This (via Oliver Willis who also describes a Twitter exchange with Joe Scarborough) really cracks me up:
For much of the past decade, young conservatives enjoyed an array of job opportunities in the Republican-controlled Congress and at insulated, well-funded nonprofit organizations. But since Democrats gained control in 2006, many prized slots on Senate and House committees started going to the new majority. And now, there’s no Republican administration in power to offer jobs to its own.
Young conservatives could apply for regular jobs, they acknowledge…
[…]At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. “I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute,” he says. “But she wants to work for the ACLU, and I said, ‘Oh, you’re one of those.’ “
Later, in a phone interview, Siggins says he struggles with some of his party’s more culturally orthodox ideals. “Because I am in this generation and was raised in a pro-gay-marriage era, I am only a little bit against gay marriage, but only a little, like 53 percent to 47,” he says. “I have about a dozen gay friends, 30 or 20, and they would all back me up. In college, I used to have lunch with them. . . . We went ice skating once.”
I bear these kids no ill will, but they probably should look for “regular jobs” at some point.
David Brooks thinks the future may be bright for these Burkean boys and girls, anyway:
In a New York Times column last June, David Brooks wrote that a new commentariat of young conservative writers — such as Julian Sanchez, Megan McArdle and Will Wilkinson — has come of age “as official conservatism slipped into decrepitude . . . put off by the shock-jock rhetorical style of Ann Coulter.”
Update: Burke makes a big appearance in Brooks’ column, natch:
As a consequence, they are heterodox and hard to label. These writers grew up reading conservative classics — Burke, Hayek, Smith, C.S. Lewis — but have now splayed off in all sorts of quirky ideological directions.
Something tells me young Dustin and his friends have splayed off a lot too.
Brooks does also mention some more conservative writers (than McMeghan and friends), like the 1994 Heisman trophy winner who wrote the Sam’s Club book with Ross Douthat.
TenguPhule
Meet the new zombie horde. Fresher smelling then the old zombie horde.
TenguPhule
Ladies and Gentlemen, the next 40 year virgin.
Ned R.
Hehehe. We were all talking about the ice skating bit on the Stupid Party comments today so I’m glad to see this get wider attention.
Though it has to be said that the attempted-hookup-gone-wrong in the paragraph before it is equally ‘the hell?’ The dude clearly doesn’t realize he’s in a Judd Apatow film.
(Edit: And I said that before the comment just posted!)
TheFountainHead
Maybe they can’t get real jobs because they have no life skills or experiences?
Wile E. Quixote
Again, I have to wonder why these stalwart young conservatives aren’t joining the military to serve their country. Do any Republicans serve in the military any more?
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
I bear these kids no ill will, but they probably should look for “regular jobs” at some point.
Likewise. Being a hippie, branded in my thoughts at a very early age by the "Yellow Submarine" movie, I’ve always liked it best when the bad guys catch a clue and become good guys.
Perhaps a turn in the real world will help them become compassionate and easygoing. And maybe the "oh, you’re one of those" guy will come to terms with his homosexuality.
Comrade Stuck
That’s Ok! It’s what I say to all the wingnuts.
ed
I guaran-fuggin-tee you that Dustin Siggins, ACLU Hater, likes to refer to himself as "libertarian."
Mark S.
Wouldn’t Sanchez, McArdle and Wilkinson all be considered libertarian, not conservative, writers?
JenJen
This made me LOL a dozen, or 30, or 20 times!
A la lanterne les aristos
WTF does that even mean? Is he against just over half of gay marriages (just the lesbians, maybe?), or does he vote against them in just over half of the elections/polls and for them the rest of the time?
Mark S.
I looked up the original Brooks column and he does mention more conservative writers.
Ripley
Guessing they’d rather not.
Wile E. Quixote
Ya know, maybe if Dustin Siggins had some basic fucking math skills he might be able to get a job. About a dozen, 30 or 20. Jesus wept.
gbear
That term used to get thrown around a lot when I was in high school when talking about favorite bands. The three most polarizing bands seemed to be Grand Funk, The Moody Blues, and Jethro Tull (this is when Aqualung had just come out). Each band had lots of rabid fans but also equally rabid haters. I was in the Tull camp. Everyone agreed on Led Zeppelin, of course.
