Well, Conventioneer and I are now safely ensconced back in our little think-tank, where, surrounded by likeminded progressives, we'll try to sum up what we think of David Horowitz. It's pretty simple, really: he sucks.
Watching people get up, talk into the microphone, other people answer them with bad puns and appalling language, I lost interest in what was actually being said fairly quickly. This is obviously not a popular groundswell of a movement, the kind that would keep going on its own merit. No serious academic could take these accusations earnestly, and no politician worth her salt would, either. If this were a movement dedicated to making classrooms safe for all political viewpoints, why were all the wronged students not just conservatives, but conservative activists?
Nothing could possibly result of this debate, except perhaps that David Horowitz feels a little vindicated now that people - panelists, audience members, maybe even the unionized catering staff - left the last panel angry. Why is it a victory for David Horowitz to have angry people leave his event?
Rebutting Horowitz's claim, that there is a liberal bias in education - for instance, by pointing out that his argument is invalid because it's just a bunch of anecdotes - is pointless, because then he has set the grounds for debating the issue and defined the terms we'll be using. It doesn't matter what academics or socialists or what have you counter his arguments with. In his world, our arguments are wrong by virtue of who we are.
By getting drawn into discussion with this character we've also been diverted from some very real issues we could be talking about instead: Who is this man? Who does he speak for? Whose interests, again, do they speak for? What the heck do the bloody Scaife foundations get out of sponsoring this, and why was everyone at that event talking about how everything'll be better when the Republicans are in charge in the state legislatures?
It's day one of the Students for Academic freedom conference, and I'm sipping coffee while trying to wake up and focus on the speaker at the podium.
- How do you get students to consider conservative ideas, he asks the nearly empty room. I adjust my computer screen so nobody will see that my desktop is a picture from an anti-Bush demonstration in Copenhagen. The speaker is Ron Robinson from the Young America Foundation, a man who looks like he's in his sixties. Looking around the room, the vast majority here are far too old to be students. Before introducing the panel for this plenary session, he takes out a copy of The Nation's February 13th cover story on the 'new face of the campus left'. Yikes, I think, while furiously trying to take down what he's saying about the article -- am I going to be outed only ten minutes into this thing? But no. Robinson picks a few good quotes from the piece that get the audience feeling damn good about themselves. "Today's campus right is unified", he says. "Conservative activism is cooler than the left". "Conservatives have created a movement". In a brilliant illustration of how your initial bias determines what you get out of reading something, he concludes that even The Nation recognizes the great work that the right does. Time for the panel. Mason Harrison from UC Davis tells us all how he enrolled in a women's studies class on a dare from a female friend. The professor proceeded to start the class in a "no, no Arnold" chant. Mason tells us he just had to get up and leave at that point, and I catch myself right before I roll my eyes in obvious derision, and clap along with the rest of them instead.
Next up is Marlene Kowal from Temple U. She reads us a series of quotes from her classes, among others that "the only way to get rid of sweatshops is to boycott capitalism." The small crowd all groan loudly. I type. The war in Iraq was criminal, and Che Guevara was a role model. The rest of them snigger as I check the little recorder to make sure I'm getting all this.
Speaker follows speaker, and my initial torrent of notes shrinks to nothing as I tune out their complaining voices and try to think what the common denominator to all the grievances these people are listing could possibly be. The speakers get more shrill and hyperbolic as the hour wears on. Steve Miller from Duke University laments the crowd of "terrorists and communists" his school has hosted as speakers for something involving Martin Luther King day. "Harry Belafonte came!" I get more clues as the next-to-last in this series of wronged young conservatives steps up to the mike. "Maine has the second highest gun ownership in the country!" he says and the room erupts in its loudest cheers yet. I'm playing solitaire as we finally reach the last one, who gives us all a pep-talk about how fast ABOR will move in state legislature once the Republicans take power.
I feel vaguely cheated as the panel wraps up. It's as if the issues of 'academic freedom' we're allegedly gathered to discuss here are not what these people really want to talk about. No, what they really want to commiserate on is Jesus Christ, guns and pride and traditional marriage, and how it makes them feel bad -- silenced and marginalized you might even say -- when they're challenged in the single environment they don't yet control.
