The Young Hipublicans

The New York Times Magazine ^ | 05/25/03 | JOHN COLAPINTO

[Brad’s Gramma]

You are NOT alone ping!

[Under the Radar]

Bump for later.

[victim soul]

Perhaps there is hope yet.

Thanks for posting!!!!

I love stories about right wing college kids!!!

[LdSentinal]

It's too bad they had to show only white young Republicans on the cover. It's also a shame this article comes out during the Memorial Day weekend when a lot of the readers of this putrid newspaper are on vacation.

As a right-wing college Republican myself, two of my lower grades (B and a B+) came from professors when I challenged their indoctrination of their students. I deserved A's in both classes

[lorrainer]

Yes, I agree. While this article gives me hope for the future, it is also condescending crap.

They refer to the students as "right wing," for instance. Try reversing the politics: do you think they'd then refer to them as "left wing?" I don't think so.

[Tex_GOP_Cruz]

This article (past the NYT bias) is awesome. Thanks for posting it. Anyone who has attended CPAC knows that we young conservatives are numerous, are as committed as anyone, maybe even more so, and that we shatter society's stereotypes of conservatives. Our generation has seen the failures of liberalism as it became campus orthodoxy, and we see through the shallow logic and destructive outlook of its rhetoric.

Several obervations, mostly random:
1. faded Reagan-Bush '84 poster
That must look sweet; what I really want is an original Reagan Country poster from 1980. In 2000, my politically apathetic roommates mercifully let me cover the quad-facing windows of our dormroom with Bush/Cheney signs and signs for the local GOP congressional candidate. Really ticked off the libs. I also got a lot of surprised, "You, of all people, a Republican!" Hehehe.

2. overrun by groupthink liberalism and pious political correctness
This is what opens many young people up to conservatism. The mindset of South Park and the Simpsons understands the total whiny bravo-sierra tripe that define most liberal arguments these days.

3. His dorm-room bookshelf holds no less than four Reagan biographies
Yeah! I've got the autobio, the Morris one, the American Experience minibio, the D'Souza, the Deaver, Reagan In His Own Hand, RR's Abortion and the Conscience of a Nation. I still need the Cannon and Noonan bios. Also notably on my bookshelf among other things: first-print copy of Goldwater's With No Apologies, two Newt books, Dan Quayle's autobio, and for bipartisan "balance" and b/c it's darn great prose the hefty Caro LBJ series.

4. Many of those Reagan-era conservatives announced their politics on campus with their dress and grooming, the men sporting aggressively conservative Clark Kent haircuts, blue blazers, red ties, loafers; the women tended to wear skirts and heels -- openly adopting the uniform of the Youth for Reagan army.
Saying that conservative dress has completely disappeared among young conservatives is kind of a misrepresentation in my opinion. Obviously on campus the dress code is casual, but at certain events the attire is appropriately dressy. I do agree with the assertion that young conservatives can and do "look" and dress like any other young person -- including piercings, gothness, etc. at times.

5. I recall several old postings on FR which also capture the essence of College Republicanism/Conservatism:
A. UCLA CRs Affirmative Action Bakesale (hilarious)
B. College Republicans Shock and Awe Berkeley Link 1 and Link 2

[Tex_GOP_Cruz]

It's too bad they had to show only white young Republicans on the cover.

I liked the article, but the mention that the club was all-white seemed really convenient for their agenda. (Our CRs were not all caucasian thanks to me. :-) We were a very small group though in a majority-white campus.) One thing CRs need to work on on many campuses is to recruit more females. It's somewhat hard since (stereotyping here, uh-oh), college girls in my view tend to be somewhat less political and less conservative then guys. Conservative girls also tend to be less polemical than in-your-face conservative guys. One more gratuitous stereotype: conservative girls are usually more intelligent, strong-willed, and attractive than lib girls.

[Hugin]

Yeah, I loved that one too.

[summer]

RE posts #11, 21 and 25

Thank you for explaining that in response to my post #8. I didn't realize that's what the author was implying.

