"Young Republicans a proud minority"

Speaking of the College Republicans, here's a tribute to all you Young Republicans everywhere. Stay strong. You are doing the right thing at an early age and will have no regrets later when your point-of-view is vindicated.

From an AP story in yesterday's Seattle-PI:

CHICAGO -- Ladarius Beal is a rarity on the South Side of Chicago.

He is a young Republican, a suit-and-tie-wearing island of conservatism in a sea of Democrats, many of them supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama, who lives nearby.

The 17-year-old's top political issues have their roots in his evangelical Christian faith: he adamantly opposes abortion and believes in marriage as a union between only "one man and one woman." And one day, he hopes to vote for Mike Huckabee, the Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor who dropped out of the presidential race when John McCain secured the GOP nomination, but vowed to build upon his conservative voting base.

"He does not let anybody make him feel ashamed about what he believes. And that's how I am," says Beal, a junior at Chicago's Julian High School, where he's known as the "preacher" for regularly riling up fellow students with his views.

He is a young black man living amid the "Obama-mania" that has overtaken not just his predominantly black high school, but college campuses across the country. He is among the up-and-coming Republicans who stand proudly against the tide, even if they are in a distinct minority.

An AP analysis also found that a notable number of young Republicans, like Beal, have conservative leanings. The analysis of exit poll data from 2008 presidential primaries found that Republican voters younger than age 30 tended to be more conservative than their elders:

- A third of those young Republicans oppose abortion in all circumstances, compared with 23 percent of Republicans age 30 and older.

- They also were 10 percentage points more likely to say the top quality in a candidate is that he or she "shares my values." Older Republicans were more likely to cite experience.

- And young Republicans were nine percentage points more likely than older Republicans to vote for Huckabee.

Overall, the analysis found that those in the 18- to 24-year old Republican bracket were the most conservative young voters.

Tarah Goulding, a 20-year-old senior at the University of Texas, is among them. She won't say which candidate she voted for in the Texas Republican primary, but says she's found things to like about Huckabee, Ron Paul and McCain.

"As a young person who wants to admire a president as a moral leader, I respect that Senator McCain doesn't just tell people what they want to hear," says Goulding, who's been an active Republican since age 14 and is now a precinct leader in her county.

That attitude makes her unusual among her college peers, says political science professor Michael McDonald, who thinks McCain's support of the Iraq war will make it difficult for him to appeal to young people's trademark sense of idealism.

"Talking about finishing the job - these sorts of things are not going to sit well with young people," McDonald says, noting the strong anti-war sentiment on campuses, including his own George Mason University.

In general, he and others say it is a difficult time for Republicans to try to reach out to young voters - so some wonder how much McCain will try.

Since the early 1990s, researchers at the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press have found that Republican ranks - young people included - are declining. Of 18- to 29-year-old registered voters who took part in Pew polls, about a third identified as Republican in 1992, compared with about a quarter in recent years.

Meanwhile, the percentage of young people in that bracket who identified as Democrats has risen from 29 percent to 34 percent in that same time frame.

Researchers at Harvard's Institute of Politics say they saw a slight increase in young people who identified as Republican after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but also have seen that support dissipate.

Many young Republicans don't dispute their minority status.

"The stories you hear about how college students are Obama maniacs are absolutely accurate," says Ellen Dargie, a 19-year-old sophomore who heads a Republican student group at Georgetown University. "But I think people really underestimate Republican youth."

She also thinks some young Democrats will switch allegiance after college - "as people grow older and see where their money is going and they start living with some of these policies."

"I think it's just a matter of time," she says.

That's what happened to Mike Murphy, a 27-year-old information technology technician in suburban Chicago. He leaned Democratic in high school, but is now a conservative Republican.

"It really made me mad that the government felt the need to take so much of my hard-earned money," Murphy says. Besides a wish for lower taxes, he counts national security and a tough immigration policy among his biggest priorities.

"I am not like any of these Hollywood Michael Moore-types from the Democratic party," he says.

Still others believe hope for luring young Republican recruits will come with more inclusiveness.

"Republicans can often be stereotyped as rich, white, old men. But that is not the Republican party of today," says Brendan Kownacki, a 22-year-old Republican who is a media strategist and consultant in Washington, D.C.

"There can be pro-choice Republicans, pro-environment Republicans, fiscal moderates, fiscal conservatives, or even gay Republicans."

Allen Otto, a 20-year-old Republican who is gay, agrees. He supports same-sex marriage, but isn't too fussed about his party's stance against it.

"There are many, many more issues in the political arena that mean a lot more to this country than gay marriage," says Otto, a student at Trinity University in San Antonio. A self-described conservative, he's supporting McCain.

Back in Chicago, however, Beal says he's just as glad he won't be old enough to vote in November. He'd rather have a chance to vote for Huckabee in 2012.

Though young black people are very unlikely to identify as Republican, according to the AP analysis, Beal seems almost inspired by his loner status, sharing his views with his Democratic peers - whether they want to hear them or not.

"Believe me," says social studies teacher Gwen Dunbar, "everywhere Ladarius goes, he's remembered."