After a full 24 hours of CPAC detox, it's time to climb out from behind the giant pile of conservative swag here in the office and share the big findings I gleaned from my undercover work.
Of course, since I spent the three days basically making fun of conservatives, I feel obligated to include a disclaimer--the vast majority of people I spoke with at CPAC were polite and friendly, eager to share stories etc. One sponsor even shared his umbrella with me on my way to the hotel on Saturday since it was snowing. BUT--when these polite, friendly people give repeated standing ovations to hate speech like that of Ann Coulter on Friday, their niceness justifiably pales in my mind.
Something that came up over and over again is the divide between social conservative and more libertarian conservatives--people who hype conferences like this want us to think that conservatives are one big monolithic and therefore intimidating voting block. While it's true that as voters, they're a force to be reckoned with, there are deep divisions within the group that could rupture if we apply some careful pressure. For instance, in the CPAC straw poll that seemed to be given to mostly college-aged attendees, one of the questions asked the attendee to identify which of two options came closest to their "core beliefs and ideology." 51% of respondents cited the promotion of "individual freedom by reducing the size and scope of government," while 45% identified more with the promotion of "traditional values by protecting traditional marriage and protecting the life of the unborn." To me, the even distribution of these two choices reflects deep divisions within the conservative movement--when push comes to shove, is it more important to them to have low taxes or not see two dudes kissing? The immigration division was also clearly visible, but that's a whole separate post right there.
In a rather ironic twist, campus conservatives are now far less scary to me than before CPAC. Since I go to a pretty conservative school, I'm used to hearing about the nationwide movement that's resulting in more conservative student bodies. There might be some truth to that since it's not the 60s anymore and there are far less hippies on most campuses--but if the conservatives are being organized by the kids at CPAC, I can rest assured that progressives can compete and win on campuses. As I said before, I was largely unimpressed by all their hype--as long as we start working together and utilizing resources available to us, there's no reason for progressives to worry about some mass conservative movement. It's simply not threatening.
And, of course, the free stuff. Check out the pictures to see the mountain of swag we scored, as well as some particularly creative conservative get-ups--at times, I wasn't sure if I was at a Halloween party or a convention. Although it was at times hard to stomach CPAC, it was a lot easier to cope with this stuff once I returned to reality. After recovering from the at-times overwhelmingly disagreeable messages that were poured into my head throughout the conference, I'm still confident that we're on the winning team--that is, as long as we have equally cool free stuff on our side.
Progressively yours,
Annika Carlson
Hope College Read More »
I don't know if Conventioneer is on the same page as I am, but today's panels on conservative college students and "The State of the Campus" were LAME. It was like grassroots organizing 101--but not even that good, because all the college students who were on the panel basically sat up there and listed all the stuff they'd organized on their campuses. And I have to hand it to some of these kids--they accomplished some big things for their causes, and I know that takes hard work and dedication. But once you've become a successful organizer for your cause, the point of going on panels is to teach other people how to do it too, not just sit up there and pat yourself on the back.
Luke Sheahan, who founded an independent conservative newspaper at Oregon State University, was a particularly egregious self-promoter. His smug analysis of his campus' student body, faculty and administration makes me wonder why he went to Oregon at all. If he's so pissed off about the opening of a women's center and a cultural center and other examples of what he so intelligently dubbed "the diverse whatever," why doesn't he try to make change within his school instead refusing to have anything to do with the administration? He also mentioned that in colleges in America, "you don't learn a whole lot in class." Funny, I've been pretty satisfied that my education is worth my time and money. Maybe since I pay attention and think critically, I'm able to benefit from classes even when I don't agree with the prof. Poor Luke, to be unable to cognate independently while being assaulted by liberal profs in Oregon.
The point is that for the most part these panels consisted of bitching and self-congratulating, which I thought was pretty weak for a conference that seemed very much aimed at harnessing the grassroots power of students.
Rounding out the day was Newt Gingrich, the shiny cap topping off the conference with his uber-conservative rhetoric. It might have been because I was so bored by the previous panels, but I was impressed by Gingrich's speaking ability--he's an excellent orator, and despite the shockingly high level of Reagan quoting, the speech was well-written and well-executed. The content itself, of course, wasn't up my alley--but you'll have to check in to Conventioneer's blog for full coverage since he has the tape recorder.