If Mr. Snide 20-something doesn’t widen his horizons soon he’s going to find out he’s Mr. Angry 30-something soon to be Mr. Bitter 40-something, and his friends won’t ‘back him up’ on that.
I wonder if he’ll attend the wedding when one of his 12 or 30 or 20 gay friends gets married, or if that will just be too much for his 47% acceptance to handle. Dink.
TheFountainHead
Now that’s a low blow…
Mazacote Yorquest
Is 53-47 virginity when you just put in the tip?
‘Oh, you’re one of those’: The 2009 George Allen GOP Outreach Campaign
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go "ice skate with the gays." Where are my tissues?
Mike in NC
From another blog I noted a comment that "all Libertarians are assholes", and especially that goes for the twat McArdle.
Warren Terra
Ack – bloody commenting system ate my comment. Sigh.
Maybe we could get a preview that worked properly?
gbear
You’d have to love ACLUFAP.
Edit: The above is a reply to a comment that seems to have disappeared. What’s up with that?
Joshua Norton
Young Conservatives: They’re Young! And Conservative!
I got nothing….
Waingro
Her print persona is rather unpleasant, but watching the Bloggingheads segment she did with Dean Baker confirmed that she is actually that smug and clueless in person.
theturtlemoves
C.S. Lewis wrote conservative classics? Yeah, the guy was a devout Christian, but Out of the Silent Planet is a conservative classic? I guess I can see it with stuff like Screwtape Letters, but throwing him in there with Burke and company just seems odd.
Johnny Pez
@A la lanterne les aristos:
I think he means that 47% of the voices in his head approve of gay marriage, while the other 53% disapprove.
SpotWeld
They’re all gonna end up selling Amway products for a few years… and blogging about it.
Martin
This is great news! Republicans will soon have trouble replacing their own population, ruling out anyone who agrees with the ACLU, likes trains and Disneyland or Las Vegas by extension, mice, marshes, is scared of volcanos, isn’t mortified by taxation or immigrants, and thought that Jindal gave a terrible speech.
With those disqualifiers, the acceptable breeding population can’t be more than a dozen, 30 or 20 tops.
Joshua Norton
The internet is currently full….
Stop! You’re killing me here!
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@SpotWeld: They’re all gonna end up selling Amway products for a few years… and
bloggingTwittering about it.FTFY. Blogging needs way too much of an attention span.
Plus Twitter is Inherently Conservative™.
maya
Like their neocon role models, I’m sure they all have better things to do.
Polish the Guillotines
@gbear:
"Nobody knows the band Grand Funk!? The wild, shirtless lyrics of Mark Farner? The bong-rattling bass of Mel Shocker? The competent drum work of Don Brewer? Oh, MAN!"
— Homer Simpson
KG
"Oh, you’re one of those"?
Fucking douche bag. That’s all I got.
AnneLaurie
He knows he’s supposed to be deeply opposed to the Kweers Hitchin’ Up, but he just can’t work up the proper level of personal loathing. So if you make him a better offer, he’s open to re-adjusting his most important political beliefs, because, what the heck, he’s not getting any other offers…
Remember all those breathless media reports a couple years back about the new generation of "Lesbian Until Graduation" co-eds? Well, what with the Greatest Depression Evah and the slow collapse of Wingnut Welfare, those co-eds will get to hook up with the new "Conservative Until Graduation" boyz.
Chuck Butcher
I watched Farner very nearly kill himself jumping across speaker towers – many years ago. The one thing I can say for GFRR is that their albums weren’t so over produced that you couldn’t recognize them as the same band live. 1970.
A la lanterne les aristos
Hmmm, I sense another Idiocracy thread looming on the horizon.
Polish the Guillotines
Here’s who will be leading poor Dustin out of the wilderness (via Huffpo):
Can they apply for a patent on crazy?
