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[acrimone]

Hopefully, the next generation will be able to see the difference between a conservatism that simply stands to defend our civilization and the right of people to live their own lives, and the neo-conservatism of Wolfowitz, Horowitz and Podhoretz who somehow promote "the cause" that would not allow half of the world to live its own life.

That is a thought I kept having while reading the article. Conservative campus groups in my undergraduate days focused on individual liberty issues, smaller government, etc.  The conservative activists in the article seemed, on the other hand, to be focused on "wedge" issues such as gay rights. They sounded like young Karl Roves, not young William F. Buckleys.

Interesting observation, joe.

Does Nancy know you're back?  She was looking for you.

[larryc]

That is a thought I kept having while reading the article. Conservative campus groups in my undergraduate days focused on individual liberty issues, smaller government, etc.  The conservative activists in the article seemed, on the other hand, to be focused on "wedge" issues such as gay rights. They sounded like young Karl Roves, not young William F. Buckleys.

Yeah, the decline of campus student conservatism reflects the decline of American conservatism as whole, as the followers of Burke are replaced by the followers of Falwell. I left the right about ten years ago for this reason.

[dark_globe]

That is a thought I kept having while reading the article. Conservative campus groups in my undergraduate days focused on individual liberty issues, smaller government, etc.  The conservative activists in the article seemed, on the other hand, to be focused on "wedge" issues such as gay rights. They sounded like young Karl Roves, not young William F. Buckleys.

Yeah, the decline of campus student conservatism reflects the decline of American conservatism as whole, as the followers of Burke are replaced by the followers of Falwell. I left the right about ten years ago for this reason.

I beat you out by a decade. I originally registered as a Republican, but once Reagan made his alliance with Falwell and I saw the direction the party was going I cut my ties with them as well.

[larryc]

DarkGlobe: I told myself--and I still think is correct--that Reagan used the religious conservatives for his own ends without ever doing anything for them. (Analogous to the Democrats and black Americans). Reagan never did anything substantive on the two major evangelical issues--abortion and school prayer.  I know everyone on the left went around in the 1980s saying that Reagan and the Republicans were the puppets of the Falwell people, but the evidence for this proposition is very thin. And don't forget how disappointed the evangelical leaders were with Reagan, there was a ton of grumbling from their ranks, especially in the second term.

Now George W is another kettle of fish.  He is to some extent an evangelical and has brought the Republican party partially into their camp. The Republicans are now at a crossroads--do the respond to the recent defeats by going deeper into their base with Sam Brownback, or do the reopen the big tent with Guliani, or split the difference with McCain?

But my point is that the party of the 1980s was radically different from the Republican party of 2006.

[zharkov]

That is a thought I kept having while reading the article. Conservative campus groups in my undergraduate days focused on individual liberty issues, smaller government, etc.  The conservative activists in the article seemed, on the other hand, to be focused on "wedge" issues such as gay rights. They sounded like young Karl Roves, not young William F. Buckleys.

Yeah, the decline of campus student conservatism reflects the decline of American conservatism as whole, as the followers of Burke are replaced by the followers of Falwell. I left the right about ten years ago for this reason.

I beat you out by a decade. I originally registered as a Republican, but once Reagan made his alliance with Falwell and I saw the direction the party was going I cut my ties with them as well.

My advisor was a staunch Republican,  had even run for statewide office (unsuccessfully), and held a couple of minor DC appointments.  It broke her heart that -- in her words -- the religious right had taken over the party.

[dolljepopp]

DarkGlobe: I told myself--and I still think is correct--that Reagan used the religious conservatives for his own ends without ever doing anything for them. (Analogous to the Democrats and black Americans). Reagan never did anything substantive on the two major evangelical issues--abortion and school prayer.  I know everyone on the left went around in the 1980s saying that Reagan and the Republicans were the puppets of the Falwell people, but the evidence for this proposition is very thin. And don't forget how disappointed the evangelical leaders were with Reagan, there was a ton of grumbling from their ranks, especially in the second term.

Now George W is another kettle of fish.  He is to some extent an evangelical and has brought the Republican party partially into their camp. The Republicans are now at a crossroads--do the respond to the recent defeats by going deeper into their base with Sam Brownback, or do the reopen the big tent with Guliani, or split the difference with McCain?

But my point is that the party of the 1980s was radically different from the Republican party of 2006.

larryc, as is so often the case, I think you are spoot on -- although Reagan did put Scalia on the Court, and I think he was the clearest voice from the right on the Rehnquist Court.  Of course, at least on abortion, O'Connor ended up cancelling out Scalia much of the time, and she was a Reagan appointee as well.

My family has a few of what I like to call "the other Reagan Democrats" -- that is, they became Democrats because of Reagan, mostly due to his alliance with the Falwellians.  Even though Reagan didn't follow the evangelical agenda, though, these relatives have stayed Democrats -- well, registered Independents who mostly vote for Democrats.

I despised Reagan at the time (I was in my twenties -- artsy and angry and shrill), but have a much more complex view of him now, even as there are still things he did (or didn't do) that piss me off. 

Lefty though I am, I did vote for a Republican here and there as late as 1990, which was the last election in which I saw a Republican candidate (in that case, for a state office) who was permitted to be a moderate.

As you said, the 1980 GOP was not at all like the current incarnation...