And then I went home! How glorious! Make sure you check back later for ridiculous pictures from the conference, the results of the CPAC straw poll, and final thoughts from Conventioneer and myself. Cheers! I'm off to be as un-conservative as I can for the rest of the weekend. I have a lot of catching up to do.
1 audio cd
1 ruler
1 mousepad
1 pennant
1 flag
2 calendars
2 foam pigs
2 frisbees
2 cups
2 canvas bags
3 little red Students for Academic Freedom books
8 pens
9 magnets
25 buttons
43 bumper stickers
There's some other miscellaneous stuff too--some keychains, a whole lot of internship applications and some very informative books and booklets. My favorite piece of swag so far (besides the pennant that I had to sing for): an Americans for Limited Government chip clip--it seems ironic or counterintuitive or something to me.
And I should admit, I broke down and bought some swag. I spent the $2 I brought for coat check on an Ann Coulter poster (it looks like a pinup or something--it's hilarious) because it came with a free George W. Bush or Ronald Reagan poster. OBVIOUSLY I wanted the Reagan poster, but much to my chagrin they were sold out of Reagan posters by like 11am yesterday when I stopped by the booth. So I had to settle for a W poster. I know, it's lame compared to the Gipper.
So here's some good news which makes me feel so much better about yesterday's extremely depressing events: none of my conservative friends know anything about Ann Coulter. These are people I consider very politically savvy, intelligent, and solidly conservative--but when we were talking last night about my awful day, they were like "who? I've heard of her but I don't know about any of her stuff." So even though the crazies in the CPAC audience eat that shit up, young people who care about policy and have pretty cool (though conservative) internships in the city aren't necessarily in that same loop. Thank goodness.
I have about 2.5 hours until I head back to CPAC--this afternoon is all about college kids and campuses, so I'm sure it'll be entertaining to say the least. Check back later to learn how conservative college kids are going to take over your school.
A final post before I get to hang up my CPAC name badge and take off my conservative stickers for the night. And now, what you've all been waiting for: some glimpses of Ann Coulter's routine. And really, that's what her speech at CPAC was--a routine to get plenty of applause from an audience she already knows supports her. Throw in a Clinton joke here, a Kerry joke there, and slip in some harsh criticism of Republicans in Washington for not being conservative enough… There certainly wasn't any intelligent discussion of policy, just a lot of name calling and mud slinging--and I wouldn't expect any less of Coulter, since that's how she's made a name for herself and sustains a career as a speaker and writer. Read More »
Thank goodness for tape recorders, because Conventioneer and I witnessed some crazy and amazing stuff in the panel on a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. Here are some high (or low, depending on how you're looking at them) points from the transcript (bold emphasis added by me):
Alan Chambers of Exodus International on why homosexual rights aren't civil rights: "Homosexuality is transient. It's not something that's permanent it's not something that's immutable it's something that can be changed. Therefore… this is not about removing rights of people but about protecting the rights we already have… The truth is we all have the same rights. No one has more rights than the other. The fact is the issue of marriage and hate crimes and those types of things seek to make certain people more equal than others and that's something that we're trying to rally against."
Peter Spriggs of the Family Research Council on the secret homosexual agenda: "What homosexuals want is an unlimited smorgasbord of relationship options whose only common denominator is that all of them are subsidized by the government. They do not want to participate in marriage as a normative institution. And that's I think Alan and I and most of us in the pro-family movement think that marriage should not just be an option--it should be the norm for people in a sexual relationship or for people raising children--and homosexuals don't believe that."
Scott, a dude in the audience who is gay and affiliated with the Log Cabin Republicans got up courage I probably wouldn't have had if I were in his shoes--he got up to the mic and directly called the panel on the bullshit that is the "pro-family" label. Check out this moment of awesomeness that finally allowed me to clap in good conscience:
"…with all due respect… you just said 'what homosexuals want"--how in the world can you speak for all homosexuals? … I don't know what you want because I'm not you, so with all due respect please don't speak for all homosexuals… Everyone likes to throw around the labels anti-family, pro-family--as a gay person, I would like to know how I am anti-family. Because roughly six months ago I was holding my grandfathers hand as he died, and I sat there at his bedside for two weeks… holding his hand while he died… sir, with all due respect, I am pro-family in every sense of the word… I am a proud Republican, I am a patriot, I support this president, I support this war on terror--this is where we need to be putting our focus, not on a constitutional amendment [against homosexual marriage]."
