海角大神

Working out of the trunk of his car, recent law school grad Chris Dziedzic is criss-crossing New York State, talking about what he calls 鈥渢rue conservatism.鈥� Party elders are all ears.

In San Francisco, Jenniffer Rodriguez 鈥� young, Hispanic, and a lapsed Democrat 鈥� is creating the country鈥檚 first Republican election central. It鈥檚 a blogging, broadcast, and policy center smack in the middle of what she calls the 鈥渂luest of blue cities.鈥�

At the University of Georgia here in Athens, Steven Lee, the son of Korean immigrants, spends his days at the Student Learning Center blogging at TheNewRepublicans.net about how the GOP can take advantage of an electorate clamoring for realpolitik instead of partisanship.

More inspired than dejected about the meteoric rise of Barack Obama to the presidency, young Republicans, often working from state capitals in the Democratic heartland, are mounting an ideological and technological insurgency to change the course of the GOP.

Their goal is to use lessons from the historic 2008 drubbing to tie political pragmatism, diversity, and idealism to traditional conservative values like small government and low taxes. Their aim is to broaden the Republican base and ensure its relevancy as a national party. Winning that internal debate over the party鈥檚 future, though, won鈥檛 be easy.

鈥淚 think young people could play a very central role in creating a more moderate and more pragmatic Republican notion of conservatism that is about change, but about change that is more consistent with traditional Republican principles,鈥� says Professor Michael Delli Carpini, an expert on generational differences in politics at the University of Pennsylvania. 鈥淭he Republican party has to figure out what it鈥檚 going to be, and you can see that battle taking place right now ... and young people can be very influential in [that debate].鈥�

With only about a third of the under-30 crowd voting Republican in the Nov. 4 election, and Democrats opening up a 19 point lead in party affiliation among 18 to 29-year-olds, the GOP has rapidly 鈥� and, some in the party fear, irreversibly 鈥� lost ground among younger voters.
Mr. Obama鈥檚 unique political personality played a huge role in that transformation.

But key among many of its perceived faults, the Bush administration鈥檚 policies presented especially younger conservatives with the contradictions of a party that 鈥渞an against tax-and-spend Democrats and became cut-tax-and-still-spend Republicans,鈥� says Wil Westholm, a 30-something Republican in Tucson, Ariz. It didn鈥檛 help that 25 percent of young people reported being contacted by the Obama campaign while only 13 percent said the McCain campaign courted them, according to the Pew Research Center.

GOP needs to attract younger voters

鈥淵oung people are the new trees in the deforested Republican party, and they have to plant new trees and water them and get them going, and I don鈥檛 think they鈥檙e doing a very good job with it,鈥� says Steffen Schmidt, a political science professor at Iowa State University in Ames.

Still, the ups and downs of the Republican party in the late 20th century have been largely the result of actions by young ideologues. Conservative surges including the Goldwater era, the Nixon landslide, the Reagan Revolution, and Newt Gingrich鈥檚 鈥�Contract with America鈥� were fueled primarily by those under 40.

In fact, it wasn鈥檛 until the Clinton era that younger voters began trending more liberal than the overall population 鈥� a movement perhaps capped by Obama, who won 66 percent of the youth vote. In 1984, Ronald Reagan got 56 percent of the youth vote.

鈥淲e鈥檝e now seen that the youth vote can turn out and will turn out if appropriately courted,鈥� says Mr. Dziedzic, the recent law school graduate in Binghampton, NY.

But for Republicans, the solution may not just be in numbers. Perhaps the biggest challenge is how to incorporate, at the national level, an increasingly white, racially polarized, and Southern Republican base with the ambivalence about race and gender politics exhibited by the Gen-X, Gen-Y and Millennial age groups.

鈥淭his has to be real, and real means both that you look past ethnicity and race, but also that you understand ethnicity and race, and you understand that there are still issues that affect different groups differently,鈥� says Mr. Delli Carpini.

A delegate to the Republican Convention, Ms. Rodriguez says the party鈥檚 鈥渢oken nods鈥� to diversity fell flat. Many immigrants 鈥渉ave conservative values, but they once again associate the Republican party with poor immigration strategies or the rich old white guy sitting up in his big corner office in D.C. What could he possibly know?鈥� she says.

That鈥檚 in part why young Republicans like Philip Henderson, the son of a pentecostal preacher in Georgia, is talking about improving public schools instead of just focusing on charter schools and vouchers. Mr. Lee, for one, says Barack Obama exemplified a hunger for a new, less divisive politics that Republicans, too, can tap into. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 equate idealism with any particular party,鈥� he says.

Mr. Westholm says the Republican party dropped the ball on the environment, a key concern to younger voters. He points to the Paris Hilton flap during the election when he says many found the hotel heiress making more sense on how to save the environment than John McCain, who had tried to tie Ms. Hilton鈥檚 celebrity status to Obama.

And while Democrats abandoned the 鈥�Rock the Vote鈥� model of reaching younger voters in favor of social networking and blogs, the Republican post-2002 鈥渢alking points鈥� strategy seemed woefully out of date with generations who want to be engaged in dialogue, not be told what to say, says Westholm.

鈥淲e as young Republicans are now taking the lead on branding,鈥� argues Dziedzic. 鈥淚t can鈥檛 be astroturf. It has to be true grassroots.鈥�
And it may be working. Pointing to Republican victories in Louisiana and Georgia after the Nov. 4 vote, Republicans are now batting .1000 in the post-2008 era. Rodriguez says she鈥檚 received more e-mails about joining the party in the month after the election than the entire run-up to the general election.

Independents a key target

鈥淚t鈥檚 the people who are independent, who lean toward the Republican party, and who haven鈥檛 really liked what we鈥檝e been doing in the last few years,鈥� says Westholm, a Navy veteran who now works for a defense contractor.

鈥淚t鈥檚 those people we鈥檙e seeing get active, and who recognize that now is the opportunity for the party to step back, reorganize, and get cohesive again,鈥� says Mr. Westholm.

That won鈥檛 be easy.

To gain plurality, the party has to tie together three disparate and not easily reconciled strands: The rural and evangelical South and West, exemplified by Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin; the libertarian fringe embodied by Ron Paul; and multiracial pragmatists, such as Gov. Bobby Jindal in Louisiana.

鈥�William F. Buckley saw the movement being larger than just one person, and there鈥檚 no one speaking to this group anymore like he did or saying what he did,鈥� says Dave Woodard, a Republican strategist at Clemson University in South Carolina. 鈥淲hoever can begin to talk to youth about conservative values would be someone worth noting.鈥