Hey y'all sorry about the gap in diaries (I know I have many loyal readers), but I've been searching for a topic to write about and coming up empty. Kos got it covered re: just about everything, and the web is plastered with multiple opinion pieces on every subject under the sun and all I can really do is join the chorus.
Today though I came across an interesting subject - young Republicans. Kos referred to their military efforts on the front page when I checked in today.
Yellow Republicans has been all over the net and CampusProgress.org is doing a series on the college Republican national convention. It seems that young Republicans are everywhere. The truth of it is - they are.
If one is a young liberal somewhere between the ages of 16 and 25 you tend to forget the fact that there's an entire parallel generation that's being raised in complete opposition to your values. I'm not thinking of the youth of Campus Crusade who seem to occupy a different sort of "out of this world" existence (thats okay they're occupied elsewhere). Evangelicals are quite pleasant people in my experience, though their politics and leaders do not reflect well upon them.
My 25 year old sister is a late-comer to the evangelical religion and bears some resemblance to the college Republican archetype, so young evangelical and young conservative are not mutually exclusive, but they are different archetypes. Think bible-camp vs. preppy camp.
Because that's what college Republicanism is (no offense liberal preps) one giant preppy schmorgasboard. Let's face it your average prep is growing up on the "American Dream" through no fault of their own. Even the nicest, kindest, hardest working middle-class-American-teen-beauty did not get there on their own, they got there with their parent's help and I figure that there is a good chance that the Average-middle-class-American-parents grew up in the same situation.
A young prep is someone who can succeed by simply NOT failing. Sure, some overrachieve and good on them, but the average young American, at the very least subconsciously, sees success as some kind of birth-right.
During my sophomore year in college I met a young Republican, a pleasant guy I'll call Mike. Goofing off in French class I was examining the previous week's worth of Ted Rall cartoons when I started snickering. I showed Mike the cartoon, unaware of his political affiliation, his response? "You're only liberal because you're in college now and you think its cool." In actuality I'd been "raised" liberal; I was in constant disagreement with my much more liberal parents, and was trained by my father in
dialectic argument (which made me hate him for a time). So basically I was "raised in the liberal tradition" through the process of attacking liberal ideas.
This struck me as projection, Mike was apparently under the impression that "liberalism" (no doubt every political affiliation, but his own) could only be achieved through indoctrination. Some sort of "coolness" factor was at work on my psyche; I wanted to be cooler so I was a liberal (it didn't work). This to me is why it is such a culture shock to meet young conservatives - they are the true youth
"counter culture" of today.
From the Daily Texan, April 27, 2005:
Young America's Foundation, for example, recently published a list of the "Top Ten Conservative Colleges." These colleges, unlike the stuffy bureaucracies that are public universities, offer "a holistic conservative experience," according to the Young America's Web site. Institutions like Hillsdale College in Michigan and Christendom College in Virginia give the student "an alternative to the liberal status quo, because they allow and encourage conservative students to explore conservative ideas and authors."
These colleges "offer coursework and scholarship in conservative thought and emphasize principles of smaller government, strong national defense, free enterprise and traditional values."
See I thought that education was exposure to new ideas, but as I have already stated; young Republicans have bought into the idea that students are being "indoctrinated" into liberalism. Their answer? Why, to indoctrinate students into "conservatism," the new super-organized, incredibly well funded "counter-culture" which now controls three out of our four branches of government (just kidding it controls all four):
The idea that these values aren't "status quo," is, of course, ludicrous. Conservative ideology dominates virtually every facet of American life, higher education included. Last time I checked, the Red McCombs School of Business wasn't teaching socialism. The UT System Investment Company, or UTIMCO, a $16 billion fund managed by venture capitalists, isn't exactly anti-"free enterprise."
I guess I dont blame conservatives for thinking that liberals are indoctrinating the young, after all if one is integrated into the general youth culture one usually accepts some pretty "liberal" ideas (even if one is generally apolitical or even libertarian conservative) liberalism (at least on social issues) is the default position for most young people.
Young people are more likely to accept gays, more likely to vote Democratic and, contrary to conventional wisdom had turned out for John Kerry in 2004. In contrast, if you're reacting against the mainstream you become the archetypical party-line conservative.
Believe me I've never been cool, but I try to absorb a lot of information and I don't shut myself off from society. Young conservatives, however; are forced to shut themselves off from information to preserve their counter-culture, as
Conventioneer observes on
campusprogress
These kids were born conservatives, and it sounds like they've never had to defend their stance their entire lives. Instead, parasites like David Horowitz feed them lies, they buy it, and eventually you get a full-grown Republican. It's too bad.
This is the party of Bush and privilege. They cannnot understand that other people might have other political philosophies, because recieved wisdom is ALL THEY KNOW. They have no basis for comparison, because they are not willing to grant opposing views even "devils advocate" status - that is, take them seriously enough to seriously debate them.
College Republicans are certainly not intellectually consistent, as evidenced by their use of the "its a volunteer army" defense when questioned on their military service, not seeing (or ignoring) that the problem with the volunteer army is that they're not getting enough
volunteers.
College Republicanism - the ultimate cocoon.
