Posted on 02/18/2006 6:34:06 PM PST by DogByte6RER
2006: Turning point for young conservatives
Posted: January 5, 2006
By Hans Zeiger
Something big is going on in America, but few are yet aware of it. It is a generational shift comparable to that of the infamous '60s, and it will involve as much revolt and upheaval. In this case, revolution is desperately needed, for the previous revolution has almost destroyed the country. The new revolution will repair the country.
Yet 2006 will not be the beginning of the revolution – it has already been gathering steam now for several years. But it will, I predict, commence the vigorous public discussion of that revolution, much as it became clear sometime early or middle of the 1960s that a revolution was then taking place.
The main characters in the unfolding story are the Reagan Babies.
Reagan Babies are at the forefront of the rising generation. Those of us born between 1981 and 1989, the Reagan years, are on the cutting edge of what has variously been called the Millennial Generation or Generation Next or Generation Y. Reagan Babies are fascinating at the present moment because they are the emerging future leaders of America, now in high school and college and just joining the workforce and on the military frontlines of Iraq and Afghanistan. But beyond the present, the intellectual and political and cultural vanguard of our generation will hail from among the Reagan Babies. And it is decisively, revolutionarily, conservative.
Spiritually, Reagan Babies are interested in God and a return to more traditional patterns of faith. According to a UCLA study released in October, three out of four college students claim to be "searching for some meaning/purpose in life," and two thirds say they derive guidance and direction from their faith, and two thirds pray. There hasn't been a generation-wide Christian revival, but I am convinced that God is preparing our generation for such a revival.
"I think the generation today is open, they're searching and they're looking. They know there's more to life than just what you see," said Meredith Peterson, a volunteer for the 2006 Passion Conference which is expected to draw 18,000 students and young people to Nashville this week for prayer and worship. Young Christians are moving into the most influential places in our culture, and they are uniting together in the battle for hearts and minds. Evangelical Christian colleges have the fastest growing student bodies in higher education. Homeschoolers, most of them Christians, are ambitious and well-prepared for the world.
Morally, Reagan Babies are cautious and responsible. Teen pregnancy is down; teen abortion is down; teen drug use is down; youth volunteerism is up; manners and mores are coming back into fashion. Once, we were the most aborted generation, and now we are the most pro-life generation of Americans. Three in five young Americans support a complete ban or partial restrictions on abortion, according to a 2004 Zogby poll.
On campus, where the hippie Left has long thought their battle to be won, the growing conservatism of young Americans translates into activism. Conservatives are no longer silent in the classroom, popular Affirmative Action bake sales and conservative campus newspapers have confounded professors, and a well-funded network of "subversive" foundations and support networks is in place, ranging from Young Americas Foundation to the Intercollegiate Studies Institute to the Leadership Institute, and from College Republicans to pro-life and Christian student groups. Brendan Steinhauser, author of "The Conservative Revolution: How to Win the Battle on College Campuses," calls the surge of activism "the new counter-culture on America's campuses."
In November, Christopher Flickinger, a recent graduate of the Ohio University Scripps School of Journalism, launched the Network of College Conservatives. Flickinger's mission is "to educate, inform, expose and counter the liberal bias on college campuses throughout America." So far, students at around 220 colleges have signed up to be part of the Network. As Flickinger told FoxNews.com, "Hopefully, we'll bring this quiet revolution to a loud, boisterous battle."
So, 2006 is looking to be the year when the quiet revolution becomes loud.
Hans Zeiger is an Eagle Scout, president and founder of the Scout Honor Coalition and a student at Hillsdale College in Michigan. His new book, "Get Off My Honor: The Assault on the Boy Scouts of America," can be purchased from ShopNetDaily.
I think its this simple: Each generation likes to do the exact opposite of what the generation before did. They want to rebel and in order to do this they throw out their parents beliefs and find new ones that will make their parents freak out!
For instance...This was the sole purpose of the boomers! Their WWII vet parents were hardworking, uncomplaining, patriotic people who valued home ownership and family. The boomers, well....the opposite:) Now the boomers kids weren't exactly rebeling quite as hard as their grandkids but its happening! Now Lets hope that gen-xers & y's kids won't go liberal!
Dreyfus et al. are a very close-nit group. He is friends with Garofalo, Rob Reiner, Warren Beatty... He is a one-man vacuum at the center of the storm, a very damaging force in his work.
Thanks!
She's much more conservative than I was at that age. A real soldier's daughter.
I came into conservative politics gradually. Almost shamefully. I would listen to Rush and Quinn late at night with the windows and doors closed. I hid my conservative books. I felt like I should have "John has a long mustache" for my password to FR. It took me years before I became confident and realized that I wasn't the minority.
My children have no such inhibitions. They are fearless little lion cubs who believe what they believe with no apologies. I do think that the next generation is going to give the libs a run for their money!
Ping.
I think your b-day is pretty close to my high school graduation date; Agoura High School, Class of '82
Anyways...while your generation can be called the Reagan Babies, I feel very privileged to have served in the Navy with Ronald Reagan as my Commander-In-Chief.
My kids, too! Son is in Law School at Arizona State, daughter at Univ. of N. Colorado (she wants to be a kindergarten teacher). I send them links from FR since they don't have as much time as I do to peruse FR. They are known as the infamous Mom's Links of the Day. When I worry that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, I think about my children and their friends. I have so much faith in their generation. God is working his purpose out.
Good news for a change.
I teach at a liberal Catholic midwestern university, and I have noticed a distinct shift to the right over the last 10 years, but esp. in the last five. VERY few students espouse views such as "The government should control or ban fast foot" or are pro-abort. (Admittedly, it's Catholic, but still . . . .) When the Iraq war started, the students, on their own, started a "Support the Troops Club" to counter the predicted anti-war groups. It was refreshing.
Now, like many others who fought for conservatism when it was really unpopular, he'll be "read out" of the ranks of conservatism by such as the egregious David Frum and the Bush altar boys on FR. But he is right, and more and more conservatives are awakening. I just hope someone is left to show these younger conservatives what conservatism is.
Good article.
In most colleges these days the Professors are far more communistic than are the students. And it's getting better for our side.
On a related note, my daughter will be 18 in September of 2008. Just in time (she says) to vote against Hilarity. BUT she also says that kids her age really wish there was a party that unlike the Dems stayed out of their money and unlike the Repubs stayed out of their bedrooms. I told her good luck with that and when she finds one that isn't for the legalization of drugs (Losertarians) please let ME know.
I've never received a facebook at any point in my college career (one year at Wis.-Stout, this year at Wis.-Waukesha).
Two Harvard guys jumped on this idea and established Facebook as a result.
Now, it's popular--as in estimates say more than 80% of undergrads at participating colleges (or universities) use it.
I refuse to use it though.
My kids are also very conservative. We hoomeschooled them and they learned what they believe and WHY. Most of their friends in church and the homeschool support groups we've belonged to are also quite conservative and most of them are also going to college, even public universities.
All three of my conservative teens are freepers, too. Aged 17, 16, and 13.
I am proud to say I am a Reagan baby.
I say this with all sincerity, you are a credit to parenting. It is darn difficult to raise kids with those views in today's world of old media bombardment.
That's very funny.
I am so proud of my little Reagan baby! (born in 1989)
She is a proud pro-lifer and is not ashamed.
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