Campaign '04: The Right's New Wing

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Why the move right on many issues? Demographers say it has something to do with coming of age in the '80s and '90s. "If your formative experience is Ronald Reagan as opposed to John Kennedy, then that's going to have an impact on how you think about the world," says William Galston, a former Clinton official who now directs the University of Maryland's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.

Today's college kids were quite young when Reagan was President, but thanks to YAF, ISI and the Leadership Institute--all helmed by Reaganites--the former President has an outsize presence on campus. Former Reagan officials Edwin Meese III (Reagan's second Attorney General), Jeane Kirkpatrick (his first U.N. ambassador) and Bay Buchanan (his first Treasurer) have all spoken on college campuses through YAF, and Reagan's son Michael raises money for the group. In 1998 it purchased the Reagans' old ranch near Santa Barbara, Calif., and now brings 1,000 students there every year to bask in Reaganiana (look in the bathroom for the Liberty Bell showerhead) and study conservative thought at a multimillion-dollar conference center nearby.

At the National Conservative Student Conference earlier this month, the students cheered nearly every time Reagan was mentioned--which is saying something, given that the name of the recently deceased President was invoked constantly. The conference's souvenir T shirt featured Reagan's image and the words THE REAGAN REVOLUTION LIVES! On the first morning, when the students were invited to the podium to introduce themselves, several said the 40th President had inspired their conservatism.

No one mentioned Bush. Which brings us back to this year's race. Although students are moving right on many issues, the President isn't necessarily benefiting. In 2000 Al Gore beat Bush among 18-to 29-year-olds by only 2 percentage points, but recent polls show Kerry with a double-digit lead among the young. (The race is a virtual tie overall.) Of course, very few conservative students will vote for Kerry, but most of the kids who attended the conference didn't seem eager to become field troops for the President either. As National Review editor Rich Lowry noted on the conservative magazine's website the day after he spoke at the conference, "What was most notable about this year was just how many smart young conservatives out there seem to think that there are no important differences between Bush and Kerry."

One student laid out a conservative case for Kerry: "When a Democrat is in office and proposes the same policies that Bush has proposed, Republicans act Republican and kill them," said Aakash Raut, 23, a senior at the University of Illinois at Springfield, in a heated debate with pro-Bush students. "And you have actually more conservative government than you do if a Republican is in the White House."