Chuck Butcher
I don’t know about the idea that the ‘real world’ will modify their outlook. Minus the attributes of critical thinking and intellectual curiosity I’d bet that they’d progress to flat out meaness in the face of the rather harsher realities of an actual workplace. As far as building empathy goes, it seems that assumes they’d be getting down in the dirt and getting calluses and such rather than looking out a window and mocking those failures who are.
Joshua Norton
"Micheal Steele" and "da hood". Goes together like "forehead" and "ball peen hammer".
Silver
I still maintain that the College Republican set is basically a 100% fucking dead on guarantee of membership in the asshole club.
When you’re young, you’re supposed to be an idealist and a dreamer, not a wannabe functionary in the SS…
Joshua Norton
More like wearing a paper hat and hollering "do you want lids on these?". Unless they’ve found a way to ship all the drive-up window jobs to India by then, that is.
Polish the Guillotines
@Joshua Norton:
I mean, seriously… These guys should be on Lorne Michaels’ payroll. They’re doing most of the writing for SNL.
Church Lady
Maybe it’s just because they attend a southern university, but most of my daughter’s friends are fairly conservative, seemingly more so than my daughter. The kids I’ve met come across as pretty bright and articulate and don’t seem to fit the current caricature of the Republican party, i.e. war loving Jesus freaks. They also seem to spend a lot of time, when not attending classes or partying, doing a whole lot of volunteer work, particularly with children’s literacy efforts, the food pantry and the local animal shelter.
I don’t know if the conservatism comes from their parents (these are kids in their very early twenties) or from a belief system they have developed on their own. It will be interesting to see if their political leanings change as they graduate, move to other parts of the country and start careers and families.
Mike in NC
Uh, never have and never will. That’s for the poor suckers. Ask Cheney about his many deferments.
Anastasius
From "would back me up" and "went ice skating once" it’s not far to "rough men stand ready in the night" and "wide stance".
And of all those oppressed, white victims looking for refuge in a wingnut welfare haven, only a former victory director can land a job. Can’t make this up.
R-Jud
@Chuck Butcher:
In my experience, this is exactly what happens. I’ve known a few Young Cons. A dozen. 30 or 20.
Too many, anyway.
Craig
So, the Nina Simone reference = awesome.
Cain
@Church Lady:
It’s probably somewhat cultural. Even I fall victim to wanting to propogate my family culture. It’s not something to sneer at, it happens. There is a certain amount of rebellon but they always come back into the fold.
Luckily, my family is progressive.
cain
Tax Analyst
Umm…I believe that means he will only take roughly four inches out of a possible nine. With emphasis on the "roughly", I imagine.
bago
Finally. A site for our modern times.
Chuck Butcher
@R-Jud:
I think our host John Cole is an example of what I’m referring to in the positive sense.
The people I’ve known and watched over the years that had these attribute in shorter supply have tended toward more conservative outlook with age.
Dave_No_Longer_Laughing
"At the Union Pub, Dustin Siggins, 24, says he sometimes uses humor to deflect the awkwardness of being on the margins of his generation. “I met a girl today at the gym from Boston College. She was getting a law degree from George Washington. She was cute,” he says. “But she wants to work for the ACLU, and I said, ‘Oh, you’re one of those.’ “"
I’ll tell you what’s wrong with the kids these days: we’re paying attention to a 24-year old.
…WTF, the "only" jobs are with a "conservative" administration?
This is bullshit on so many levels. First, it’s a waste of space. Second,
I do not get this: A 24-year old was likely 21 in 2006. The only jobs were doing what, exactly, for the "Republicans"? How many jobs in an Administration are there, too?
What about several years of useful work before getting into politics?
What about gaining experience with a real job?
24 is the new 12; must be.
Napoleon
I actually think a huge part of the problem with the right’s echo chamber is the very fact that so many in it seem to have no real world experience at all.
El Cid
Wait — didn’t all these exciting young conservatives do a fantastic job when they were sent to run Iraq right after the invasion?
Xanthippas
I don’t get this. For years Republicans have been trying to tell us this was a "center-right" nation, and yet somehow every time you interview these guys they reveal that they feel surrounded and besieged by liberals. Why, one would almost think they want to feel this way, but surely their politics are not premised merely on paranoia and inferiority complexes, right?