Holy shit, that was amazing. How refreshing to hear someone use the question time to address an actual error in the panel's judgment instead of just patting them on the back like everyone else! Bonus points for you, Scott. Of course, they didn't answer his question about why gay people are inherently "anti-family," but still. Small victories must be celebrated.
A quick post before escaping the bliss that is lunch outside the convention center-- there was a fabulous joke in the last panel that I simply must share.
One of the panelists asked the audience, "How many of you need your fix of Rush Limbaugh with Sean Hannity?" haha! get it? "need your fix" ... "Rush Limbaugh"?! ...yeah, I've been here too long.
and now, CPAC by the numbers:
129 male speakers
23 female speakers (I knew I wasn't imagining the disparity)
18 American flags on the CPAC stage
4 bowtie sightings so far today
1 pennant featuring Alito as Uncle Sam-- I had to SING to get it (I was forced to substitute Alito for Maria in the West Side Story classic "Maria") but it was totally worth it. An excellent piece of swag.
Oh Lord, they're talking about Wellstone. This must be a test to root out covert progressives like myself. It almost worked, too--as soon as I heard John Gizzi of Human Events utter the name, it took my ever fiber of concentration not to cheer or cry or at least clap.
For those of you who aren't from Minnesota (best state ever, by the way), Paul Wellstone was a senator who took the state by storm and got people excited about being progressive, about standing up for what you believe in and fighting for it--even when what you believe is unpopular or might harm your political career. We progressive Minnesotans loved Paul Wellstone pretty fiercely, and that's not faded.
Anyway, in the course of a panel on the 2006 elections, the panel was asked to predict the outcome of the senate elections. Gizzi tellingly refused to answer, instead elaborating on the potential for an unforeseen upset. You can look all over and find "Wellstones or near-Wellstones," Gizzi warned. THANK GOODNESS! This is good news for us, folks.
We were also privileged to listen to a frenzied pitch given by Jessie Jane Duff from Americans for Dr. Rice (makers of the "I like Condi" buttons I've so craftily been hoarding)--apparently, Rice will "not just beat but defeat the Democrat [sic] party!!!" Nevermind that Condi says she's not running…
also: on my way to the lobby to post this, I passed a guy in a KILT!! that's like a skirt, right? how is he allowed in here?! i bet he gets directed to the "ex-gay" booth in the exhibition hall.
off to swipe more swag... (well, it's not really swiping because they pretty much fall all over themselves to give it to you, but still.)
With my bow-tie count at a disappointingly low four sightings, I've resorted to listening to actual content to find some substance for this blog.
After what felt like an eternity of panels discussing the conservative response to immigration, I'm starting to think that maybe Stephen Colbert was recruited by conservatives to talk about his dome plan on The Colbert Report, because that's pretty much exactly what a lot of these panelists want to do: build a big wall around the country. Literally. This morning, Colin Hanna, president of Let Freedom Ring, Inc. (submit that one to the CP euphemistic policy naming contest…), advocated the construction of a state-of-the-art, technologically-driven wall around all US borders. Frankly, his website--www.WeNeedAFence.com--pretty much says it all. Congressman J.D. Hayworth (R-TX), whose ridiculous radio voice made it hard to concentrate on his actual message, tried to scare the shit out of the audience by telling us that "there's no way to sugarcoat it--it's an invasion." Um, right. Especially on the Canadian side, eh?
Chris Simcox, president of the infamous gun-toting Minutemen, tried to convince us that all he really cares about is helping immigrants--his organization's armed vigilante defense of the Mexican border is really an effort to help Mexican families, etc. Fortunately, I've not been here long enough to buy that, nor have I been brainwashed enough yet to believe his claim that "there are WMDs coming across [American] borders every night." Keep trying, Chris! Maybe sometime soon this "Conservative Pride" sticker will start seeping into my skin and I'll suddenly recognize the need to deport the 2 million some immigrants working in the US.
