Posted on 08/06/2006 9:40:39 PM PDT by TexCon
When Roger Custer of Young America’s Foundation took to the stage and opened the 2006 Conservative Student Conference, the first thing he explained was why the gathering was necessary. “It’s a shame you have to be here,” he told the 300-odd students in attendance, but liberals’ campus stranglehold leaves YAF with no choice. The left, he continued, “has never been for open debate or discussion.” Instead, it shuts out conservative speakers and, when necessary, engages in name-calling and physical harassment. But confront liberals with arguments and ideas, Custer claimed, “and you’ll win every time.”
The speech was, at root, a paean to the marketplace of ideas—a marketplace that, by Custer’s lights, needed to be wrested away from the odious Left and restored to glorious openness. And it took exactly three hours and 47 minutes to expose this rhetoric for what it actually was: bullshit. I went to the conference, as a reporter for The Washington Monthly, to engage with conservative ideas and continue the research on college organizing that I had been doing all summer. I also agreed to blog on the event for campusprogress.org. But it was not to be. Two events and three posts after Custer’s opening remarks, I was approached by YAF’s spokesman, Jason Mattera, on my way to see Newt Gingrich. “Who do you work for?” Mattera demanded, with a touch of petulance. “The Washington Monthly,” I told him. “Are you writing for anyone else?” “I’m blogging for Campus Progress.”
And that did the trick. “There’s the elevator,” Mattera pointed. “I can have one of my interns push the down button.” But it didn’t end there. What happened to the vaunted marketplace of ideas, I asked. The openness and exchange?
You don’t get the sense, talking to Mattera, that he’s really an “ideas” guy. In fact, like a teenager who lords over his little brother, he seems to revel in power for its own sake—blissfully uninterested in arguments, and completely at ease with force. Indeed, the first justification that escaped Mattera’s lips was this: “Because I said so.” Following hot on the heels of hours of speeches in which conservatives insisted, repeatedly and emphatically, that they have the arguments and ideas to knock collegiate liberalism flat, this gem was delivered without the slightest hint of irony. It didn’t seem to occur to Mattera that “Because I said so” isn’t an especially good argument—or that, in fact, it’s not really an argument at all. (But this is not the first time Mattera has excluded reporters from the YAF conference. When a CampusProgress.org reporter, Julie Siegel, requested press credentials to cover it Mattera denied her, and said he would deny The Nation—the oldest weekly magazine in the country—as well.)
And then, like a thunderbolt, Mattera comes up with this: “You misrepresented yourself.” Hmmm, really? When? Could it have been when I originally asked for press credentials? No: I was, and am, reporting for The Washington Monthly. (Mattera knows and doesn’t deny this: I interviewed him three weeks ago.) So was it when Campus Progress asked me to blog? If so, Mattera would have to insist that any journalist who works for one publication but writes for several is required to give a running disclosure of all future work possibilities. And if that’s the case—if Mattera has stumbled upon some brave new world of journalistic ethics—he would do well to inform the thousands upon thousands of freelance journalists presently at work in the country.
Mattera, however, lacks the courage of those convictions. How should YAF respond, I asked him, if I were reporting for The Monthly and blogging for The National Review? The point of the thought experiment never seems to connect, because Mattera’s response is once again glib and irony-free. “You know what?” he says. “If you were with The National Review, I’d get you a seat right up front and have one of my interns give you a nice massage, and grab you a cup of Sunkist.” (Just who are these interns, forced to fetch drinks, push elevator buttons and give massages?) On Mattera’s intellectual horizon, however, the contradiction never dawns. So is the closeout ideological? “Sure, whatever,” he says.
Some people might call that censorship. And so, it turns out, would Mattera. “Alright,” he admits with a laugh. “It’s censorship.”
Well that settles that. (Unless, of course, Mattera denies everything he said, as he implied he would during our conversation.)
But if there’s a group that should be worried about Mattera’s startling lack of intellectual seriousness, it’s young conservatives. In my brief time at the conference, I had discussions—thoughtful discussions—about everything from taxation to military service. There was much that the conference-goers and I agreed on, but agreement was never the point: I like having my views criticized; it makes them stronger.
And I am perfectly happy to engage with smart, serious conservatives—just as most are perfectly happy to engage with me. But unless arguments and ideas are just window-dressing for cutthroat politics, Mattera should be an embarrassment to his movement.
(In fact, I’m not sure Mattera would have been excited to see at the conference National Review associate editor Alston Ramsey, who has strongly criticized Mattera for blocking Campus Progress from covering it.)
So if there’s a lesson to be learned from the conference, it’s that YAF just can’t stand criticism. For two years running, Campus Progress has opened the doors of its national student conference to reporters of all stripes, including the National Review and Human Events, both publications to which Jason Mattera contributes. But in the end, none of that matters. YAF pays lip service to free exchange, but it’s nothing more than a thin veneer for close-mindedness.
