right wing

This morning I got an email from myImpact.org announcing that they'd received support from the Peterson Foundation and Mobilize.org for a social media project they intend to do. This was announced at the Mobilize.org event "Exploring the Millennial Generation’s Return on Investment" a conference announced earlier this year when Mobilize announced their $1million grant from the Peterson Foundation.

William Greider wrote in The Nation earlier this year about the Looting of Social Security, describing very specifically the plan among Wall Street and Banking elites who are pushing the idea of fiscal responsibility as part of policy. Fiscal responsibility is a well tested phrase that everyone can get behind - because everyone agrees that our country should be responsible with its money. . . but Greider says that this is a backdoor swindle on anyone who has paid into Social Security

"These players are promoting a tricky way to whack Social Security benefits, but to do it behind closed doors so the public cannot see what's happening or figure out which politicians to blame. The essential transaction would amount to misappropriating the trillions in Social Security taxes that workers have paid to finance their retirement benefits. This swindle is portrayed as "fiscal reform." In fact, it's the political equivalent of bait-and-switch fraud."

His piece is extensive, and outlines the ways in which the rich want to use funding for Social Security to cut taxes to corporations and upper-income wage earners and a huge tax increase imposed on working people that he says is similar to the 1983 tax

"the payroll tax rate supporting Social Security--the weekly FICA deduction--was raised substantially, supposedly to create a nest egg for when the baby boom generation reached retirement age."

There is a kindred spirit in young people with this message, because since the 1980's the Millennial Generation has heard a consistent message about Social Security being too small to support the Baby Boomer Generation. Most young people don't think it will be there for them (Disclaimer: It will be), so this is a great group of people to begin organizing around "entitlement reform" to unmake Social Security and bait the young against the old to screw us all.

The article received a response from the Peterson Foundation itself directly targeting the idea of "entitlements" and "fiscal responsibility." But, Greider responded to the letter saying

"if you read his letter closely, he more or less confirms what I wrote about the establishment's assault on Social Security and other entitlement programs.

"I said they want to loot Social Security. He says it's already been looted. I said they are trying to evade the regular processes of representative democracy. He says Congress is "broken" and so cannot be trusted to make sound decisions in a timely manner."

Mobilize prides itself in being an "all partisan" organization, rather than a non-partisan organization which is what many youth groups are. When they promote progressive values I personally celebrate it, when they promote right-wing ideas, I will not. I had no idea that myImpact.org was also aligned with this kind of ideology, and I was so disappointed to receive the email from them this morning celebrating the Peterson Foundation's involvement, and accepting donations from them.

But this is the second problem, there's no funding for the youth movement. If you've read Mike Connery's book Youth to Power then you've read about the major donors that invested 5-10 years ago, respectively, in progressive youth outreach, young voters, and organizations that promote the civic participation and dedication of the Millennial Generation.

I'm sad to say that those donors have almost entirely dried up. Many are funding different projects, some have gone more partisan, some have gone less partisan only funding organizations that do voter registration and civic engagement but not issues, and others have simply stopped giving either because of the economic recession or a lack of interest.

The result is a ton of youth organizations doing groundbreaking work in states and across the country that can't get funded or whose budgets have been slashed so considerably that the outreach has suffered. The funders that are still active in the youth movement, those rare loyal leaders, are so few that we as a community are wrestling over any dime we can get.

So when there is a major foundation like Peterson willing to bankroll the entire organization with a $1million check, an organization must choose whether or not to sell their soul to keep the doors open.

This will continue to be the standard until we as a progressive movement decide to invest in our future. Right wing groups specifically invest in their youth with leadership training, job placement, think takes, and candidate recruitment. Connery wrote on Talking Points Memo last year about the trend beginning in the 1970's when the

"Young America’s Foundation, the most well-funded conservative youth group, with an average annual budget of around $9 million, was revitalized, and new organizations like Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute, which has trained upwards of 50,000 conservative activists on an average annual budget of $7 million, were getting their start.

Within the Republican Party itself, the College Republicans also experienced a revitalization at this time. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the number of College Republican chapters climbed from a nadir of 250 during the Johnson administration to over 1,100 by the time Reagan was in office.

By 2003, there were over a dozen leadership and training nonprofits in the conservative youth movement, and they receive upwards of $48 million a year in funding from 75 different conservative foundations. More importantly, their was not cyclical (ie election-based), but steady, providing a measure of stability on which to build and sustain their operations for years. Together, these organizations train hundreds if not thousands of conservatives a year, almost the entire cost of which is subsidized for the trainees."

I'll say it again, if we don't invest in our future today, there won't be a future to invest in, and more and more youth groups will be forced to accept compromising donations from conservative groups looking to creatively make inroads to the progressive movement. Social Security will be just the beginning of the end.

This evening I had the chance to interview Jeff Sharlet, author of "The Family" about Kansas politicians connections to Congressman Todd Tiahrt, Senator Sam Brownack, and Rep. Jerry Moran. He had some tough words for Rep. Tiahrt who he outed as a member of the religious cult on "The Rachel Maddow" show earlier this week.

Rep. Tiahrt denied any involvement with the "The Family" in yesterday's Kansas City Star:

Tiahrt would not respond to questions, but said in a statement he has “never lived at the C Street House, nor have I participated in any regular Bible studies or so-called counseling sessions there.”

