Mother Jones captures the uneasy relationship between youth outreach and movement conservatism:
A few weeks after the Values summit, Phyllis Schlafly‘s group, the Eagle Forum, held its annual How to Take Back America conference in St. Louis. There, too, organizers devoted a session to “How to Bring Youth Into the Conservative Movement.” The moderator was 65-year-old Orlean Koehle, president of the Eagle Forum’s California chapter, whose qualification derived from teaching at a John Birch Society youth camp. She was joined by Schlafly’s son Andy, 47, a lawyer who also teaches online classes for home-schoolers, and Gary Bosley, a 64-year-old marketing executive. Only University of Virginia law student Karin Agness, 25, the founder of a conservative student group, helped bring down the average. Her advice on reaching a younger audience? Book clubs!
Wow, that’s sad. Back when I was young and involved in youth politics, everyone knew the two secrets to attracting young people:
1. Booze
2. Attractive members of the opposite sex
Is that so hard to remember?Report
It’s not hard to remember, it’s hard to implement for this bunch.Report
Hell, I would join the Birthers if they promised me booze and cute girls.Report
I thought you were a birther…my bad!Report
I would advocate more simple things like getting kids into the woods, Boy Scouts, involved in churches, farming, student government, etc.Report
Yeah, but how’re you gonna keep them on the farm once they’ve see the godless sodomites of Hollywood?Report
You can take the boy off the farm but you can’t….you know the rest.Report
Does it occur to the juveniles who moderate this site that Mother Jones just might be a tad selective in perceiving and reporting them telling details?Report
Speaking in my capacity as the head juvenile-in-charge, of course it occurred to us. But I think the piece captures some essential tension between youth outreach and political conservatism, which hasn’t exactly gone unnoticed elsewhere:
http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2008/11/youth-vote-and-gop.htmlReport