For Mattera, alas, hypocrisy isn’t enough. “I would give you my business card,” he quips as I turn to leave. “But you would probably just hit on me.” I look back, baffled. “Oh come on,” he says with a faux-apologetic grin. “What you liberals need is a sense of humor.”
Oh, of course. Ha-Ha-Ha. Forgive my PC brain for forgetting the timeless humor of homophobia. And maybe, in exchange, I’ll forgive Jason his intellectual cowardice. We can call it even.
Conor Clarke is a senior at Amherst and a summer 2006 intern with The Washington Monthly. His writing has appeared in Alternet and Slate.
At my uni, there was no diversity (of thought). Well over 80% of the professors were Dems (stat taken from anonymous poll). YAF enabled us to bring in diverse speakers to add to campus debate, always a good thing. This isn_t a bullying organization. Many leftists protested YAF speakers on our campus, many times shouting them down and at the very least acting disrespectful. On several occasions we had tables of literature overturned and signs spray painted with graffiti. We actually had to hire security to protect our events. You tell me who the bully is.
With that said, I did enlist in the Marine Corps and have been to Iraq and back with a purple heart to boot. I can_t get over this nonsense that if you believe in the war you should be forced to fight in it. Combat is not for everybody and we are an all volunteer force. I also have several friends with college degrees who have enlisted. This argument is very misguided.
I see things through a different prism than many of you, but if I ever hold a conference you are all invited no matter what organization you register with." For futher information about YAF look up www.yaf.org.
Ping
Agreed. Now tell that to Noam Chomsky, Katrina Vanden Heuvel, Ted Kennedy, Michael Moore, Hillary Clinton, Bill Maher,John Kerry and the editorial board of the New York Times.
CAP- Hillary, Soros, Shadow Party/Government
It was a called the 2006 Conservative Student Conference.
It was not about a debate of liberal vs. conservative.
Their party, they can invite whoever they'd like.
Thank you also for fighting the enemy within here at home. You give me renewed hope in the future of our country.
Another East Coast preppie brightboy heard from. How tedious they are.
Yea I know. Everyone was invited, but due to the already touchy situation with Campus Progress, I understand Jason's actions even if this guy exaggerated them. He was right to get him out of there. That guy was looking for trouble. He'd find it one way or another.
You're probably referring to the comment left by the other member of YAF, which I quoted. I'll try to figure out who it is so he can see your kind words. I as well though will be participating in OCS and after law school serve in the military. It's something that I've wanted to do my entire life. I'll fight tyranny on college campuses for these next years and then will take up arms to fight tyranny abroad. My entire family has served the military in one way or another. Thanks for your support.
There's no more to discuss with a "progressive" than there is with a jihadi. You can't change the mind of a fanatic and it is a waste of time to try.
Har! It's getting tougher than ever for me to put up with the piss-poor writing skills of these "Daily Collegian" mice! Clarke's piece is a typical, rambling blatherfest of righteous indignation.
Anyways, I followed this thing along for a few paragraphs before I got bored with the redundancy and whininess, but I think I got the gist. Bottom line: This bunghole Clarke wasn't in attendance to debate ideas, and certainly not to report anything fairly. He/she/it was there to cause mischief and in all likelihood, given a long history of brazen lying by liberals, to lie about the conference for the juvenile titillation of the twenty people or so who frequent this "Campus Progress" blog.
Big deal. What a snore. I would have thrown him out, too.
I agree! He says he was there for three or so hours and was on his way to see Newt. This means he was there at the middle of the day, where we're seeing back-to-back speakers and other than saying a quick line to your neighbor, you don't have time to engage in any serious dialogue with anyone. He was definitely trouble.
Oooops, sorry. I thought post #1 was your story. It looks like I didn't mistake my praise or support though. Keep up the good work.
My thoughts exactly. A conference for persons in your organization is NOT where anyone wishes to engage in "debate". You go to one of these to meet with other like minded people, not to find someone to argue with.
This idiot was obviously "fishing" for a reason to get booted from the conference. Conservatives have many other venues where "the free exchange of ideas" is welcomed--not at their national conference, however.
Of course. The "reporter" was a mole for this Campus Progress (I shiver when I type this name. It sounds so "red". No pretenses here!) thing.
IMO, Jason Mattera sounds like a dipsh!t. Guys like him don't do us, Conservatives, any favors with their actions.
Jason Mattera is a good, competent person. The blog author is hypersensitive, and was in tears when he was told to leave. Like many weak people, he came under false pretences and attempted to disrupt a gathering of conservative youth.
The YAF conference is a brief respite for conservative youth. It is THE ONE TIME A YEAR when they can safely ESCAPE socialists and sex activists. Apparently the left thinks these kids are not entitled to a break from the socialists' constant bombardment of leftist nonsense.
Do you not think conservative kids are entitled to an annual retreat?
"Do you not think conservative kids are entitled to an annual retreat?"
This question is irrelevant to my comment.
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