Left Out On Campus

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Jason Mattera.

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Frustrated by conservative activism on college campuses, the Left has unveiled secret weapons to counter our Ann Coulters and Ben Steins: Ashley Olsen and Oprah Winfrey. Keisha Senter, speakers' bureau coordinator for Campus Progress, introduced the group's newest stars at its recent and first-ever national student conference.

Campus Progress, a project of billionaire George Soros's Center for American Progress (CAP), seeks to "empower a new generation of progressive leaders." Leftist organizers admit to being overwhelmed on the college front by groups such as the Young America's Foundation, even though colleges and universities have been propagating liberalism for decades.

According to CAP's former campus programs director Ben Hubbard, "A national effort to work with students on the substance, intellectual foundation, and communication of progressive ideas is needed" With the realization that food-throwing doesn't win debates, as was demonstrated by certain assailants of Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Bill Kristol, and David Horowitz earlier this academic year, leftists have finally organized a conference to discuss ideas -- or so is their spin.

For the past 30 years on college campuses, the Left has been regurgitating concepts that do not work: socialist, pacifist, redistributionist…you get the tired old idea. Instead of injecting some fresh thinking into the young left-activist bloodstream, panelists at Campus Progress's national student conference rehashed big-government policies, drew ridiculous parallels, and conveyed embarrassing talking points.

Moderator and former Clinton White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers asked a panel to define progressive values. Paul Begala, host of CNN's "Crossfire", told of the value of "progressive patriotism." He graciously went on to elaborate using an analogy: "Cain said, 'am I my brother's keeper?' 'You bet your ass,' God said." Begala continued by saying that Republicans reject his celestial wisdom and instead come from the mindset: "I'm going to get mine -- screw you!" Another panelist, Thomas Frank, the author of "What's the Matter with Kansas?", said progressive values are "freedom plus groceries." Heather McGhee, economic-policy analyst with Demos -- a left-wing public-policy group -- said progressives value "shared prosperity." Students seeking guidance were given socialist solutions, which are no longer charming -- not even in Russia.

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