The conservative movement has grown so greatly on college campuses over the past few years that the left has started to take notice. Hoping to achieve similar success and support, liberals are mimicking the strategies of college-aged conservatives by holding their own conferences similar to the one pioneered by the Young Americas Foundation.
Yet, while the hard work and accomplishments of college conservatives is something to be commended and even copied, the importance of strategic planning, recruitment and continued efforts to further expand their cause in the future was urged by a panel of distinguished conservatives Tuesday at the Young Americas Foundation conference in Washington, D.C.
College Republican National Committee Chairman Paul Gourley, Leadership Institute founder Morton Blackwell and Floyd Brown, executive director of the Young Americas Foundation, spoke about the importance of youth.
“We saw in the last five years in College Republicans a tremendous growth,” Gourley said. “We saw a tripling in the number of members. We saw the doubling of the number of clubs that we have on campus. And it didn’t just happen by accident.”
Gourley noted that such success is the result of a door-to-door outreach effort and visits to college campuses.
But it hasn’t necessarily been easy. Campuses are thriving with “overwhelmingly leftist faculty and overwhelmingly leftist student publications,” as Blackwell pointed out. “I invite you to go against the monopoly,” he said. Brown also further urged students to “get involved, dive in and go deeper, and you will never regret it.”
By taking such steps, the panel exemplified the power of young conservatives and the difference they can make, whether it is not allowing liberal administration to completely control college campuses or something larger, such as help elect a president.
The panel was moderated by Rob Robinson, founder of the Young Americas Foundation, who left students with this advice: “Your goal should always be to reach the widest possible audience. But you should never compromise your principles.”
