Subject: UCP: New Right Campus Politics in the 80s From: kowan@ai.mit.edu (Rich Cowan) Date: Fri, 21 Oct 94 19:34:48 EDT [Excerpted from _Guide to Uncovering the Right on Campus_, edited by Dalya Massachi and Rich Cowan. ISBN 0-945210-03-05. This article may be photocopied or distributed electronically at no charge provided that the article and this notice are included in their entirety. Copyright 1994 University Conversion Project. For the full 52-page guidebook which includes 38 graphics and 8 charts, please send $6 plus $1 postage to University Conversion Project, Box 748, Cambridge, MA 02142. Outside the USA the cost is $10. For info on memberships ($25/20/10) and a complete publications list, send e-mail to ucp@igc.apc.org or call 617-354-9363.] Politics on Campus by Pamela Wilson (reprinted with permission) Conservative organizers have said that the goal of their organizing is a fundamental change at all levels of the public policy-making process, from the campus, where opinions are most easily shaped, to the media and the Administration. As part of this effort, right-wing organizations have invested substantial resources in shaping the views of America's youth. Clearly, the Right conceptualizes youth as both a key target and an important resource. Although sporadic efforts to develop support among students have been made by groups representing the myriad philosophies that comprise the Left, such efforts are more fragmented and lack the resources assembled by the Right. The students who have become conservative activists have been encouraged to see themselves as the vanguard of a movement, not its culmination. Their task is to persuade and motivate the passive, apathetic majority. Ironically, the conservative movement on campus is based on one of the more fundamental tenets of Lenin's teachings: a few committed people can influence many uncommitted minds. Even more ironically, with respect to young people, the more moderate elements of the political spectrum have been acting on the fundamental laissez--faire impulse of conservatism: one need do nothing because things will take care of themselves. Since 1980, right-wing think-tanks and corporate leaders have funded a range of training programs in political strategy, grassroots organizing, journalism, and foreign service. Institutions providing such programs include the Leadership Institute, the National Journalism Center, and the Heritage Foundation. The Leadership Institute The founder of the Leadership Institute, former Reagan campaign youth advisor Morton Blackwell, asserted in the January 1985 issue of the Conservative Digest that, "Success in the political process is very largely determined by the number and effectiveness of the respective sides. After 25 years. . . I have learned that while it's possible to take a competent opportunist and make that person philosophically sound, it's far easier to take people who are already committed philosophically and make them technically proficient. . . We are convinced that the conservative movement will increase its success in direct proportion to the number of new activists we create." The Leadership Institute has a variety of programs. The Youth Leadership School has two-day workshops covering: leadership identification and training; group organization, canvassing, and voter registration; presenting a public program; developing issues; preparing literature; and public relations. The Institute's Capitol Hill Training School aims to prepare young conservatives to work successfully on Capitol Hill. The Student Publications School conducts annual training seminars for conservative campus journalists to correct what Mr. Blackwell calls the "tremendous liberal bias in news reporting and interpretation." The Institute also provides funding and support services to student newspapers. According to Blackwell, the directors, staff and graduates of the Institute are constantly "talent scouting" for the movement. In addition to providing training, the Institute helps young conservatives find jobs. In 1984, the Institute established a Job and Talent Bank "in order to place conservative activists in positions in all areas of the public policy process." Over 200 young conservatives were placed by the Job and Talent Bank in 1985, and the service has continued and expanded. The placement of their own "politically correct" is important to conservatives. The National Journalism Center Another organization that provides job placement in addition to journalistic training is the National Journalism Center (NJC). Although its annual budget is relatively small ($400,000 in 1991), the Center has had much success in training hundreds of young conservatives through internships and other programs and helping them on their way to careers in journalism. Examples of their alumni are Geoff Baum of C-SPAN, John Fund of The Wall Street Journal, Jody Hassett of CNN, Bill McGurn of The Far Eastern Economic Review, and Lisa Schiffren, a former speechwriter for Dan Quayle. The National Journalism Center is a product of the American Conservative Union, a leading arm of. U.S. conservatives. The National Journalism Center and the Educational Research Institute (both attached to the American Conservative Union) offer dozens of seminars; host the popular Monday Club, bi-weekly luncheon series offering NJC interns and staff the opportunity to "network" on Capitol Hill; and stage an annual symposium for Capitol Hill interns and those at the National Journalism Center. The Heritage Foundation At the center of the Right's recruitment program is the Heritage Foundation, the influential right-wing think tank, which was started in 1973 with a $25,000 grant from the Coors Foundation. By 1984 Heritage had a staff of more than 100 and an annual budget of over $10 million. Both the staff and budget increased greatly during Reagan's second term. This think-tank does not rely on seasoned conservatives; in fact, in mainly employs dedicated young conservatives who have just graduated from college. It also offers internships to those who are still students. Heritage is interested in producing cadres. It emphasizes ideology over scholarship, and is very involved in training young people. The Right well knows that one way to impress and secure an intelligent student activist is to link his or her campus activism to a larger national movement and, better yet, be able to offer a well-paying job within that movement. Ben Hart, the former Dartmouth Review editor who is now Director of Special Projects at the Heritage Foundation, is in charge of a leadership development network called the Third Generation which is aimed at the current generation of young people. The Third Generation maintains strong ties with the college papers, the College Republicans, the Young America's Foundation, and other student groups. Similar ties to these groups are maintained by most of the leader strategists on the Right, from Paul Weyrich of the Committee for the Survival of a Free Congress to Howard Phillips of the Conservative Caucus. They provide abundant opportunities for talented young conservatives.