Jeff Sharlet, as detailed in Sarah Burris' post from last week, begged to differ telling an intimate, and disturbing story about a "counseling session" between "The Family" leader Doug Coe and a younger Rep. Todd Tiahrt. (Click on the link to read Sarah's post.)

I spoke to Jeff today for the interview I will be publishing throughout the week, but we did cover Tiahrt's most recent comments and I wanted to share it with you as a brief teaser:

"At the very best, the very best, you can say about this is it is disingenuous, here we have a documented encounter and he (Tiahrt) needs to address that."

I have to say, that's pretty damning at it's best.

Look out this whole week for my interview with Jeff.

I posted the video of Meghan McCain's Maddow interview earlier this week and while she's probably an expert on the ways in which the GOP is hemoraging young people because the religious right is scaring people off... here is further evidence that the extremist points of view in a much more modern time are becoming more moderate and mainstream.

A good friend who is a very faithful man sent me a piece he saw on Alternet that talks about Equality Ride a project of Soulforce Q. They have young LGBTQ folks riding around the country on a bus visiting evangelical colleges in the south to bring a public face to issues often opposed by that community and "to cut off homophobia at its source -- religious bigotry."

"Soulforce recognized that encouraging young people to engage in conversation with their peers who hold conservative views about homosexuality could be transformative for both sides."

"The Equality Ride targeted students whose identities as Christian are central to their lives. Such students' choice of attending a Christian school probably helps them resist some of the social pressures of modern life. A loving confrontation by fellow young people with contrasting views on homosexuality was designed to challenge orthodoxy and certainty."

Its a little like an intervention - we're doing this because we love you and we don't want you to live like this anymore... The light at the end of the tunnel is that young evangelicals still might be conservative but

"At the same time they are more inclined than their parents to support social justice efforts such as environmental stewardship, anti-poverty programs, or HIV/AIDS treatment. While they mostly believe that homosexuality is a sin, at least some of them support employment and housing rights for LGBTQ people."

Its a good start.

The piece goes on to say that out of the 4,000 colleges and universities in the US about 400 are Christian schools that identify as evangelical Protestant.

"Students attending these colleges enter environments where conservative Christian values are celebrated, and often codified. Most of these schools
explicitly prohibit drinking, smoking, sexual activity, and homosexuality, and some require students and staff to sign faith statements."

My friend told me that Barry Goldwater once said about campaigning "you go hunting where the ducks are." He said he thinks young evangelicals in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas are areas prime with game if we want to reach folks. He believes some of the younger believers would be very open to the progressive, environmental stewardship for example not to mention a social justice message.

He's right. The article says that for evangelicals that know at least one LGBT person

"this issue [a constitutional amendment banning same sex marriage] became greatly troubling. The vast majority of conservative Christians strongly believe that marriage should be restricted to between a man and a woman, but they also value human rights and don't think that the government should treat anyone unfairly."

Hope and change.... hope and change...

Bumped. Not our usual fare, but this is interesting and well-argued. Particularly if you've read something like David Brock's take on 1980's campus conservatism. --Mike

One of the few lasting institutional impacts of 60s and 70s student activism is the proliferation of identity-based academic departments: black studies, women's (and now gender) studies, queer studies, native studies, Hispanic studies, etc.

Often these departments are the last havens for dissidents in the professoriat, thanks to disciplines like political science and sociology increasingly de-politicized (largely through emphasis on quantitative than qualitative - if it can't have hard numbers ascribed to it, good luck getting funding - or tenure!). Critics of the way universities are run usually come from these departments too, which makes sense as their very creation stemmed from backlash against a privileged and oppressive curricula and governing structure.

As part of a larger examination into young people and their split from one sect of the political world to the other, I’ve been doing a lot of research into the youth evangelical movement.

I am – as a Kansan, always curious about this ultra-right group of people, what they are up to, how they are organizing, and how they are essentially doing what What’s the Matter with Kansas claims the poor sell themselves out for values votes. I would argue that evangelicals do the same thing. While we have a community of people who believe that it is their holy destiny to vote in the interest of their God – I see so many who sell out their own beliefs for a narrow agenda.

I mention that but, honestly my post has nothing to do with that – the larger piece I’m working on for Wiretap will. I don’t even want to address the irony that I’m watching the X-Files episode Signs and Wonders which is all about a Pentecostal minister that uses snake handling in his church but it turns out he’s actually Satan…

So, I started reading Righteous: Dispatches from the Evangelical Youth Movement by Lauren Sandler as part of this bigger project. I’m honestly not very far into it but what I’ve read thus far, just of Sandler’s interviews and questions, exploration, and the like of those who are intensely involved in this movement – has given me more of an understanding of the type and structure of organization and political organizing that is going on.

This seems particularly fitting given Mark's stellar interview with The Dude yesterday.

And Gawd CAME DOWN and said unto them, “Dude… wtf??”

New Harvard Institute Survey came out a while back. I’m a slacker – I finally printed it, read it, and made smiley faces and stars in the margins.

THIS – caught my eye:

“One-in-five members of Generation Next say they have no religious affiliation or are atheist or agnostic, nearly double the proportion of young people who said that in the late 1980s. And just 4% of Gen Nexters say people in their generation view becoming more spiritual as their most important goal in life.”

And do we think that me reading these stats on the SAME day that my copy of Jesus Camp arrived is anything other than divine inspiration??? So, I started looking around wondering more about Gen M’s of faith and the extent to which their faith also influences their activities and their politics.