Attending Netroots is always like entering the lion’s den if you’re a conservative – and particularly if you’re a semi-well known one like myself. Every time you step foot into the convention center, you feel a wave of terror that you’re going to be cornered and attacked for ‘crashing’ the other side’s party. Which is why I was especially nervous about attending the conference’s youth caucus Saturday morning. You see, the caucuses are not at all like the panels, where you can position yourself in the back of the room and few people usually recognize you outside of the national spotlight. At the small, intimate caucuses, everyone is expected introduce himself or herself and participate in the discussion.
After two days of positive discussions with the conference’s very progressive attendees — during which I was open and honest about who I am and what I do — I built up the confidence to attend the youth caucus, announce myself and take whatever heat may come about as a result.
Surprisingly, there was none. At least not to my face. Everyone in the room was respectful and polite. One young man, who recognized me from my regular appearances on the progressive TV show “The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann” even came over and struck up a nice conversation with me.
As part of the exercise in the caucus, we were broken down into groups and assigned questions to discuss, like, ‘How can youth build power in the progressive movement and in the nation?’ and ‘What is being said about youth leadership (or the lack thereof)?’
I quickly found that young progressives were encountering the same exact problems in their movement as young conservatives, and that I agreed with nearly every point my tablemates made.
For instance, one participant said he felt Congress should establish term limits because he feels that members like Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif) had been in office for too long and it is time for the movement’s younger generations to be given the opportunity to lead. Similarly, many young conservatives and libertarians would likely say the same of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) – who has gone out of his way to demonize some of the GOP’s younger members.
I mentioned I would like to change the age restriction associated with running for Congress (for me, it’s the 30-year-old requirement in the Senate that I would like to see changed, in particular), and the rest of the table seemed to agree.
A surprising revelation that came about as a result of the discussion was that young progressives participating in the caucus were most concerned about the lack of real leadership opportunities for young people in the upper echelons of the movement. They seemed frustrated that their involvement in conferences like these is often limited to things like a youth caucus. I found this shocking because from the outside looking in, young conservatives are jealous of the opportunities young liberals have to participate in their movement. If I had a dollar for all the times I heard young conservatives bemoan the fact that we don’t even have that! Young conservatives feel that at national conferences they’re supposed to be happy with some ‘youth issues’ panel that a few of their leaders get to speak on instead of allowing young people to speak on the main stage with the ‘grown ups.’
Another issue we all agreed on was that young people would likely be less apathetic about politics if public high schools required students to take a current events class. Students are required to take history and math, but they aren’t required to learn about the political issues being decided at the federal level that often directly affect them. And if young people were more informed generally, perhaps older generations would be more likely to take the concerns of our demographic seriously.
An interesting idea that came out of a discussion at another table – which I heard during the final presentation (we were all required to present at the end) – was that next year Netroots should have an event geared at encouraging intergenerational organizing. Basically, the idea is to have an event of some sort that brings together young people and more experienced organizers for the purposes of learning how to work better with each other. What a great idea! Conservatives should consider doing the same exact thing.
After the caucus I spent another 20 minutes or so in the hallway speaking to other youth caucus participants. One young woman I spoke with gave me some perspective of young progressives’ opinion of the Right from the outside looking in. She said she felt the Right does a better job giving young people opportunities to move up through the ranks than the Left does. And that while the GOP isn’t very good about reaching out to young people, its great at making the young people in its movement feel empowered, she suggested. Recently, I attended an independent, off-the-record ‘youth caucus’ of young conservative leaders, and let’s just say I think a significant number of them would disagree with that assessment. This just goes to show that even our grass looks greener on the other side.
Attending the caucus I was reminded of the need for young people (and older people) on both sides of the spectrum to spend more time truly listening to the other side. For example, young people on the Left and Right are united in their concern about the exorbitant cost of higher education. Both sides agree that the cost of college is largely out of control because of unnecessary spending on administrator salaries – which are often higher at public universities than what the President of the United States is paid. Perhaps we could achieve real higher education reforms, which would partially solve the student debt problem — something else young people are equally concerned about — if we attempted to work together on that issue.
My point is this: conservatives and progressives often spend too much time these days tearing the other side down or shouting into the echo chamber. Make no mistake — it’s important as young acitivists/journalists/politicians etc. to stay true to our values and work hard to achieve our ideological and legislative priorities, but sometimes working together is the best chance at achieving anything at all.
Perhaps it’s my youthful nativity at work, but I’m too young to completely give in to the cynicism that seems to plague many older, wiser Americans.
