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The Kids Are Far Right

Finally getting around to reading this month's edition of Harpers, and I came across a great expose on the National Conservative Student Conference - The Kids Are Far Right: Hippie Hunting, Bunny Bashing, and the New Conservitism. I'd link you to the article, but it's Harpers, so it's not online yet (if it will ever be).

You can get all the creepy cultural details over at Mahablog. I'd like to focus on the purely infrastructural revelations.

According to the Harper's article, Campus Progresses budget last year was $650,000 (it's unclear whether this is purely operational or includes adminstrative costs. I've heard in other places that Campus Progress's 2005 budget was twice that number). In comparison, the article pegs the combined budget of Young America's Foundation - which sponsors the conference - and affiliated conservative organizations at around $35 million. It costs the NCSC $2,000 to host a student, yet attendees are only required to pay $375 of that cost.

Also noted in the story - College Republican chapters have risen from 650 to 1,775 in the last six years. By contrast, the College Democrats wouldn't reveal the number of chapters they have for "fear of provoking a war with the college Republicans." I'm going to take that lame excuse as confirmation that their chapter list doesn't even approach that of their conservative counterparts.

So its clear that Republicans are working hard to reach young voters and foster a new generation of conservatives. And they need to. Recent polls show that young people are supporting Dems by a 2 to 1 margin, and, as this chart makes clear, we may well be looking at the biggest progressive wave in over a century.

$35 million. That's what the right is investing in their future every year to make the most out of what few young people support their cause. Right now, we're in the opposite position. We're winning the hearts and minds of millenials. Will we make the necessary investments in the coming years to help them become a vital part of the progressive movement?

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November 4th, 2006 10:30pm
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Submitted by Fred Gooltz on Mon, 2006-11-06 04:33.

After reading that article I had to laugh because as crazy as I think a lot of young people in politics are, our generation is by and large more pragmatic on the left than the neocon youth portrayed in that Harper's article.

The smartest kids in that article clearly are uncomfortable with the steering philosophy behind the retreat.

The gifted ones who picture themselves potential peer-leaders are uneasy with the thought of being judged by the 'peers' they will be associated with coming out of that retreat.

In my mind, that's great news.

Our side and our generation gets the sense that we're the underdogs, that therefore we have to conserve ammo, pick our shots well. We know moreso than they that it's not going to happen overnight, and while we often get impatient, like the march towards civil rights or abolition, we know progress is going to come. It will, and those who oppose it are wrong.

On the other hand, the neocon youth came of age having complete power and a carpet bomb mentality. They are being trained to hate liberals as if they were vermin. And they want to kill them in large numbers. They emulate Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity.

What we're left with on the young right is a rabid army of bombthrowers with leaders like young Rick Santorums - the Arlen Specters will be purged, or will fold, rather than be associated with the fever swamp mutants.

I like our chances. Especially if the linchpin fight in 12 years is gay marriage.

Also, longview:
When the Marquis de Sade was in an insane asylum, he was able to rally and direct the inmates to perform a play. It was organized, there was structure -- but it was still crazy people trying to hold it together. As soon as de Sade died, the inmates went back to being helplessly insane.

We're seeing that movement conservatives invariably build structures around a cult of personality. When the leader is indicted, loses, or lameduck, the army is adrift until the new cult leader is assigned.

All of the Gingrich Revolution class are now pariahs, leaving Reagan to be god at that conference to those kids. That means that he will be for another 10 years.

Gingrinch was 12 years ago - in 2010 (the next chance for a GOP wave with a new generation of potential leaders) not only will Reagan be ancient history - the left we will be 60% of the population.

I like our chances.

Re: This Article

Submitted by Brad (not verified) on Mon, 2007-03-05 21:48.

I don’t think Young Americans are really ideologically liberal. You can’t find too many who support the anti-Obesity crusade or other leftist attacks on personal responsibility. The reason why two-thirds support Democrats is because the Neo-Cons of the Republican Party have been in power. Don’t believe me? Go into any high school and poll the student body on school uniforms, which was one of Bill Clinton’s primary issues when he was in office. I doubt you’d find more than a 15% group that would support it and that group would include nobody who was very respected around the school.

The Republican Party has been in the hands of government-loving Neo-Cons (who are actually former Democrats from the LBJ line run out of that party during Vietnam). The president Bush has resembled most is not Nixon, but LBJ. Look at the similarities. They were responsible for the 2 biggest budget increases of the last 50 years. They both started wars that were impossible to win. They both committed election fraud (LBJ cheated in the 46 Senate Election, Bush in the 2 presidential elections). They were both Texans. One way that Bush is better than LBJ is that he never killed a president, as LBJ is alleged to have done (The former New Orleans DA Jim Garrison claimed that LBJ killed JFK).

What do young Americans want? To return to the Constitution and end Big Government. Young Americans are more Libertarian than anything else. Polls show that the occupation which young Americans hold in the highest regard is that of the businessman. That doesn’t make them very good liberals. Young Americans are only Liberal in the Classical sense, which is that a Liberal was for the maximum amount of freedom possible in all circumstances. That definitely doesn’t include anti-obesity crusades, gun control, or Socialism.

Who am I supporting in the presidential election? Ron Paul, the Texas Congressman who has opposed the Iraq War from the start, voted against the Patriot Act and voted against Internet Regulations every time they’ve been proposed. He’s also voted against all unbalanced budgets, tax increases, and Congressional Pay Raises. He was in Congress during the 70s for a few years and has been there since 96. He’s against the ridiculous Real ID system that would create a national drivers license that would have erode what little privacy is left. He’s against the ridiculous Kelo ruling which allows the government to throw people out of their homes. He would end the war immediately. He opposes World Government organizations such as the ICC (which would try Americans before barbaric tribunals with little to no protections against conviction), NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA (which allow foreign countries to attack American jobs), SAPP (which would establish a North American Union that would control America), and the UN (which wants to tax American citizens and is working to destroy human rights through its human rights councils that have included Russia, China, Syria, Sudan and other oppressive regimes as members while the US was kicked off). He also wants to secure our borders and would free the Border Patrol agents rotting in jail to appease Mexico. Shouldn’t we elect Ron Paul in 08?