Lisa De Pasquale

Are the Grassroots Greener on the Other Side?
By Lisa De Pasquale
Human Events (Print Edition)
June 29, 2007

Last week’s Take Back America conference showcased the nuanced views of the political left.  From those that want to pullout of Iraq by the end of the week to those who want to pullout of Iraq by the end of the month.  From those who want a government-run health care system modeled after Canada’s to those who want it modeled after Cuba’s.  Billed as the “the premier conference of the year for progressives,” the Take Back America conference featured the major Democratic presidential nominees, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich.  Many reporters compared Take Back America to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the nation’s largest annual gather of conservatives.  CPAC 2007 also featured all but one of the Republican presidential candidates, as well as conservative authors, lawmakers, students and grassroots activists.

While there are some similarities between CPAC and Take Back America, their differences speak volumes about the future of conservatism and liberalism.  One panel at the Take Back America conference was titled, “The War of Ideas: How Conservatism Has Failed.”  Participants included Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood, Melody Barnes and Rick Perlstein of the Campaign for America’s Future (the main sponsor of the conference) and Harold Meyerson of The Washington Post.  Nathan Burchfiel of CNSNews.com reported, “Liberals who gathered for the fifth annual Take Back America conference in Washington, DC, on Monday declared conservatism to be in decline—even ‘on the way out,’ in the words of some movement leaders… ‘Conservatism will always fail,’ [panelist] Perlstein said, adding that the ideology's problems stem from its main tenet of smaller government.” 

If only all Republicans had that same “problem.”  In fact, Democrats gaining control in the 2006 mid-term election was due to many Republicans losing their way.  So-called “blue Democrats” criticized moderate Republicans for spending like Democrats.  Following their election victory, these Democrats voted in lock-step with Speaker Pelosi.  If liberalism was winning, Congress’s approval rating wouldn’t be lower than the President’s. 

Perlstein also said conservatism “is a movement about nothing, and I don't think it can succeed, and I implore the American people to turn their backs on it.”  Why all this imploring?  I thought conservatism was on the way out?  If one wanted to measure a movement’s future, surely they can do so by looking at the newly converted. 

At CPAC 2007, more than half of the 6,300 attendees were college students.  The Take Back America conference boasted that they had 3,000 attendees, but didn’t release an estimate on the number of students that attended.  In their straw poll, Politico.com reported that 24% of the 727 respondents said they were between the ages of 18-24.  In the CPAC 2007 straw poll, 62% of the 1,705 respondents were between the ages of 18-25, with more than 52% of the total respondents classifying themselves as students.  In addition to having a larger percentage of young people participating in the poll, CPAC 2007 attendees also participated in greater number than attendees of the Take Back America conference.  Even if liberalism was on the way in, it will only last as long as the graying hippies and bra-burners that made up the majority of their attendees.  Of course, that doesn’t mean we conservatives can rest.  A lot of damage can be done before their demise.

In addition to more diverse attendees, CPAC 2007 also had the Take Back America conference beat in diversity of cosponsoring organizations and speakers.  CPAC 2007 cosponsors included more than 10 organizations dedicated to reaching out and mentoring college students, think tanks like The Heritage Foundation and American Legislative Exchange Council, the Congress of Racial Equality and National Black Republican Association, the Libertarian Party and the New York State Conservative Party, totaling nearly 100 organizations.  Take Back America’s conference partners included 20 organizations, seven of which were labor unions.

Not surprisingly, the media covered the Take Back America with newspaper headlines written by self-esteem purveyors.  The Los Angeles Times headline read, “Candidates fuel hopes of party liberals; The Democratic left's power is in evidence as presidential contenders endorse its agenda.”  The Chicago Tribune giddily reported, “Liberals getting their groove back in Washington.”  Knight Ridder boasted, “Democrats pitch to liberals, who love their candidates.”  U.S. News & World Report states, “Liberal activists see 2008 as their year.”  However, the anti-war folks were out in force, booing when Senator Clinton or any other speaker drifted one iota from their anti-anti-terrorism ham-fisting.  But the media remained optimistic.  The Buffalo News reported, “Clinton gets fewer boos than this time last year.” 

In contrast, attendees at CPAC 2007 were respectful to all of the Republican candidates, including moderates like Rudy Giuliani.  While CPAC featured several debates with opposing views, Take Back America listed no debates on their agenda.

Following the Take Back America conference, Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, wrote, “We witnessed the gathering of a movement that has come into a sense of its own power… Progressives do so confident that the American people are moving our way.”  He concluded, “This is no longer a protest movement.”  They doth protest too much.

Finally, I can’t resist one last comparison.  They had Michael Moore.  We had Lou “The Hulk” Ferrigno.

Copyright © 2006 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved.

Miss De Pasquale is CPAC director at the American Conservative Union in Alexandria, Va.