Phyllis Schlafly, beacon of craziness, hijacked her panel discussion, pontificating on the evils of immigrant labor for about three times longer than her scheduled time slot. Sweet. Here's one gem from her lengthy diatribe: "America wants immigrants who wants to be 100% American and speak our language and want to assimilate--those are the only kind of people we want to admit into the country." So much for diversity. I also learned that there are no immigrants in St. Louis. I'm not exactly sure how Ms. Schlafly came to that conclusion, but she seemed pretty happy about it since "the dishes get washed in the restaurants, the sheets get washed in the hotels, the produce gets picked…"
Two delectable immigration morsels from Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies:
"Guest immigration is the Nigerian email scam of immigration laws."
"Immigrants are people too."
More later on the much-anticipated panel entitled "The Moral Issue of Racism," how Labor Secretary Elaine Chao is boring, and my final swag-count for Day 1.
The first thing I saw as I entered the Omni Shoreham Hotel parking lot pretty much set the tone for my next three days: I was greeted by a beat-up ol' SUV on oversized tires and featuring, you guessed it, Texas license plates. And no, it wasn't parked in a parking space. Those are for sissies.
Welcome to CPAC--the Conservative Political Action Conference, a convention where conservatives of all flavors come to pretend to challenge each other's belief while patting each other on the back.
In line to pick up my official CPAC name badge and first packet of free stuff, I was accosted by a woman eager to brand me with my first sticker of the conference. "Show your true colors!" she cried, handing me a sticker reading "Conservative Pride." If only she knew… Conventioneer and I perused the exhibits, which weren't all set up yet but look like they pretty much exist to give us more free stuff. In my excitement, I accidentally knocked over a couple cups advertising Jerry Falwell's Liberty University--the employee who witnessed my slip-up probably suspected my secret agenda to topple the conservative movement from within, but I managed to escape unscathed.
From all the anti-liberal swag that's for sale, this is my favorite tasteless button so far: "I vote Republican now… the Democrats left a bad taste in my mouth," featuring a picture of Monica Lewinsky. Gross.
Later I'll post some choice bits from this morning's presentations on immigration policy, but for now I'm keeping busy trying not to throw up every time the audience cheers about the Alito and Roberts appointments.
also: while enjoying our brief respite from the craziness in the convention, Conventioneer and I overheard one lonely liberal trying to take on a whole bunch of young conservatives in line at Chipotle. It was tragic. The liberal threw the phrase "conservative lunatics" around a lot and it took all I had to keep me from hopping up out of my seat and coming to her aid. When they were almost through the burrito line, the young conservative who was attacking her made a crucial debate point: he criticized her sweatpants. More proof that they have their priorities straight.
So I just returned home from the raging conference sponsored party at a local bar here called "Stars and Stripes." They rented out the whole place for a few hundred thirsty college Republicans who crammed in, put Fox news on all the TVs (seriously) and downed the specials... none other than busch light and budweiser. ick!
The highlight of the party was when someone got up on a table to annouce that elections weren't over yet, and they still had the most important election to come:
The Wet Caucaus Chair
This person is opposed to the Dry Caucus Chair and as was explained (and somewhat slurred) is the "social chair of CR and responsible for making sure everyone gets drunk."
And in the spirit of equality, they had the first woman ever running for the post. The first round, the primaries really, consisted of all four candidates standing on chairs in a race to chug a single beer. The guy with the "Rumsfeld" baseball jersey won, but had undeniable spillage which was contested by another candidate who clearly showed he had none. Then, he proceeded to fall off his chair on to a table and some other chairs, but still spillage free.
Eventually, in a vocal vote the Rumsfeld candidate won the post, as appointed by the former Wet Caucus Chair, in a sort of wobbly and slurry ceremony on a table top.
A bit later an astute media critic saw that Hillary had made her way into their party via Fox news and stood up in front of the big screen to lead a chant of "Bush! Bush! Bush!" This was immediately followed by "Four more years!" explaining the problem with conservative economics - they just can't count.
