Young conservatives revere Reagan, Russell Kirk, and Ken Lay?

July 31, 2006

Every time I read about young conservative activists getting together at some organized event, I get a little less optimistic about the future.

The New York Times took a fascinating look today at college-age conservatives who go to month-long retreats and conferences some attendees affectionately call “conservative boot camp.” The piece featured a retreat run by the Young America’s Foundation, which, thanks to a $2.5 million gift, created the Ronald Reagan Leadership Academy

What kind of conversations do these young folks have?

Some conversation strayed from the canon. Dormitory banter cheered on Ann Coulter, the best-selling provocateur. Arguing for private property, Mr. Devine, the lecturer, noted “there are bums all over here” downtown, and “they sit on public property, not private property.” He lamented the prosecution of Kenneth Lay, the late Enron executive convicted of fraud, by asking, “Do you think it’s possible for a rich person to get justice in the U.S. today?”

It’s quite a parallel universe these guys live in, isn’t it? Reagan was a great president, Ken Lay was too wealthy to get a fair shake from our legal system, and homelessness is a problem, not because of chronic poverty, but because bums are on public property.

The same article also included a brief look at the personal relationships between these future House GOP leaders.

At a foundation event last year, Ms. Pajak met a fellow student who urged her to join him in reading “The Politics of Prudence.” Their long-distance romance now includes comparing notes about which of Kirk’s 10 conservative principles they find most compelling. (Ms. Pajak is partial to No. 1: “There exists an enduring moral order.”)

Now, on occasion, I’ve been described as a little “bookish,” and it’s true, I enjoy reading about political philosophy as much as the next guy. But for a college-age couple to have a romance that includes notes on their favorite parts of “The Politics of Prudence” is just, well, a little odd, isn’t it?

actually, i see this as a good sign: the end was near for the New Left when its humorless acolytes spent their time studying the little red book….

  • “Dormitory banter cheered on Ann Coulter, the best-selling provocateur.”

    Most mainstream conservatives won’t even touch Ann Coulter with a ten foot pole. That says a lot about the type of conservatives that these boot camps are cultivating.

  • Long distance is the only kind of relationship these folks should have. Any closer and they’ll start exchanging bodily fluids and we’ll have even more of them.

  • These people are not conservatives, they are fascist radicals. Call them what they are!

    Something tells me these “intellectuals” are studying Lawrence Britts 14 points of fascism as if they were the next ten commandments.

    This is Corporate Americas’ vision. When mixed with Evangelicals desire for an Apocalypse, it makes for a mighty dangerous brew.

    We must stand together to end the corporate structure that now dominates our culture, and threatens humanitys’ very existence.

  • These little brown shirts need to go to a Boot-Up-The-Ass re-education camp. Stop them before they multiply.

    Aw, young people have always used politics to get laid.

  • Except that conservatives use poltics to get laid only in the missionary position. 🙂

    The irony is that although Kirk’s principles are prescriptives against liberlism, the Bush wingnut coaltion has gone so far that Kirk’s principles would actually rein them in somewhat and make them a tiny bit less nutty.

  • If these kids lived in the Middle East instead of the Midwest, they’d all be getting fitted for dynamite vests.

  • (Ms. Pajak is partial to No. 1: “There exists an enduring moral order.)

    True. But not quite true enough.

    Taking one big step back for a greater overview,
    No. 1 should read:

    There exists an enduring moral order in every human culture and the ruling class always gets to define it.

    It might be kind of fun to play with all 10 points and show the yellow dog hiding in all of them…

  • For the life of me, I simply cannot understand why reality-based people are still enlisting to fight the wars that will eventually put these pathetic, whacked-out excuses for human beings into positions of political power. We bleed, while they go off to lobotomy camp. America should stop sending hers sons and daughters into harm’s way for these wingnuts. If the “natal-cons” (uberschweinen offspring) and the “smite-babies” (anthro-fundie offspring) want to conquer the enemies of their “god” (whether it be “Yah-winnie-the-pooh” or “Dead-guy Reagan”) then they should all march right down to their respective recruiting offices, sign on the dotted line—and learn how to be “a better breed of cannon-fodder….”

  • He lamented the prosecution of Kenneth Lay, the late Enron executive convicted of fraud, by asking, “Do you think it’s possible for a rich person to get justice in the U.S. today?”

    As is typical of the non-reality based “Victimization” ploy, he totally ignores Richard Scrushy, the former CEO of HealthSouth, famously acquitted in a jury trial of over 30 federal counts of accounting fraud worth over $2.7 billion. (Scrushy was later convicted on felony counts of bribary, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice in a different matter involving former Alabama governor Don Siegelman).

    A defining characteristic of modern-day conservatism is to completely overlook the any legal malfeasance of its heroes while continuously attacking and discrediting this country’s legal system. The “rule of law” only exists when it can be used as a poltical weapon against others.
    These young “activists” have certainly bought into the meme early.

  • Boot camp for Conservatives. This reminds me of The Poor Man’s “Keyboard Kommandos Komix” series.

  • Mort Saul Many years ago:

    “Many of my liberal friends are freaking out because their kids are coming home from school as right wing republicans in love with Ronald Reagan.

    I tell them its all those drugs you took in the 60’s. Your kid are becoming mutants.”

  • I’ve got an uncle who was also a member of an organization that hosted long retreats and conferences that were intended to inculcate the young with a set of core principles and beliefs – it was called the Hitler Youth.

  • Gee, when I was that age, I went through real Basic Training at Fort Benning (little FYI, Army calls it “basic training”, Marines call it “boot camp”. Sorry, I’m nick-picky on proper military terminology). I thought it’s what young patriotic Americans did.

    I’m sure, though, that since I don’t think the war in Iraq is worth the cost in lives, and think this administration has been the greatest enemy our military has faced, these little shits would say I’m unpatriotic and un-Anerican.

    assholes.

  • One real keeper in the article:

    Liberalism’s main tenets formed earlier, he said, in the Progressives’ expansion of government, and are conveyed as assumptions rather than matters requiring theoretical debate.

    Makes me wonder if they actually ever met a Liberal. Or actually read any of the debate on the left. My guess is no.

  • In short, if we think Conservatives are deluded now, wait until the next generation.

  • The kids polled are still in the thrall of their parents. A few years with some pinko commie professors, students from other cultures and free love could produce a change toward the center. College is supposed to be a place where one is taught to think, as I recall.

  • ***Liberalism’s main tenets formed earlier, he said, in the Progressives’ expansion of government, and are conveyed as assumptions rather than matters requiring theoretical debate.***
    —–sal

    I’ve yet to meet a conservative who truly understands the core foundations of “theoretical debate.” They’re such literal-minded lemmings, after all; they’ve no concept of “theory,” and their collective circular logic presumes that anything outside the circle cannot be discussed—thus, it cannot be debated.

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