Posted on 01/02/2012 4:58:02 AM PST by Kaslin
In the twenty plus years that I have worked as a conservative activist, I’ve spoken on almost 200 university campuses.
Usually these are talks to campus Republican and conservative groups.
Over time I have observed changes in attitude among many young Republicans and I believe the shifts in attitude I see help explain the rise of Ron Paul.
When I first started lecturing early in the 1990’s, leading heroes of Republican youth were Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley, Jr.
Individual freedom, respect for constitutional limitations on government, and traditional values was the message. There was a sense of purpose. America as a “shining city on a hill,” quoted so often by Reagan, taken from the Puritan pilgrim John Winthrop, captured the picture.
Now, increasing numbers of my campus hosts ask that I not talk about “values.” Leave out the stuff about marriage, family, and abortion, please, and just talk about the economy.
The materialism and moral relativism that created our left wing culture is now infecting our youth on the right. Young Republicans may be pushing back on government, but too often now their motivation is like their left wing contemporaries. A sense of entitlement and an interest in claiming rights with little interest in corresponding personal responsibilities.
David Yepsen, who directs the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, recently described Ron Paul's success as a "resurgence of the libertarian and isolationist wings of the Republican Party," resulting from "hard times and unpopular wars."
But overlooked is the important role of youth.
Of registered Republicans and Republican-leaning Independents that support Paul, 67 percent are under 34, compared to 37 percent of Romney’s and 20 percent of Gingrich’s support.
This youthful surge has helped Paul’s very successful fundraising, heavily driven by small contributions on the internet. Compared to Republicans who have raised the most funds, 48 percent of Paul’s is from small donors, compared to 10 percent of Romney’s and 4 percent of Rick Perry’s.
And youth have been critical in Paul’s on the ground organization. I watched this play out when Paul won the straw poll at the Values Voters Summit in Washington where I spoke last October.
Busloads of youthful Paul supporters arrived only to hear his speech and to pay and register so that they could vote. They put him over the top.
They have little interest in a Reagan-like “shining city on a hill” message, or talk about a threatening “evil empire” abroad.
To the contrary, they are excited by the “leave me alone” candidate who thinks the rest of the world is not our business. Apparently they share Paul’s indifference to the looming threat of a nuclear Iran or the almost complete absence of the freedom they think is so important in most Islamic nations.
Chicago Sun Times columnist Steve Huntley reports one estimate of over 200,000 persecuted Coptic Christians leaving Egypt by year end. He reports a dramatic drop in the presence of Christians throughout the Middle East (the Christian population of Bethlehem is now a third of what it was 35 years ago).
The only exception is Israel, where the Christian population has more than quadrupled since 1948. But Ron Paul sees no distinction between Israel and its neighbors nor does he think Americans should care.
Self centered materialism that leads our youth to support such indifference to global realities is also driving collapse of the American family.
Census Bureau statistics show that today 20 percent of America’s population between ages 18 and 29 is married. This compared to 59 percent fifty years ago.
In his farewell speech, Reagan issued a warning to the nation.
“…are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world?”
I doubt that Ron Paul’s vision of America is what Reagan had in mind.
Libertarians and libertines would destroy the nation as surely as Socialists. Liberty without responsibility results in anarchy. Nations thus infected are swept into the dust bin of history.
20 percent of America’s population between ages 18 and 29 is married
That’s because babies before marriage & living together is accepted & celebrated. Bring back the fire & brimstone! And throw in shunning too!
They should spend their time worrying about the threat to freedom of an expanding USSR?
Bump
Why?
Stop and think and if you can (cuz I can not) name me one (just one) major political figure in the past 20+ years who has stood out and advanced Conservative causes?
We have had a dearth of Leadership on the "Right" and though there are several good figures (both within and outside the government) no one can be seen as having risen to the top.
The closest we came was Sarah Palin and no doubt, the reason both the Far Left and "Establishment Republican Party" (who fear and loath real Cons almost as much as do the Far Left Moonbats) moved quickly to destroy her.
