Young America’s Foundation: Live Conservative or Die in Canada
Spokesman Jason Mattera kicked a Campus Progress reporter out of YAF’s conference, saying it is for “conservative students.”
By Emily Rutherford
August 4, 2009
Young America’s Foundation is not for America’s young. Instead, it is for conservatism’s young.Never let it be said that the conservative movement is against tradition. In strict keeping with what has now become a yearly routine, this afternoon the Young America’s Foundation prevented a Campus Progress intern (me) from attending its annual conference. Although YAF accepted my online registration to attend parts of the conference open to all DC area interns, even sending me an email confirmation, they asked me to leave when I showed up to see keynote speaker (and former House Speaker) Newt Gingrich speak. I had barely told the people working registration my name when Jason Mattera, YAF’s spokesperson, came running up.
"Who are you with?" he asked me.
After some miscommunication, we established that he was asking where I’m an intern, and I replied that I’m an intern here at Campus Progress. There was an awkward pause.
"Sorry," Mattera said.
"What do you mean, ‘sorry’?" I asked. "I received an email confirmation that said I was registered. I don’t see what the problem is."
Mattera explained that the problem was that I’m a Campus Progress intern, and that since I’ve been liveblogging the conference all morning, I wouldn’t be allowed in, since blogging isn’t allowed at YAF’s conference (despite the fact that attendees have been tweeting about the conference all day). I told Mattera that struck me as bizarre, and a little bit like censorship. He suggested that I tell this to my "friends in the White House, and maybe they’ll pass a law to make us let you in." Mattara is, apparently, unaware of the fact that it is Congress, not the White House that passes laws. Politely deciding not to embarrass him further, I instead pointed out that Campus Progress’s National Conference welcomed attendees of all different viewpoints and encouraged them to blog and tweet about the conference—some did.
Mattera told me this was "comparing apples to oranges … this is a conference for conservative students." In fact, the two situations are kind of the same thing, and it’s YAF that looks bad. Campus Progress sponsors a conference with progressive themes, and yet it includes students who hold a wide range of views, and it certainly doesn’t turn students away on ideological grounds after previously confirming their registration.
I asked Mattera why his organization was so desperate to keep students with different viewpoints out (okay, I used the word "censorship"), and his response was that I could watch the livestream online. It seems strange that Mattera is willing to broadcast the event to the whole Internet but won’t let registered interns in to the event.
"Well, if this is what the conservative movement is doing to attract young people, I’m not sanguine about its future," I said.
Mattera laughed at me, and then replied, "Goodbye—oh wait, here, have an Obama fist bump." I refused his proffered fist, and he added, "Why don’t you move to Canada?" He seemed to think this suggestion was hilarious. (The fantastic thing about Mattera’s parting shot is that I do, in fact, have dual citizenship with Canada, have lived there, and will actually be going there in just under three weeks.) I turned and walked back into the elevator.
I’m not surprised that YAF barred me from Gingrich’s talk, judging from Campus Progress’s history with this conference. But I do confess to being puzzled as to what YAF—whose website claims, "The Conservative Movement Starts Here"—hopes to achieve by perpetuating a childish attempt to keep its speakers and attendees away from young people who don’t identify as conservative. Does YAF think that this is the way the conservative movement will regain its strength and influence? Do they think that young people who are politically moderate or undecided will be persuaded to join a group that bars non-conservatives from its events? Do they think that a movement that refuses to engage dissenters will ever be able to compete effectively with them?
I have no idea what Jason Mattera was thinking when he laughed at me and suggested I move to Canada, but if it is how he plans to spread the conservative message to young voters, I have a feeling that’s not going to work very well.
UPDATE: Looks like Jason Mattera can’t handle a little criticism. After I wrote this piece about how he and his organization denied me entrance to the YAF conference after previously accepting my application, he responded on the YAF blog. In the process of calling me “this girl” who “has quite the imagination,” he misstated or distorted so many facts that it would be pointless to correct them all. After all, while I am an ethical journalist who would never dream of fabricating quotes or making anything up, no one recorded our conversation at the YAF registration desk, and at this point it’s my word against his. But regardless of who said what, Mattera’s tone in his post demonstrates that he‘s the one who’s crying like a baby, even as he attempts to demonstrate his power and authority over a younger, female adversary.
Well, at the risk of disappointing Mattera, that’s not how this works. I don’t cry. And, as I told Mattera in person on Tuesday, and subsequently wrote in the above post, if the conservative movement thinks it’s going to regain its power by trying to publicly silence and intimidate a single progressive intern, it is most gravely mistaken.
Emily Rutherford is a staff writer and editorial intern with Campus Progress. She is a sophomore at Princeton University. Follow her coverage of YAF on Twitter.
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Comments
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Part of me wonders if this wasn’t a PR stunt intended to stir up drama and get people talking about the YAF. After all, arbitrarily kicking someone out of the conference was certainly more likely to have gotten attention than a boring old speech by Newt Gingrich… A possible answer to the question ‘what do they have to fear?’ might just be that they fear putting together a conference that few care about or find interesting enough to report on its own merits.
— Rob - Aug 4, 03:31 PM - #I don’t know, though. It’s surely not good press for them to come across as scared of dissenters, though, is it?
— Emily - Aug 4, 03:44 PM - #Part of me wonders if this wasn’t a PR stunt intended to stir up drama to get people talking about Campus Progress!
— P.J. - Aug 4, 03:54 PM - #I question Emily’s veracity; YAF isn’t known for accepting people unless they’re budding campus conservatives. I bet she lied when she applied.
— Bulldog Boi - Aug 4, 05:16 PM - #BB, I told the truth when I applied about who I am, where I go to school, and where I’m an intern—all the information YAF asked for. If their policy is to reject people for being honest about identifying information, they clearly weren’t enforcing it very well when they initially accepted my application.
