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Monday, July 28, 2003
A friend sent out a recent Economist article by e-mail; entitled "Right Young Things," it's yet another attempt to portray America's youth as swaying to the right. The major assertions, predictably, don't stand up to scrutiny.George Bush's presidency is producing a tremor similar to the Reagan youthquake of the 1980s. The College Republicans have tripled their membership in the past three years, increasing their chapters from 409 to 1,148 and recruiting 22,000 new members in 2002 alone. They now have more than 100,000 members, many in the most unlikely places. But as the article reveals towards the bottom, the College Republicans' budget has been increased more than five-fold as part of a huge recruitment effort, which makes their growth in membership seem to have come short of financially-based expectations. It is also worth noting that the College Republicans has always been a primary focal point for student activism of that sort, while the most famous liberal student organizations have never included the College Democrats among their rank. Nonetheless, College Democrats chapters doubled in 2002 alone. In general, the growth in size of these groups -- to whatever degree that's relevant -- can be largely attributed to the continually increasing number of college freshman, with Gen Y producing a new record every year.At the University of California at Berkeley, there are now 500 Young Republicans and a conservative newspaper, the California Patriot. At a recent convention of Californian Young Republicans in Berkeley (entitled “behind enemy lines”), several hundred enthusiasts marked the 34th anniversary of the People's Park riots by descending on the park to mount a noisy display of patriotism (awakening the local homeless from their mid-day naps in the process). They waved flags, chanted “USA” and sang the “Star-Spangled Banner”. “Like the marines rolled into Baghdad a few weeks ago to liberate the city, we rolled into Berkeley ready for a fight,” as one put it.All this coincides with a general rightward shift in young people's views. 500 students attending activities and writing for a newspaper funded in large part by a national organization is simply not a great effort; as to the closing sentence, you'll see that it lacks justification.Bob Dole lost the 18-29-year-old vote by 19 percentage points; Mr Bush lost by two points. Students have been sceptical about bossy governments for years. Now they are increasingly sceptical about the “Ab Fab” values of the 1960s generation—particularly in regard to casual sex and abortion—and increasingly enthusiastic about America's use of military might. A poll by Harvard University's Institute of Politics in April found that three-quarters of students trusted the armed forces “to do the right thing” either all or most of the time. In 1975 the figure was about 20%. Another poll, by the University of California at Los Angeles, found that 45% of freshmen supported an increase in military spending, more than double the figure in 1992. By tracking these statistics against their nadirs, the author is seemingly trying to fool readers -- but anyone should be able to recognize what was going on in 1975 and that 1992 came immediately after the Cold War and when the first Gulf War ended in 11 days; by projecting today's figures against the peak of anti-military sentiment and the year in which peace prospects looked better than they ever had, a lot more drama is produced. The UCLA support for military spending was 17.7% in 1992, but 37.3% in 1982 -- basically, when it looks like there's a war on, somewhat less than half of the students can be expected to support military spending. As to trusting the miltary to "do the right thing" -- no one who came of age in the Clinton years has any reason to think otherwise. But what's even more deceptive about citing these studies is what the reporter is hiding about them. For instance, the IOP study shows little change in party affiliation since 2000 (Q. 5), a decrease since May in President Bush's job approval (Q. 8), a huge 15% dropoff in Bush's re-elect rating (Q. 9), a 15% increase in the number who've attended political demonstrations in the past nine months (Q. 20), and a 21% drop during the same period in the number who rank "Iraq/National Security" as their number-one issue -- with an 11% increase for economy (Q. 29), plus a 25% shift since April in support for the Iraq war (Q. 30), with a general lack of confidence in Bush's domestic and foreign policies indicated throughout.
The results of the UCLA study are no more charitable, with the highest number of students referring to themselves as liberal or far left since 1975.
But what is most incorrect -- and most insulting, really -- about this article is the assumption it brings to the table regarding left/right issues. The idea that trusting kids their same age to not be evil in the military is "conservative" or "of the right" degrades the real ability of these students to differentiate between people who do their jobs for good reasons and those who don't. Or that military spending needs to be increased when a war is happening -- as though it's the position of those on the left to be suicidal. When it comes to issues that are, and have been, the hallmark of the Left -- breaking down antiquated social institutions to better serve all people as equals -- these students are right there. Just because the elder Democratic leadership is impotent doesn't mean its successors have to be.
Steven I. Weiss 12:56:00 AM
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