Besides this, I had a lovely conversation with a guy from France representing the student conservative movement there, which he says is on every campus and even has some conservative publications. He's here to learn and build relationships with US leaders. Poor guy.
And finally, notable quotes from the evening:
-"Who knows if the globe really is warming, I mean 1.5 degrees over 50 years... it's gotta change eventually anyways."
-"There's no way to cut carbon without complete detriment to our economy"
-"Where can I do yoga up in here?"
-"I think those guys who made the movie Team America are Republicans."
-"There aren't many conservative journalists..." :I point to Fox News: "ha ha, oh ya"
-"That's what tax cut are for though, right? Beer money."
(OK, so I said that, but the girl enthusiastically agreed)
Unfortunately, he's also an accomplished grassroots organizer and has had great success in South Dakota on his campus and beyond expanding the CR network, building new groups and making it a stand-out state during the election. Besides the CR, he's also active in Campus Crusade for Christ and student government.
Should be an exciting couple of years coming up... but as long as progressives can stay true to our own values and principles of equality, justice and compassion, I think we'll make it through.
Liberals, don't feel left alone... apparently the Republicans play dirty tricks on each other too.
This year was a particularly heated chairmanship election because apparenty one of the candidates, Mike Davidson, had been "mingling" or going into the states trying to set up state chair elections that would choose delegates to support him. Allies of Paul Gourley (your new CR Chairman, bio coming soon) said they were tempted to fight Davidson's dirty tricks with even dirtier ones, but chose not to. Sweet bias.
Throughout the election process and all the debates about wrong-doing in delegate selection, Davidson was fairly aggressive, sometimes yelling over the chairman. His campaign was generally flashy (he'd take students out to dinner, YAF style) and he killed at least a few trees printing flyers listing his endorsements from administration officials, Ann Coulter and the Governator. But, I think his final downfall was when he motioned for a speakerphone to ilicit testimony about delegates from "Will" who he had on his cell. This final outcry was his Howard Dean scream and signaled the end of his doomed campaign. But ever-spirited, even in the face of defeat, he yelled that it's time "to start kicking some liberal tail!" Be on the look out... this guy isn't going away anytime soon.
Gourley, the new fearless leader of the 1500 chapter republican collegiate network, is a little tamer than his opponent, but with a fierce dedication to his principles and most importantly field organizing. So what to expect? Larger and more effective college republican field efforts, but no large strays from their current direction (he's treasurer and plans to follow the same path as the last Chair).
So to wrap-up this business from my end... Conservatives generally don't mind disenfranchising or smearing liberal opponents, but get really pissy when another conservative does the exact same to them.
Field efforts are the same on both sides. I conversed with a field organizer about his efforts, which were eerily similar to what we do, but his volunteers may be even more dedicated (he described having to run out on dates because of politcal emergencies).
They take their youth organizing WAY seriously. A candidate running for a state chair could have 7-8 committed staff that run their state-wide campaign. A national candidate boats bigger staffs and bigger budgets. They talk about their war rooms and 3AM volunteers who they can count on to show up at any hour of the day to, among other things, post flyers and make signs.
Sometimes I wonder if these students are taking themselves a little too seriously. I mean, one guy talked scathingly about a candidate who didn't step up to an event because he was studying for finals.
But maybe this is the key to their success? Maybe progressives need to get sterner game faces, seer-sucker suits, really bad hats (picture to come) and invest money simply in beating out each other.
Maybe not. I much prefer our movement with blue jeans, diversity, goofy kids, birkenstocks and good beer (none of that busch light crap). We've definitely gotta step up the field based organizing, but lets make sure we're enjoying it. And each other.
There's really nothing like parliamentary procedure to make a meeting feel like it's going in circles. But man these students are into it. What's up at CRNC business meeting? Disenfranchisement, obstruction and bias (sounds like the title of an Ann Coulter book).
Basically, the state chair in VA changed up the delegate list under some pretext. The tricky part is that the delegates are the ones voting for the National Chairman, and when they were changed, so were the number of votes for each candidate. As the comments went back it forth the pendulum swang from disenfranchisement of the original delegates to defending the power of the state chair. Then, they would vote to either continue debate or stop it, and the stoppers just couldn't get the 2/3 they needed (sounds familiar?) So then, those who wanted to end it started yelling "Obstuctionists! Fillibusters! Reid!" One delegate even turned around to some others to say, "What, are you obsessed with liberals?"
