It's like a little mini UN. The guy who runs the think tank talks to a lot of the biggest conservative donors in the world about love and why it's the most important thing in the world, which for conservatives is not normalized at all."