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[chronicle_moderator]

Conservative groups have long worked to recruit college students, but the Campus Leadership Program is a little different: Rather than creating campus chapters of a national organization, it spurs students to start their own groups and publications, providing them with money and ideas. How about an Earth Day carwash in which SUV’s are washed free? Or "Operation Red Star," in which students stick red stars on the doors of political-science professors who praise Che Guevara? Is that the future of campus conservatism? Is it the best way to promote the cause?
Read more...

[oldfullprof]

I can't wait to set up my Chickenhawk Table ("Why I Won't Serve") with cardboard masks of Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Chaney to be worn by people minding it.  I'll set up a Rush Limbaugh drug abuse information table, and provide Mark Foley's Childcare tips too as literature.

[pyshnov]

The question asked here is:
when:

Rather than creating campus chapters of a national organization, it spurs students to start their own groups and publications...

then:

Is it the best way to promote the cause?

Certainly, the best reaction is when people begin thinking for themselves, and not behave as sheep abducted by the leaders of some political party who, as we know, never tell their sheep what is their actual goal. The latter already happened when Left led the masses into practically animal style of living, drug dependency and unbelievable corruption, all justified by "the cause".

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.

This is my style of thinking, with just one example, abortion: Of course, it's a sort of murder. But, when girls, intentionally misled by the "freedom" of sex propaganda (ideologically based on feminism), do their mistakes, does society that led them into this mistake have at the same time the right to prohibit abortion? I.e. to first provoke and then punish? No, there has to be a solution giving the right education first and punishing - second.

Of course, the best way is to think, and not

to promote the cause

the new fraudulent "cause" that already led to the war. Never give up on thinking!

[acrimone]

I can't wait to set up my Chickenhawk Table ("Why I Won't Serve") with cardboard masks of Paul Wolfowitz and Dick Chaney to be worn by people minding it.  I'll set up a Rush Limbaugh drug abuse information table, and provide Mark Foley's Childcare tips too as literature.

Dude, you can't even spell the Vice President's name.  Maybe political activism isn't really in your future...

[zharkov]

How about an Earth Day carwash in which SUV’s are washed free? Or "Operation Red Star," in which students stick red stars on the doors of political-science professors who praise Che Guevara?

Strikes me as pretty childish......

I think that conservatives would be better off addressing the intellectual issues.  I find myself pretty confused as to what conservatism is actually about, other than a critique of liberal and progressive causes. Some conservatives are libertarians, and want a small government and maximum individual freedom. Other conservatives are of the religious right, and they want government to poke its nose into people's personal affairs. There are fiscal conservatives who want a balanced budget. Then there is Pres Bush, who is running record budget deficits. 

Washing an SUV does nothing to help me understand what conservative belief is really about.

 

 

[larryc]

There is no ivory tower, it is just a moat.  Except they stopped dredging the moat and now it is a swamp. With leeches. 

[pyshnov]

zharkov:

I find myself pretty confused as to what conservatism is actually about, other than a critique of liberal and progressive causes.

This is very understandable. Normally, conservatism is just a reaction on the "progressive" revolution (now called "change" as revolution is an unpopular and scary word; "change' also says it's a slow revolution). That's why conservatism often is synonymous with "reaction". Conservatives, again - normally, do not have a political agenda that intends to change the society. They stand for preservation of values that society has chosen after many centuries of civilization.

Strangely, a simple solution to the choice of new v. old is overlooked: the adoption of new should require much more than 1/2 of the votes.

Some conservatives are libertarians, and want a small government and maximum individual freedom.

As far as I understand, it's not so much the poverty of the lower classes, but rather the growth of the big government (which is always corrupt and tyrannical, i.e. neglecting the law) that prompted all revolutions. Ironically, however, each and every revolution ends in even more tyrannical government... It's only the later developments that lead to the individual freedom and a tolerable life.

[dark_globe]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the barbarians are at the gates.

[helpful]

Conservative groups have long worked to recruit college students, but the Campus Leadership Program is a little different: Rather than creating campus chapters of a national organization, it spurs students to start their own groups and publications, providing them with money and ideas. How about an Earth Day carwash in which SUV’s are washed free? Or "Operation Red Star," in which students stick red stars on the doors of political-science professors who praise Che Guevara? Is that the future of campus conservatism? Is it the best way to promote the cause?
Read more...

