A letter in response to hostility to �kiddy-cons�
June 27, 2003 ~ 5:13 p.m.
Dear Samuel Francis:
Your June 3 essay entitled �Young conservatives aren�t so conservative� (as read in The Conservative Chronicle ) demonstrates a lack of ability on your part to accept that times change. Conservatives can only fit into one narrow bracket as prescribed by you. It is evident in the way you attack the neo-cons. It was evident by your unrestrained glee at Bill Bennett�s demise. Now you must attack the �kiddy-cons.�
Your fear is that young conservatives do not have the motivation to seriously challenge the left-wing culture around them. According to you, they�ve actually assimilated into it. When I was in college, I fancied myself conservative on most issues, but I was also �pro-choice.� My faith in a libertarian belief in the subject soon changed and I adopted the distaste for abortion that most conservatives have, but my change-of-heart didn�t occur until my last semester. As a young conservative, I also had to switch positions on free trade and immigration. There are things I didn�t always get right and I had to keep learning.
The point? Give these kids a chance. They�re in college and still fresh-faced. They have yet to fully experience life, and yet you expect them to seriously challenge the liberal establishment? Their time will come after they�ve earned their degrees. Would you rather that potentially conservative minds go to waste via apathy? That the future of the Republican Party have no recruits to swell its ranks? At Rockford College, it was �kiddy-cons� who booed leftie New York Times reporter Chris Hedges off the stage during a commencement speech.
Oh, but I forget, you were opposed to the war. Apparently, paleo-cons such as yourself are perfectly happy leave the Left unchallenged when it comes to their vilification of President Bush. Like the liberals, the definition of �evil� has changed for you too. Now that the war has been won, sir, may I ask what you are going to do with your �No Blood For Oil� sign now?
Today�s crop of young, eager conservatives have not �conformed to the icons, images, stereotypes and values in which a dominant liberalism has immersed them and their generation.� They are a product of their time, Mr. Francis. So they wear blue jeans and t-shirts. How horrible, and how damaging to conservatism�s image! George W. Bush hung around campus in the �60s, wearing t-shirts and jeans, and he more than likely drank beer and smoked pot as well! He didn�t always wear a tie or glossy shoes. He was young. It�s not a crime. Conservatives, young and not-so-young, are allowed to be human and have fun � except for, it would appear, you.
If the young conservatives are rejecting elements of the paleo-cons, �their anti-Semitism and racism,� and the impulse to close the borders, then it�s all for the good. They know that to endanger a relationship with the only democracy in the Middle East�Israel�and to cut off immigration would be a good way for the American nation to go about crippling itself. Let us scrap the family reunification clause and put every immigrant�and not just those from the Third World who are the �right� color and speak anything but English�on an equal footing. Just because Ted Kennedy warped our immigration laws in 1965 does not mean they�re unsalvageable. You don�t realize how ridiculous your calls to close the borders really are. It smacks of intolerance.
In contrast, today�s �kiddy-cons� are displaying tolerance. Compassionate conservatism may be a catchphrase, but it doesn�t have to be a misnomer. To suggest that budding conservatives cannot be products of the philosophy of Russell Kirk and The National Review is preposterous. Old-school conservatism is not the sole reserve of the �paleo-con.� It is our shared heritage. Aren�t their beliefs in free trade and patriotism, their holding of Reagan and Bush the 43rd in high esteem, and their hostility to politically correct on-campus speech codes a good start?
Mr. Francis, I don�t think we need your pessimism to dilute the spirit of the nation�s future conservative movement.
Sincerely yours,
� M.E.M.
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Copyright � 2001-2007 by M.E. Manning. All material is written by me, unless explicitly stated otherwise by use of footnotes or bylines. Do not copy or redistribute without my permission.
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