Hope ya'll are having fun.
But what this really indicates is the seriousness of the National Chair elections. These guys and the rest of their tickets apparently travel all over the country talking to groups. Gourley's treasurer brought in about 10-15 students just to campaign for him here. They have professionally screened t-shirts and slick signs and stickers. The volunteers each paid their own way, and one told me he wouldn't have come if not for his friend. Geez... $200 plus travel from NY to campaign for a student. It'd be nice to have that kind of financial securtiy...
When I finally got home from the fantasy land inside the Mariott, my peacemaker of a mother asked me hopefully, "So is there anywhere you can find common ground with these folks?" I thought for a second trying to come up with something more positive, but only mumbled a sad no.
These students are in it. REALLY in it. They appear to be fueled by a festering anger against the left, which is maintained by their enthusiastic and all-wise leaders. The only hope I see is in what Rev. Peterson was saying about anger clouding people's judgement so much they're willing to vote for Billy C. (So do we want them less angry or more so?)
But really, what disturbs me the most is the utter disrespect and scathing cold-heartedness these students display for anything to the left of Tom DeLay. During the Leadership Institue session a presenter asked the crowd, "What makes you angry?" The answers:
1. Liberals
2. Hippies
3. Gays
4. Democrats
Eek. Now, if these answers had been "tax hikes" and "abortion", I'd understand because those are policies, but instead, these are people. The students' anger and passion are driven towards negative stereotypes and blatant hatred for various groups of people. And they're enthusiastically encouraged by their leaders.
Further examples of personal hits include Peterson's remark that "there's no way someone could believe in G-d and vote Democrat" and a young panelist describing the typical liberal who dosn't shower.
These unintelligent characterizations and pathetic name calling appear to be inspiring the students as well as making them laugh with such simple thoughts as "feminist lawyers." All of this is indicative of the lack of political or ideological substance of the conference and creating, sometimes, more of a frat house attitude (complete with cheap beer) and immature teasing.
My aim here is not encourage such petty backlash as the t-shirt with a crying baby that says "The Official Seal of the Democrats." For one, here at CP we're not partisan. For two, I'm just not that fragile. Rather, I'm a competent, hygenic progressive who believes in thinking critically, helping people out, preserving life and respect and civility even for those with whom I differ in opinion.
A novel concept for some, but I don't believe we'll ever begin healing this divide without common courtesy. Or maybe they don't want to, as the recent article in Details magazine explains about Karl Rove's plan to take over the country entirely.
We're Reagan babies, kids (as YAF will never let us forget), but lets be slightly more intelligent adults.
During the morning session two guys in the back decked out in red, white and blue everything drinking Busch Light during Ed Gillespie's talk. There were at least 6 empty beer cans under their chairs.
Who pays $250 to drink bad beer in a convention center?
So we're officially famous. During the Leadership Institute session they were introducing a panel of students and said "If Campus Progress knew about this they'd probably try and do something about it." Gotcha sucka. We're taking to media, as they self suggested to us. Quite an enlightening and thrilling session. When the head of their training core came up she enthusiastically yelled "so ya'll having fun?" even the sound of crickets chirping would have been a relief to the silence of the room. OK, so it's politcs, maybe its just not that fun... or can it be? Read More »
So we actually got some political content with the infamous Phyllis Schlafly ranting about "supremicist judges" (because "activist" is too weak of a word for these judges who are attempting to make up new rules for the game by inventing things like the right to an abortion). But that was only the start, the real fun, and well, fear set in Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson who was introduced as the answer to Jesse Jackson. He presented himself as an American, not African-American because those who "see themselves as African are not really American." Read More »
Walking up to the hotel I started getting some butterflies, but the smiling faces made me feel right at home, sort of. I was immediately stuck with such stickers as "I'm for NRA and Tom Delay", which is cute because it rhymes. The tee shirt table immediately caught my attention with such goodies as "Save Seals, Club Liberals!" and "Conservatives Think, Liberals Feel". Read More »
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