Reason On the Air

Dan Koffler, Reason's Burton C. Gray memorial intern, will be a guest on WHYY's Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane tomorrow. Listeners in the Delaware Valley can hear Dan's mellow tones coming magically out of the airwaves, and the rest of us can tune in online, starting around 10am Eastern time. Topic for discussion: student attitudes on politics; Koffler will be in character as a "young politically active voter" discussing why "Issues are supplanting party affiliation as the new guiding force for the youth vote," and he'll be drawing talking points from his fascinating recent Dissent article that dissected the uselessness of the left, the hopelessness of the right, and the myth of student "apathy." Other panelists include John Della Volpe, who directs Harvard University's annual poll on student political attitudes, so you'll know Koffler's ahead when Della Volpe exclaims, "You, sir, have the boorish manners of Yalie!"

Comments

[Ruthless]

Ahh… we’re a voter, are we, Koffler? We can only hope our other inclinations make up for it, eh?

[dead_elvis]

My teaching assistant didn?t try to teach; instead, he picked up a copy of The Brothers Karamazov, which we were reading, waved it around, and began a tirade on literature and American politics.

Jesus, knowing how expensive that hour was, I’d ask for my money back. While the left would praise it and the right would lampoon it and decry it as bias, as a student I’d just think it was outright theft of tuition money. I’m dating myself, but in the first gulf war a university prof made some commentary the day after bombing started, but it was only a few sentences and then we went on with the class so I didn’t care.

It?s possible that a candidate who believed in right-libertarian principles of small government, low taxation, and the curtailment of the welfare state could win a majority of the youth vote.

And I’ve wondered why no one exploits this. A large number of people I knew in my college years and 20s described themselves as “socially liberal, economically conservative,” and yet I’ve been left wondering what happened to all those people; they certainly haven’t been voting Libertarian.

Or perhaps I’m suffering a severe case of “the other side couldn’t have won; everybody *I* know voted for…” Maybe I have to admit to myself that the people I happened to know in my 20s didn’t amount to a mound of shit in the general electorate.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Students are ignorant slime and should be regularly reminded of that fact.

[madpad]

And I’ve wondered why no one exploits this. A large number of people I knew in my college years and 20s described themselves as “socially liberal, economically conservative,” and yet I’ve been left wondering what happened to all those people; they certainly haven’t been voting Libertarian.

Someone did exploit it…Newt Gingrich in 1994. Unfortunately, the Republicans lied themselves out of the “Contract on (oops – ‘with’) America”, balooned the federal government and did exactly what moderate Republicans such as myself at the time feared they would do…become morality police.

Now they are just as abhorent and untrustworthy as the Dems are callow and cowardly.

McCain might still have something going for him (though I doubt it) but he’s far more conservative than most folks realize.

I’m now registered Independant. I’d vote Libertarian if the LP would stop stop nominating lunatics as presidential candidates.

It mystifies me that the LP just doesn’t get that I’m not the only person that feels that way. They had some fairly credible candidates slated for 2004 like Nolan and Russo and went, in the end, with Badnarik.

In the end, they’re going to have to realize the fact that presidential campaigns are, in the end, popularity contests and they’d better get someone a lot more compelling (and presidential) than Badnarik. His whole style radiated “small timer”.

In the end, I think we’re just going to have to wait until this current wave reaches leadership age and hope they don’t get corrupted along the way.

[smacky]

Students are ignorant slime and should be regularly reminded of that fact.

I am chagrined to realize that my high school algebra teacher is posting on H&R under the name Douglas Fletcher!

[B.P.]

What happened to those people? They grew up and had kids, and thus decided that the powers of the state need to be used to pad all of the unsafe corners of society for the protection of their precious spawn.