I’d suggest that if this guy wants to be surrounded by people who are more in line with his personal beliefs, he could try moving to say…East Texas. For some reason, I have trouble believing he’d be willing to make the move.
Paul L.
@TenguPhule:
Megan McArdle and Will Wilkinson did not vote for Mccain.
Reece
Wow, I think I met that Dustin guy at Union Pub. One of his associates assured me that Joe the Plumber was probably going to run for Congress.
What a sad, sad joke they are.
El Cid
I regret that I have to be so cynical, but how much do you want to bet that, rather than this just being a case of this guy having this crazy liberal friend with a hair-trigger on accusations of racism, that this is some douchebag who’s always bitching about affirmative action and how it was white liberal guilt on race that made Obama popular and making jokes like we’ve seen recently with Obama waffles & whatnot?
Conservatively Liberal
On his show yesterday, David Schuster was talking about how though the Democrats have taken over and are bringing in staffers for their new members, the Republicans are not cutting back on staffers even though they lost. Schuster was calling Mitch "no lips" McConnell out on it, saying that it is funny that the right is screaming about there being no money and yet refusing to pare back their staffers now that they lost their asses last fall.
Same shit, different day.
edmund dantes
Am I the only one missing the "humor" he is using in that ACLU anecdote or how it’s helping to defuse the awkwardness?
Call me crazy, but it looks like he is doing the exact opposite of what he is claiming to d…. OH! I get it.
Linda Binda
That "53 percent to 47" line might be the guy making a joke out of Proposition 8, specifically its success rate.
Yeah, he sounds like a real whi– uh, I mean, winner.
AkaDad
Young Conservatives are clearly the most persecuted group in the world. It has to stop before Liberals fire up the gas ovens.
JL
Yesterday, I went to see Slumdog Millionaire which I found to be an amazing film. The only complaint that I have (although minor) is that I can’t get the soundtrack out of my head. When conservatives compare Jindal to Slumdog, do they not realize that Slumdog was a Muslim?
El Cid
We apologize for the delay, but it’s been difficult finding a locally sourced, organically produced, ecologically safe, and non-greenhouse-contributing gas suitable for us.
I’d be okay with relocating them to the libertarian, government-free, no tax paradise of Somalia or the Democratic Republic of Congo, where they can demonstrate how their awesome conservative values shorn of all the dead weight of liberal society would thrive.
Napoleon
@El Cid:
I wouldn’t take that bet in a million years. There is no doubt in my mind that is what he is doing.
Napoleon
Duh, double post
cosanostradamus
.
I understand they’re still looking for help in Iraq& Afghanistan. Why not apply there? Why aren’t all these young "patriots" in the military already? Oh, that’s right, true conservatives only participate in war by sending someone else to fight their battles. That’s what lower-class people, especially non-whites, are for, in their minds. No, the white college grads were needed in public service here. There was a lot of work NOT to be done: NOT regulating banks, NOT providing health care and and NOT helping veterans of their wars. We all have to fulfill the roles we were born to. Otherwise, the caste system might collapse.
Help rebrand the Republican Party. We’re picking a new name for them. What’s yours?
.
zoe kentucky from pittsburgh
Um, if your "best friend" thinks that you hate black people don’t you think that they’re basing that on something more than not voting for Obama? Instead of feeling "surrounded" perhaps he should be more concerned that his best friend thinks he’s racist.
Ronald Reagan helped create a new generation of young, enthusiastic wingnuts. Now they tables are turned and between the disasterous Bush years and the election of Obama we’re going to have a new generation of young, passionate dems. Nice.
Jay in Oregon
@Xanthippas:
It could also be one of those convenient personal anecdotes that turns out to be 100% bullshit, like Bobby Jindal’s anecdote about Sheriff Harry Lee in Katrina or McCain’s "soldier drawing the cross" story.
Conservatives are never so beseiged as they are in their own minds.
kommrade reproductive vigor
Fist + Monitor.