I’m not in the habit of lying about anything, and I think it’s a little rude to assume that I did so.
— Emily - Aug 4, 05:35 PM - #My experience has been that conference registration systems aren’t (yet) really set up to knock people off automatically, since there are too many chances for undesired rejections (from the organizers’ pov). Ergo, convention organizers are left with the choice to either vet the lists manually and intercept attendees at the door, or not filter out registrants at all.
I’m guessing that the reason to boot the likes of Emily was paranoia that she is a potential heckler. Given the plants the GOP is sending to break up Congressional Reps’ townhall meetings discussing health care reform, it comes off just a bit like the cheating spouse that keeps close tabs on their SO.
— cmholm - Aug 4, 10:07 PM - #I think cmholm has probably come pretty close to hitting the nail on the head… conservatives seem to have an ongoing problem with projection, and so figured that the only reason Emily would be there would be to disrupt and heckle, since that’s the only reason they would go to a progressive conference.
— JCfromNC - Aug 4, 11:55 PM - #If you see Mattera again, ask him why he isn’t in Iraq, and give him the address of a nearby Army recruiting station.
— Mike Toreno - Aug 5, 12:55 AM - #Nah, they just like stickin it to the libs. It’s part of what drives them.
— Daverz - Aug 5, 12:56 AM - #I think you hurt your case by calling this “censorship.” Perhaps they’re not being as open as the CP conference, but kicking you out of their conference is not censorship. You weren’t told not to write about it.
— Lisa - Aug 5, 09:24 AM - #“Censorship” at the YAF may seem extreme, compared to – say – Iran’s post-election coverage, but it’s within spitting distance on the continuum.
The right to write is meaningless without the ability to discover things to write about. Attending a conference isn’t just – or even mainly – about who’s speaking at the podium. Emily could have settled for the video feed… which the YAF could have cut at any time.
Regardless, she still couldn’t talk to the participants, listen to what’s going on on the floor, what’s happening in the breakout sessions, ask questions of people within the context of the conference. That’s where the real action is, and to deny the “enemy” access exposes the organizers’ thinking: projecting their methods onto Emily and/or saving the “action items” for when they deploy them in the field of battle.
— cmholm - Aug 5, 04:31 PM - #Ummmmmm…how were you silenced? When exactly did it become a First Amendment right to enter a private event? YAF had every right to deny you entry. It actually sounds like Mattera is having a lot of fun with this. As a result, he really doesn’t sound like the angry and paranoid one, young lady. You do. “...attempts to demonstrate his power and authority over a younger, female adversary.” Nice Women’s Studies perpetual victim pap. You would have been stopped if you were a dude working for CP. You know it’s true.
— Mark Scott - Aug 5, 09:15 PM - #@Mark Scott
— Brendan M. - Aug 6, 03:01 AM - #Ignoring the irony of a conservative complaining about cries of victimization, did you even read Jason Mattera’s post? Would he have called some “dude” a “boy” or “hon” who “carped” and “whined” and would he have tried to make fun of his looks?
“Earlier that morning, Campus Progress announced on its website that it sent reps to crash our conference, so we were on the lookout. Around this time of year, the Soros-funded group explores how it can gain access to our summer events, and every year, it’s denied. One time, CP actually pretended it was a member of the media.”—Mattera, YAF
It doesn’t seem as much like projection if CP was telling people via their website that reps were sent to YAF to crash the conference.
— Liz - Aug 6, 03:54 PM - #I’m not sure how you are cencored..
You are writing about the event here..
and it was a private event but had a live video feed on the website.
This sounds like a whine fest that you weren’t invited inside.
— Dave C - Aug 6, 04:58 PM - #@Mark Scott
Emily wasn’t saying she has a first amendment right to attend YAF’s event, she was commenting on their fear of having even one progressive in the room. I’m also not sure how you could read that guy’s post and say that Emily is the one who looks “angry and paranoid.” You could also cut that “young lady” BS out.
Why don’t your troll somewhere else, son.
— DenverDudeDave - Aug 6, 04:58 PM - #Emily~
My heart goes out to you. If these are the type of people you go to college with, it’s no wonder the rest of the world thinks Americans are stupid. This lot doesn’t have the good sense to shut up.
The rest of you sticking up for her, well done.
— CynicalForaReason - Aug 6, 08:55 PM - #It saddens me that this negative and critical piece is considered worthy of our news updates. The progressive (peace) movement will not be advanced by slandering the opposition.
— Peace - Aug 6, 09:08 PM - #I can’t remember who said it, but it goes something like this: Not all conservative people are stupid, but all stupid people are conservative. Thanks, Emily, for showing how pathetic and out of touch these young “conservative” robots are. And remember this, folks: Facts have a liberal bias. Progressively yours, BID
— BigIslandDave - Aug 7, 04:01 PM - #I don’t see how trying to slam another group helps anything. Seems to me both sides are wary of crashers. This blog doesn’t exactly encourage open minds.
— Dee - Aug 8, 02:53 AM - #Can’t we just all get along…..NOT!! Sometimes a wonded animal (Repubs) shouldn’t be approached….it may be best to shoot it!!
— Independent in Texas - Aug 9, 06:55 PM - #Fuck it. I’m done with this organization. I don’t know how you people get off thinking that this organization is in any way progressive. JUST PEACE AND LOVE AND HAPPINESS. That’s all I need!
— Peace - Aug 15, 12:48 PM - #Easy answer. It is the ego thing, really republican, power and control over others ie. two classes on republicans the poor confused schmucks and the rich elite that manipulate them. So the goof ball is practising, first by kicking you out, an expression of power, and then by lying about, manipulation of the readers.
— Robert - Sep 27, 10:36 AM - #