The youth will decide whether CPAC provided a new breadth of life for the GOP or not. Youth will decide how progressivism is defined in American politics. Youth will lead the way forward.

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Having recently attended a youth leadership conference just over two weeks ago, I thought it worthwhile to take a look at some of the key speeches of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

CPAC was dominated by youth and it is my belief that the youth (college students) who attended the conference were most energized by Rush Limbaugh’s and Ron Paul’s speech.

It’s not that others were not good (and by good I mean they made conservatives feel secure in their conservatism), but for the most part, if you combine those two speeches, you can find the platform, the policies, and the values that the Republicans will be using to “take this country back” now.

The platform, policies, and values spoken about in the two speeches will be what create the ethos for youth who wish to lead the conservative movement into the future.

First off, the conservative movement should be thought of as more of an occupation than a movement. As Limbaugh claims in his “Address to the Nation,” factions within the “movement” are “seeking power to dominate it and worst of all redefine it.” He says, “Conservatism is what it is and it is forever.” That means it is not something you can bend, shape, flake or form.

If the premise for organization in the “movement” is that there’s “nothing stale about freedom” and “nothing stale about liberty”, the organization is not a movement no matter how strong. The movement is a guard, a guard seeking to withstand blows to a fort that many find to be sound and strong and that others find to be a house of cards.

To Limbaugh and his followers, the worst threat to conservatism is the fact that the party right now might be arguing over the way forward and worse, the ideology that the party will uphold when vying for election.

Limbaugh and conservatives have what progressives need --- a lexicon of buzzwords that can ensnare anybody who listens for a moment. Instantly, no matter where you are in Limbaugh’s speech, you can understand that he is seeking to appeal to your emotions and he is seeking to appeal to you based on his character. (Whether the emotions he is appealing to or his character is wrong is irrelevant.)

From the speech, one can pick up terms and phrases which are packaged and ready for any talk around the water cooler at work: “drive-by media”, “everybody to succeed”, “for country to succeed, individuals must succeed”, “producers” and “earners” (to characterize the most wealthy in America), “not about revenue generation, about control”, “we are Americans”, “Democrats seek failure of America”, etc.

I suppose the speech Limbaugh gave could be distilled and summed up with the many phrases that CNN chose to run in the lower left-hand corner of the screen under Limbaugh’s name as Rush Limbaugh spoke.

“Conservatives we love people. Our beliefs are core, are from our heart. We cringe to watch capitalism insulted. Liberals have 2 sets of rules: one for them, one for everybody else. We want the country to succeed. Conservatives want every American to be the best. Where is the compromise of all this spending? Stimulus package relies on the complacency of the American people. We got out of the recession (80s) with tax cuts. No reason to punish the wealthy. Capitalism: there will be unequal outcomes. Democrats have one responsibility: follow the Constitution. We conservatives can take our country back. Conservatives we don’t hate anybody. Pres. Obama wants people in fear and angst. We need conservative leadership. We conservatives are not quitting, we are not giving up.”

The conservative guard, not the conservative movement, is prepared to hold strong. The guard is prepared to convince Americans that the government wants them to think they are being discriminated and are not being allowed to live their lives as they please. And, the guard is prepared to make you treat the most wealthy in America with the utmost respect even as they get bailed out to supposedly increase the flow of credit in America and instead use it on corporate outings to the beach and office redecorations.

As misguided as one may think Limbaugh is, Limbaugh has the capacity, ability, and power to take the Democrats and the growing progressive movement on and win. So long as Rahm Emanuel and other Democrats will engage him, there is that small possibility that his views (which are a grandiose populist manifestation of what many Americans are thinking in their gut) win.

Americans know conservatism. Americans do not know progressivism.

They can define conservatism. Can they define progressivism?

Americans know Obama. Americans trust Obama. Do they know and trust progressivism?

Limbaugh's not pompous and not arrogant speech shows that progressives need to define their identity and develop a lexicon for discussing their message in public. That's how you sterilize the beast; halt their ability to make you sound foolish when you discuss what you believe in.

Limbaugh’s “address” picked at the seams of progressive and liberal ideology and values that Democrats and progressives and liberals seek to promote. What it did not do is fully assail Obama. Instead, it assailed the policies and principles that Obama seeks to uphold and impress upon the American people.

The address opened by making the point that conservatives are not racist because conservatives did not ask if Obama was authentically black while Democrats did. Limbaugh advanced the address into a chunk which explained that Obama has “extraordinary talents” and “communications skills” but that it breaks [Rush’s] heart that “these are not being used to motivate the American people to be the best they can be”; “he’s doing the opposite.”

Limbaugh explained, “President Obama has the ability to inspire excellence in people’s pursuits yet he is not.” And what’s worse is that he “speaks negatively of America.” He is constantly telling Americans that “tough times are ahead.”

Finally, Limbaugh hit the point that would likely be the subject of intense debate if brought up: President Obama wants to destroy our superpower status in the world. Out of fear and insecurity, what American wouldn’t worry about one day not being able to be number one in the world or the leader of the world?

What conservative wouldn't be right to defend America's right to be superpower? (Progressives need to dissect what this means when America's right to be a superpower is asserted.) 

The American narrative, the fight for the American Dream, the pageantry of American history---All of it is engrained into the minds of Americans as they go through school and Americans are taught that our history is more important than Native American history, African-American history, workers’ history, women’s history, and non-Anglo immigrants’ history.