Here We Go

The thought of ideas being publicly presented that do not fit the politically correct orthodoxy so frightens our local left-wing intelligentsia that the WSU administration, professors at two universities, and many different student groups are mobilizing to oppose one relatively small group of College Republicans. What a compliment to the CRs!!

If the filthy leftists wanted to squelch the CRs message, the best thing for them to do would be to completely ignore them. But this "Week of (In)tolerance" that they have cooked up is bound to give the CRs more media coverage than they might have gotten otherwise. And you know idiot barking moonbats like Streamas, Leonard, Gallegos, et. al. are bound to do or say something stupid. The primadonna messianic complex of these liberals will not allow them to sit idly by, no matter the consequences. All I can advise the CRs is to have plenty of spare batteries and memory cards ready for the video cameras.

And is this how WSU President Elson Floyd wants to start his administration? With a possible complaint being filed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for active participation in chilling free speech on campus and negative coverage nationwide?

Palousitics will be covering it all. Remember, neohippies, the protestors' mantra from the 1968 Democratic Convention: "The whole world is watching!"

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

WSU prepares for possible protests during 'Week of Tolerance'

'Islamo-Fascism' film causes controversy on Pullman campus

Washington State University students, faculty and leaders are preparing for possible clashes of political opinion on the Glenn Terrell Mall next week.

Several student groups - the Middle Eastern Student Association, the Young Democrats, the YWCA and the WSU Progressive Student Union are planning a "Week of Tolerance" with events each day after hearing another group on campus intends to show a movie as part of "Islamo-Fascism Week," promoted by the David Horowitz Freedom Center.

Chris Del Beccaro, political voice director for the WSU College Republicans, said the group received the movie from the David Horowitz Freedom Center and plans to show the film "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West" at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Todd Auditorium.

"We're just doing it to highlight the danger that radicalism imposes," Del Beccaro said. "It's not a theme that we feel is discussed often enough on campus. We're presenting the movie. That's pretty much it. We're only doing one event."

A nine-page "Student Guide to Hosting Islamo-Fascism Week" was distributed by the DHFC in the last month. The guide includes this description of the film that will be shown: "The acclaimed documentary Obsession uses unique footage from Arab television to create an 'insiders' view of the hatred Islamic radicals are teaching in the Middle East, their incitement of global jihad, and their goal of world domination. The film features interviews with Daniel Pipes, Steve Emerson, Alan Dershowitz, a former PLO terrorist, and even a former Hitler Youth commander."

Progressive Student Union member Chelsea Tremblay called the event "frightening.

"We don't want that kind of thing on our campus," she said. "We don't want that to look like it's a WSU event. We welcome people with different beliefs - but not if they're hateful."

Del Beccaro said the College Republicans have posters for the movie provided by the DHFC that say "Islamo-Fascism Week" - but the film is the only event they have planned.

"It's generating controversy, we believe unfairly," he said. "We've heard that it's anti-Muslim and hate speech. We don't believe it's any of that."

WSU President Elson Floyd sent the College Republicans a letter and posted it to the WSU community in his online column.

"I wish to reiterate the importance of the Muslim community to our university," Floyd wrote. "I fully understand concerns raised, in this post-9/11 era; however, civility and constructive discourse must always prevail. Our university will have no tolerance for overt actions or bigotry directed at members of any group based on their ethnicity or religion."

Del Beccaro said the film has been labeled by the Progressive Student Union and the Young Democrats as "socially intolerant."

"The way this is being perceived by the administration has taken on that same color," he said. "We don't necessarily appreciate that the administration has taken a political stance when we just want to show a movie just like any other group on campus."

In the last month, several professors from the University of Idaho and WSU have worked with the Progressive Student Union to plan the "Week of Tolerance," with daily themes on racial and ethnic equality, gender identity and sexual orientation, disability awareness and environmental issue education.

After the "Obsession" film Wednesday, there will be a forum with the dean of the College of Liberal Arts Erich Lear, counselors and the Muslim Student Association in Todd 211.

"We encourage people to participate in as many of these events as they can," the Progressive Student Union said in a statement on its Web site. "However we request that nobody attack, threaten, or attempt in any way try to harm any College Republican on campus."

Advice to WSU's College Republicans

Actually, I think that our local chapter has already figured all of this out. But, it's always nice to receive confirmation that you've been doing the right thing all along. Kinda like those warnings on a super glue tube that discourage gluing your eyelids together.

For example, here's step one.

1. Get a sense of humor. Most liberal profs and student activists are a screeching, nerve grating, nasally bunch of whiners. As a matter of fact, I’d rather watch Janet Reno do jumping jacks and hack squats in Borat’s thong than listen to the hemp clothed, goatee bearing, chunky liberal bleat.

Therefore, conservative student, when you queue up to address your crowd, be pleasant, poke fun at yourself, remove the whine from your voice and use honed humor to humiliate the left. Getting folks to laugh at your opponents and not being rabid about taking yourself so seriously helps get your point across. To upgrade your general funniness, get Judy Carter’s book, Stand Up Comedy.