McCain lost the youth vote in Virginia . . . again.
If something is not done about this, the future of Reagan Republicans will be bleak. Young Evangelicals and traditional religious are the future of the party . . . and they are not listening to the party or the normal engines of conservative education.
We need a think tank that is not based in Washington, which actively courts Evangelical young talent, understands the South and West, and can help the future of the party get along with other parts of the party. Otherwise pundits fears will be self-fulfilling prophecies.
We need a group that is not part of a religious ghetto (an “Evangelical” National Review), but one where the voices of Evangelicals and Southern thinkers represent (at least roughly) their electoral influence in the party.
If that is not possible immediately, then at least it should be true in internships.
There are a few conservative writers that sympathize with Evangelicals at mainstream conservative organizations, but far too few that are Evangelicals. This feeds the mistaken notion in the grass roots that there job is to vote as they are told or to the (worse) view that their Roman Catholic fellows are wanted as the Brains (and Muscle) while they provide one of the most reliable pool of Muscle. Their ideas, values, and assumptions are not wanted unless carefully controlled.
This may be false, but an apparent lack of young Evangelical voices on the right encourages the worst impulses of the community, as the perception of under representation does in any community.
This perception helps maintain the very sectarian and ghetto mentality that could be ended, but will not be by sneers or condescension from outsiders. In the future, Evangelicals, Southern people, and Western conservatives of faith need a more prominent place.