[maryland supplysider]

Bucknell is basically a small liberal arts and engineering college for suburban east-coast kids who don't get accepted by an ivy-league school. The student body is about as homogenous as you can get (or at least it was in the mid-80's when I graduated). The faculty, however, is just to the left of Chairman Mao. So you get this weird dynamic where the children of conservative bankers, lawyers and doctors make themselves feel good about themselves by attending multiculturalism rallies, sporting Sandinista T-shirts and speculating about when Capitalism (always capitalized) will inevitably come crashing down. During my time there, I was called a "Nazi", a "fascist," "Hitler-youth member" and a "right-wing fanatic" - - and that was by my professors. So much for opening young minds.

[brewer1516]

Trust me; that is a result of direction from the photog.

These kids are likely much happier than their whining, handwringing, liberal profs.

[TheAngryClam]

I went to Berkeley. Imagine how bad that was.

Of course, I managed to be in the one liberal arts field that still possessed conservative (and non-insane democrats) as the majority of the professors.

God bless the Classics.

[Sonny M]

I actually did alright with my grades, had a good average, as long as test time came around, and I was able to get the answer right, and then inject opinion, I was good to go.

Its funny you mentioned how alot of liberals get ticked off with illegal immigration. I used to my put my teachers and lot of liberals on the spot with that. Long story short, they want open borders, but then again, so does big business, these immigrants are cheap labor used in place of americans. This leaves liberals in a "quagmire", how do they support something that leaves them smack dab also supporting "the enemy". How can they like open borders for all, without it beneffiting big business?

Long story short, any liberal idea, has to have certain traits, it must hurt somone if it can help somone, and it should never be a boon for big business.

[Snickersnee]

"Activists of the 60s" -- well, sir, my wife and I established a YAF chapter at the ultraleft Windham College campus (Putney, Vt.) in 1969-1970 and no one gave us a g*d-d*mned dime. I'm SURE you don't mean us!

[KC_Conspirator]

While professors like Schneider and Daubman worry about the potential for conservative activists to stifle intellectual openness among students

Oh, fer crying out loud! When I was in college (1983-87), anybody to the right of the Sandinistas was stifled, sneered at, shouted down, etc

It in fact the left who enforces leftist orthodoxy on college campuses. I was once purged out of a class for writing a paper on Margaret Thatcher (EARLY 90'S). Deviate a little from the liberal sermons and fail to parrot leftist ideology and you will find it affecting your grade. The left is literally behind every attempt to stifle free speech, from "speech codes" to "political correctness".

[happygrl]

At first, I wondered what your comment about bare-backing had to do with this slant.

Then I realized that it was a NYSlimes Mag article.

As you stated, enough said.

P.S. David Brock was conveniently in the circle-j**k.

[Drango]

As with college conservative movements in the past, the recent wave has been fueled and often financed by an array of conservative interest groups...

I love the tone of the article in several places suggesting a VRWC. Yeah right!

Howcome they don't do a real in-depth look at ANSWER and the anti-war crowd? Massive busses to the rallies. Signs commercially printed in 4 colors. Organized phone banks...

[somemoreequalthanothers]

Yeah, Bucknell is elite. Ivy League. I'm a blue collar guy, lived in central Pa my whole life, and Bucknell was always the place in the backyard that no one here could afford to go to. That's why it's really refreshing to see this story coming out of this place......

[TheAngryClam]

I think, then, that it's a "that side of the country" thing. I doubt many people over there know of some of the really decent smaller schools on this side, like Santa Clara University or Thomas Aquinas College.

Actually, those are the only two I know of. The small liberal arts college doesn't have the same tradition on the west coast that it does back east.

Of course, we do have many not so good private schools that are insanely expensive too.

[somemoreequalthanothers]

My wife, she being a CA native, is familiar with those schools. She reminds me, as well as a previous post, that Bucknell is only psuedo-Ivy League.