As Rush Limbaugh said during his speech, don’t let Democrats make you feel guilty. Hang on to your optimism and confidence in America.

The philosophy conservatives have feeds into a perpetuation of American exceptionalism and an American economic system that is rife with problems. It asks those at the bottom to trust those at the top even when those at the top could care less what those at the bottom are doing.

So, what do progressives do? How do progressives do like Obama suggests and take this crisis and treat it like the opportunity it is? How do progressives heed the words spoken by Michael Eric Dyson at the State of the Black Union and make this more than just the first time an African-American has ever been president? (By the way, Limbaugh did not address the fact that Michael Steele, an African-American is now chairman of the GOP.)

Progressives must consider this line Limbaugh (and other conservatives) loves to feed to his audience:

“Take a look at all of the constituency groups that for fifty years have been depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives and you tell me if you find any. They’re still griping about their problems---their problems don’t get fixed by government. And, those lives have been poisoned. Those lives have been cut short by false promises from government representatives who say don’t worry we’ll take care of it for you. Just vote for us.”

During Rush Limbaugh’s address, he picked apart the word “community” in such a way that would make one remember the dark days when the shadows of McCarthyism hung over America. Do you want to live in a country where the use of the word “community” makes people think communists are going to take over America?

Conservatives wish to maintain a devotion to corporations, a devotion that progressives must challenge if the progressive movement wishes to grow and sustain itself as a powerful alternative to conservatism.

A Pew Values Study from August 2003 found that 57% disagreed with the idea that “business corporations generally strike a fair balance between making profits and serving the public interest.” Seventy-seven percent agreed “there is too much power concentrated in the hands of a few big companies” and 62% said “business corporations make too much profit.”

Do such results call for Americans to pull up an easy chair and wait for the market to fluctuate or does such an agenda suggest that people give government support (permission) necessary to employ measures to redistribute wealth?

Polls like these seem to portend an agenda yet progressives and especially elected Democrats are shy when it comes to advocating for policies and principles that would change people’s mindset on the economy.  [“Today it’s really true that the rich just get richer while the poor get poorer” (which 68% thought in this Pew Values Study from 2003) to the rich and poor both get a seat at the table.

Why shouldn’t government seek policies aimed at redistributing wealth when 65% agree “the government should guarantee every citizen enough to eat and a place to sleep”?

Certainly, if government were to employ policies that would redistribute wealth, taxes would be involved. But, if the system for taxes works fairly and if money is being used for policies and programs that the public at large supports, Republican cries against taxes are out of place.

Unfortunately, youth in high schools and colleges who lean toward conservatism are being indoctrinated with this idea that they will be hampered for their entire life by generational debt and that government entitlement programs should be handled by them personally (e.g. Social Security should be something not controlled by government and instead, something that is in personal accounts).

My economics teacher in high school tried to impress this idea on me. His argument didn't work because the basis for free market ideology didn't sit well with me; it seemed flawed and worth questioning.

Individual responsibility and American idealism through the Constitution and Declaration of Independence are powerful to any person aspiring to lead this country. As Donald Rumsfeld might say, individual responsibility and American ideas are “known knowns” while progressive virtues, values, and ideas remain “unknown unknowns” and are just now becoming “known unknowns.”

To keep hope and change alive, progressives must be risk-takers and must take the risk of defining themselves as something that is wholly new to the American people. 

Over half of CPAC’s 9,000 registrants were college students. They were told to bet Obama will fail and when he fails, they will provide an alternative to Obama.

At the People for the American Way's Young People For (YP4) conference I attended weeks ago, 150 young progressive leaders gathered to learn how they could give their passion for progressive values some direction so that social change could be achieved in communities all over America. Youth were empowered to act and given pathways for pursuing campaigns for local office.

At CPAC, (as this Newsweek article supports), youth were not given that empowerment despite the fact that youth are the only reason the Republican Party hasn’t totally collapsed. Youth came away thinking they are the next speechwriters, campaign staffers, and journalists for the conservative movement instead of the next candidates because the guard cannot allow youth to become a faction that overpowers the conservative movement.

The Democratic Leadership Council harbors this mentality too. But, youth are the way forward.

Youth didn't just come to Washington, D.C. this weekend for CPAC. Thousands of young people were also in D.C. for Power Shift 2009, a conference meant to bring “10,000 young people to Washington to hold our elected officials accountable for rebuilding our economy and reclaiming our future through bold climate and clean energy policy.”

On March 2nd, youth are going to engage in one of the most historic acts of civil disobedience ever at the coal-fired power plant that powers Congress and they are going to do it because they believe America's economy should be a clean energy economy.

The youth in America are heeding the words of Al Gore who said less than a year ago, "I can’t understand why there aren’t rings of young people blocking bulldozers and preventing them from constructing coal-fired power plants."

CPAC and Power Shift 2009 show that youth now hold the keys to the future of politics in America. They may have propelled Obama to victory, but it was not certain that youth would continue to be active politically.

Now, with optimism and confidence, I declare that conservatives and progressives must answer to youth. Youth will show Democrats how to define progressivism and youth will define America’s future.

Will America transform into a Limbaugh-Ron Paulian Republic or something radically different? The youth will decide.

Authors Bio:
Kevin Gosztola is managing editor of Shadowproof Press. He also produces and co-hosts the weekly podcast, "Unauthorized Disclosure." He was an editor for OpEdNews.com