(And a dozen = 12, not "30 or 20," you unemployed oversized fistula)
brainpan aka headpan aka miss water whiskers
Hey, just checking in. Caught all the Salma Hayek panting on the previous thread. My ex-boyfriend (who is still a good friend) ‘s ex-girlfriend is a high-end hairdresser in LA and she used to do Salma’s hair. Maybe she still does, not sure. Anyway, that’s my contribution to the Salma Hayek conversation which I’m sure the men could care less about. lol
And DAMN DAMN DAMN! CPAC starts today and I’m going out of town! I was really lookin forward to some comedy gold this weekend after the personal shitheap that was last week! Well, fuckit anyway, streaming is very unreliable on my clunker of a computer. I miss my CSPAN2 cuz they used to replay the CPAC silliness.
Good morning BJ’ers and Burkeans.
El Cid
@Jay in Oregon: I felt exactly the same way as I was leading a few hundred Spartans in saving humanity from the 8 foot tall gay Persians on D-Day right before Bill Clinton destroyed all our morale by calling Ohio people bitter.
Original Lee
I bet the Obamas snuggle on the couch watching basketball and turn to each other during the commercials to say, "I just love the smell of roasting young white GOPer, don’t you?" I mean, seriously, even for the WashPo this effort to offer hope to the dispirited, recently deposed alpha-male Republican lions was full of FAIL. I fully expected references to buff and cut young men in Abercombie & Fitch by the end of that column.
brainpan aka headpan aka miss water whiskers
Can I just say that I don’t give a fuck what these young conservatives do with their lives as long as they stay out of government and why are people writing about them – who cares? "Conservative" doesn’t even mean what it used to these days. They don’t even know what the fuck they are and they can wander in the wilderness for an undetermined period of time, along with their precious leaders, take their lumps for being idiots, and experience humiliation in the workplace like the rest of us schlubs. Fuck the little pansies.
brainpan aka headpan aka miss water whiskers
Yayz, CPAC has begun – John Cornyn opening
Dennis-SGMM
Brook’s use of the word "splayed" is questionable at best.
That’s a minor quibble compared to Brook’s relentless attempts to make a meal by picking the bones of Edmund Burke.
Dennis-SGMM
Which beats the hell out of being surrounded on all sides. These people have become so immersed in stringing together faux aphorisms and bullshit catch phrases as a substitute for having a philosophy that they’ve estranged themselves from their mother tongue. Sarah Palin and Bobby Jindal are their standard bearers for a reason.
arguingwithsignposts
@theturtlemoves – yeah, I don’t get the C.S. Lewis reference. Even his evangelicalism was tinged with views that make fundamentalists uneasy. Brooks is an idiot if he thinks that’s a "conservative classic" talking.
El Cid
David Brooks: "But I am a serious thinker! I am! Look, here, here’s a quote from Edmund Burke! You can’t get more seriously intellectualish than that, can you?"
brainpan aka headpan aka miss water whiskers
That was one snoozer of a speech Cornyn gave.
And, EARMARKS!
Now, my fightin’ Senator, Jim "Chinless Wonder" DeMented! Wow, he’s a star!! I see Skittles!
Shygetz
@theturtlemoves:
The Chronicles of Narnia is serious intemellecktuel Conservative reading.
Tattoosydney
That’s got to be a euphemism for something.
Rommie
A very weird dream "aha" moment this morning.
3 characters from MASH the TV Series (and I know it’s a dead giveaway what my age has to be) are good foils for core Conservatives Past, Present, and Future:
They used to be like Major Winchester – pompous and arrogant much of the time, but could learn to tone it down. You could get along with him, because he was competent and correct in many of his viewpoints.
The last eight years, they’ve been Major Burns – barely adequate in their jobs, extreme viewpoints, hypocrites galore (married man banging the Head Nurse) but, once in a while, could be insightful and sympathetic. No one missed him/them when gone.
Now, they are Colonel Flagg – cartoon characters.