I hope they have fun in the carwash when the oceans are washing over Long Island because the oceans have risen because the arctic ice cap has melted. They won't have to use a carwash, they can just use pails and dip it into the ocean....

[helpful]

PS. When did conservatism come to mean promoting SUV's. Doesn't the word 'conservative' including the word 'conserve" and shouldn't we 'conserve' our planet? Doesn't conservation and conservative have the same word root?

[spork]

Kinky Friedman for President.

[zharkov]

Conservatives, again - normally, do not have a political agenda that intends to change the society. They stand for preservation of values that society has chosen after many centuries of civilization.

Thanks, pyshnov, and I'd add the "traditionalists" to the libertarians and religious right, etc. as I mentioned earlier.

FWIW, your traditionalist take also makes sense viz a viz the liberal position advocated by John Dewey almost 100 years ago.  Dewey maintained that the values of pre-industrial society are not necessarily the values that industrial society should adhere to.

But here is the problem:  What do traditional values have to do with washing SUVs? (To borrow helpful's example, above.)

On my view, traditional values have more to do with living a frugal (conservative) lifestyle, not engaging in conspicuous consumption. (I'm thinking of the historical and current Puritans, Quakers, and Baptists, for example.)



 

[acrimone]

PS. When did conservatism come to mean promoting SUV's. Doesn't the word 'conservative' including the word 'conserve" and shouldn't we 'conserve' our planet? Doesn't conservation and conservative have the same word root?

But here is the problem:  What do traditional values have to do with washing SUVs? (To borrow helpful's example, above.)

Absolutely nothing.

It's just a gigantic middle finger raised against that class of people that absolutely gets their panties in a twist because someone else is exercising their freedom of choice and driving a large vehicle.

I can't say I approve, but I certainly sympathize: the seemingly ceaseless stream of hyper-righteous moralizing emanating from the left these days is almost enough to make me want to walk out to the ocean and dump motor oil in there just to spite them, despite the fact that I'm actually quite the environmentalist ("conservationist" might be a better word, going back to what helpful said) myself.

I wouldn't, but I can understand the sentiment.

[helpful]

PS. When did conservatism come to mean promoting SUV's. Doesn't the word 'conservative' including the word 'conserve" and shouldn't we 'conserve' our planet? Doesn't conservation and conservative have the same word root?

But here is the problem:  What do traditional values have to do with washing SUVs? (To borrow helpful's example, above.)

Absolutely nothing.

It's just a gigantic middle finger raised against that class of people that absolutely gets their panties in a twist because someone else is exercising their freedom of choice and driving a large vehicle.

I can't say I approve, but I certainly sympathize: the seemingly ceaseless stream of hyper-righteous moralizing emanating from the left these days is almost enough to make me want to walk out to the ocean and dump motor oil in there just to spite them, despite the fact that I'm actually quite the environmentalist ("conservationist" might be a better word, going back to what helpful said) myself.

I wouldn't, but I can understand the sentiment.

Yes, well, we will see what you say when your house is lapped by ocean waves as people in the maldives and in some pacific islands where their land is being overwhelmed by rising seas.

There is an expression in the UK: I'm all right Jack! As long as everything is Ok for you, don't worry about those islanders losing their homes...

[cpatrick]

I am a 20+ year veteran faculty member at a midwest University and I can be described most accurately as "liberal" in my views.  My students know this although I DO NOT use class time to promote liberalism.  On the other hand, I have relatively "conservative" views regarding certain issues and share those as well.  I'm like a lot of people, liberal and conservative; I am married (25+ years) and have 3 wonderful children with one already in college (and a liberal himself ... but he's young).

The problem with much of this discussion, as with most of the political discussions in Washington, is the overall tone of divisiveness that precludes any real progress in our country.  And frankly, the current Republican administration has greatly promoted these divisions to simply "do what they want" rather than what is good for our people.  It is a HUGE problem for the country.  Although, it is encouraging to see the change in Congress in our last midterm election; somewhat restores my faith in the American public.

Let the conservative groups flourish on campuses across the nation - along with the liberal groups [you know ... all us faculty ;-)].  But please stop using the "divide and conquer" approach as your main message.  We are hurting in this country (especially our children and the poor) because of the concentration on division rather than solving real problems.  Let's please try to work together.