Since the baby-boomer generation, it is typical and, in fact, expected, that young people are rebellious. Indeed, it would seem to be a part of the very nature of being young in America: usurp the authority that surrounds you and fight for your own unique place in this world. The generation that our fathers and mothers grew up in is not unlike our own. They listened to the Grateful Dead, Yes, The Who, Led Zeppelin and so on, and so do we. Except of course, we add to that list Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Phish and Outkast. Hatred on the level of paleo-conservativism (think Pat Buchanan and closing our borders to all foreigners and you’ll get the idea) scares us on a fundamental level. No one wants to be thought of as a racist, or as in any way being non-inclusive. Most people our age are very accepting of those who disagree with us, and want to hear the whole story before jumping to any conclusions.

But what does this say about young conservatives? If our generation is similar to that of our parents, why aren’t more of us out supporting Howard Dean or Dennis Kucinich as they did Eugene McCarthy? How can any self-respecting 18- to 22-year-old honestly believe Bush is a good leader and think that Noam Chomsky is annoying? Whenever any one group becomes too strong and too crazed in its beliefs, the young will slowly and surely rise up to bring everything back down to earth. And while right now it may seem like the only rising group of young people interested in politics are Deaniacs, it is only because they are the loudest. Young conservatives are on the rise, and our existence is not without precedence.

We are the new rebels, and it is the liberals who are the ‘status quo.’ Our fathers’ generation attempted to beat the forces that were in control at the time and build their vision of the world. But now they’re all grown up, and their children are faced with a choice: to follow in their footsteps and continue the revolution, or to start their own. The young liberals are those who are the followers, and it is us conservatives who are making new rallying calls, and fighting for our own say in a world built against us.

The young conservatives today are not the neo-conservatives of the ’80s, nor are we necessarily of any particular religion, background, or color. Society is witnessing the rise of the libertarian conservative: moderately liberal in many social regards, mostly conservative on most economic issues. College students who consider themselves conservative are, by and large, indistinguishable from their more liberal counterparts on the exterior. Many dress the same way, listen to the same music, like the same movies, and laugh at the same jokes. This writer, a self-professed conservative since the politics entered his consciousness early in high school, was not only a mosh pit participant at Warped Tour, but has dyed his hair red, loves Coldplay and Green Day, and thinks that people shouldn’t run other people’s lives. The biggest difference is in the books: D’Souza instead of Chomsky, Rand instead of Marx.

So what’s my point? It is that left-leaning politically active students are no longer at the forefront of a social movement. It is almost impossible to distinguish between most young liberals and conservatives merely by looking at their outer appearances. No longer does the music define the politics. No longer does the hairstyle define the social order. Instead, our differences lie mostly on ideological lines, and almost only on economic ones at that. Many of the major social issues that faced our nation throughout the ’60s and ’70s have been solved, at least on a de jure level. Race and gender equality are all but guaranteed from a legal standpoint. And while many will argue that at the de facto level there is still inequality, there are very few reasonable individuals who are filled with such hate toward those unlike them.

Instead, liberals are out there campaigning, as their mothers and fathers before them, to help save the environment. Help increase women’s working wages. Help increase the minimum wage. Ad nauseum. It’s all old news. Nothing has changed in their agenda, and most of their agenda no longer applies to the times. Instead, the new ideas are coming from conservatives. Privatize social security. Stop unfair affirmative action, not with the desire to hurt minorities, but rather to create a true sense of equitable achievement in either being accepted into a University or getting that high-paying job. These are not necessarily conservative values. Instead, they are, by their very nature, libertarian. And it is through this that the rise of the libertarian conservative is beginning, and it will not, like the rise of the radical leftists of the past, be social in nature. No longer are these social movements rebellious. The left controls the educational institutions, and conservatives must fight to make it less one-sided. The ideology creates the rebel. Right now, the rebellious students are libertarian conservatives, while the left is, like most hippies, getting old and tiresome. At the very least, the left has, and still does, make some great music, and for that, I’d like to thank them.

Zach Stern ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and economics.