A bit unfair, as not EVERY conservative is Flagg – it just seems that way, heh.
kay
I’ve lived surrounded by conservatives my entire adult life and I’ve never felt victimized. They bring politics up constantly, too, so much so that I’ve developed a strategy. I won’t continue the conversation if they start with any statement that isn’t true. So, if they approach me and say, for example, "the stimulus is all pork!", I respond "that’s not true" and then that’s over. It works, too. I avoid 90% of political quasi-conversations with local conservatives with this simple rule. If they lead with a talking point, it’s a rant, and they’re looking for a passive recipient of the rant. I won’t let them play Rush Limbaugh with me playing the audience.
Surly Duff
This is bullshit on so many levels. Outside of political appointees, there is no constraint on conservatives getting jobs with the federal government. And I am sure that insulated, well-funded (and banal?) conservative think tanks have not switched to hiring Democrats. Or did I miss the story about how the Heritage Foundation was switching to a fact-based analysis model?
.
Look, the prime jobs in Congress, i.e. the committee majority staff, are not going to Republicans because they are not the fucking majority! That’s what happens when you spend eight years with your thumb up your ass and lose control of both houses. You don’t get to keep your status as the majority when you are no longer the majority. It’s pretty simple, and I am surprised that the Washington Post has trouble identifying that fact. Holy shit, the whine from these people is making my ears bleed.
–
Hey conservatives, I’ve got a job opportunity for you – join the ranks of journalists, it’s right up your alley. You don’t have to have ideas, insight, or even factual information to have an article in print. And you could probably bitch about the ACLU there as well. It’s perfect.
bartkid
I swear the only thing I could hear while I read this post was the voice of Bart Simpson, "We need another Vietnam to thin out their ranks."
Greg VA
I would not describe anyone young and conservative as "gifted."
Xanthippas
That’s a good point. The federal government is pretty much always hiring civil servants, and you can bet they’ll hire more with Democrats in power. Of course those jobs don’t come with the authority to fire someone for having once attended a pro-Palestinian rally, but beggars can’t be chooser.
jibeaux
You can’t have C.S. Lewis, asshats. I realize he was a Christian theologian, but you don’t have a monopoly on Christianity and he wasn’t a political thunker. You can have that guy who writes that rapture series, but you’re sharing Narnia.
Persia
Most of them don’t know the difference between Catholics and Muslims. It’s all pagan heebie-jeebie to them.
jake 4 that 1
@theturtlemoves: I know right? Lewis wouldn’t crap on the modern Loony-Con movement if it were starving.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
@jake 4 that 1: Lewis wouldn’t crap on the modern Loony-Con movement if it were starving.
I reckon not. I haven’t been able to track it down, but I’m pretty sure there’s a Chick tract that says you should burn your C.S. Lewis books.
canuckistani
Man, why didn’t I meet cute proto-lawyers who wanted to work for the ACLU when I was 24? Life is wasted on these toads.
Cris
And this deflected awkwardness how?
eyeball
What this post is really saying is that wingnut welfare has been cut off, and now the suckling pigs of reaction are forced to fight for real jobs that don’t entail bolstering phony talking points and kissing the bush crowd’s asses. those jobs are … duh … hard to get when you have no skills.
but hey — there’s always the government dole!
Julian Sanchez
I noted this in a post on my own site, but found it a little weird that the article singles Will, Megan, and me out, given that we all pretty openly favored Obama over McCain. Hell, I was down at the White House on election night singing "Hey hey, goodbye" with everyone else.
John Cole
@Julian Sanchez: I never understand the point of these kinds of articles.
BTW- was there a crowd at the WH on election night?
Jason F
@brainpan aka headpan aka miss water whiskers:
I care, but mostly because I’m going to take this sentence fragment completely out of context and paint myself some mental pictures:
kuvasz
refering to brooks’ column, hayek was no conservative, e.g., see hayek’s essay, "why i am not a conservative"
http://www.geocities.com/ecocorner/intelarea/fah1.html
and the quoted trio of writers are not conservatives either, but they are reactionaries who don’t even know the difference.
Julian Sanchez
@John Cole: "Crowd" doesn’t quite capture it, but yes, yes indeed there was.
@kuvasz: I’m actually well aware that I’m not a conservative, FWIW.