So who do the youth have to look up to? Juan McPain, the "Compassionate Conservative" RINO, George Bush?
Hardly surprising that many (who are clueless and have had their young skulls full of mush indoctrinated by the Media and Teachers) have gravitated towards Libertarians like Paul, not realizing just how dangerous and certifiably, demented he really is.
If Paul wasn't for the drug thing the college yutes wouldn't give a 'carp' about him.
Yes, yes!
as the article clearly states, “Self centered materialism that leads our youth to support such indifference to global realities is also driving collapse of the American family.”
It is the bad youths of this nation who have brought us into multi-trillion debt and foreign wars! These youths have collapsed the family!
I am curious as to what your definition of “responsibility” is. I’m sure you’ve heard this MANY times before, but there is a big difference between libertarians and libertines.
Or maybe they actually understand the ramifications of a government debt that exceeds 100% of our nation’s GDP and is growing exponentially. Maybe they were actually paying attention in their high school and college math classes.
NOTE: Before anyone even asks or assumes I’m going to say right now - I am NOT a supporter of Ron Paul or the Libertarian Party.
Of all, his stance against our foreign policy would likely be the most attractive, since it is that segment of our population that has to do the fighting. And the dying. Or the recovering from losing limbs.
We had a mission they could understand right after 9/11, but now? No wonder he's their favorite candidate. He speaks to what is most important to them.
The only thing that explains the rise of Ron Paul is ignorance.
Paul is a nut case. Who would do that to America? Someone that is ignorant.........
The author makes a good point, albeit unintentionally. He discusses Ronald Reagan at length. By definition, people under the age of 30 have little if any recollection of Ronald Reagan. He left office when the oldest of the under-30 crowd was 6 years old. You might as well talk about Calvin Coolidge to these young folks. They can relate to him about as well.
Since RR, what conservative icons have the gop and conservatives spawned? Dennis Hastert? John Boehner? About the closest I’ve seen is Sarah Palin, and she is largely a nonparticipant at this point.
I think so many young people support Ron Paul because Ron Paul alone adheres to the Constitution more than anyone else. Ron Paul’s views most closely parallels the views of our Founding Fathers like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, etc.
Young people don’t want to be fighting foreign wars all the time, they dont want to be in the UN, nor the World Bank, nor the IMF. They dont want the Federal Reserve, they dont want Social Security’s 16% tax, and they dont want the Federal Income tax. Young people dont like the excessive government spending and government welfare and young people want to be stuck with multi-trillion dollar deficits.
Young people want freedom, they dont want to be hassled and searched by the TSA, they dont want their privacy or their civil liberties to be taken away “because of National Security”.
It really is not surprising at all why so many conservative young people support Ron Paul.
“Since RR, what conservative icons have the gop and conservatives spawned? Dennis Hastert? John Boehner? About the closest I’ve seen is Sarah Palin, and she is largely a nonparticipant at this point.”
Between Reagan and Palin there was Pat Buchannan.
Pat Buchannan was pretty conservative. Pat Buchannan wanted to get out of the UN, IMF, and NAFTA. Pat Buchannan wanted to stop deficit spending and stop the massive immigration from third world countries.
Pat got about 1% of the vote.
(to paraphrase) “The youth are the segment of the population that has to do the fighting and dying.”
Since the Draft was abolished some time ago, I propose you change the verb to ‘chooses (to do the fighting)’ or ‘gets (to do the fighting).’ There’s not a soldier in the ranks that HAD to join; they are there because they want to fight for our country.
The Puritans did not risk life and limb, coming here, for the sake of the Empire. They were separatists. To many, liberty is the right to do whatever one wants. I'm considering Paul because I'm increasingly concerned about my own freedom as well as that of my family and my church to do what we ought. Washington D.C. is not the "city on a hill" but it is a city in a swamp, like Sodom.
Matthew 5
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
1st part true.
2nd part not so true:
"The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." -Douglas MacArthur .
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