There is a new group throwing its hat in the "reform the conservative movement" ring. They are called the Young Conservatives Coalition and they want to raise up a new generation of conservative leaders. Here is a snippet of how they describe themselves:
The YCC is an advocacy organization dedicated to leading the next generation of the conservative movement by organizing and mobilizing young professional conservatives across the country. The coalition seeks to answer two questions: 1.) What does it mean to be a conservative in the year 2009? and 2.) Who will lead the next generation of the conservative movement?
Those are certainly relevant and important questions but with so many new groups popping up it can be hard to tell the genuinely worthwhile organizations from the hopelessly inept fad movements. So which one will the Young Conservatives Coalition turn out to be?
One positive thing that is different about YCC is that it is focusing on the conservative movement. There have been several groups started out there that are focusing on the Republican party and getting it up to speed. For my money, though, the GOP really can't do well unless conservatives are hitting all their marks by speaking to relevant issues in a popular and effective manner.
Looking over the YCC leadership roster, I am feeling better about this since they have quite an impressive list, including NB executive editor Matthew Sheffield.
If you're a conservative and you watch the YCC video embeded above or read the platform they have posted on their site chances are you'll be impressed. However, it's one thing to put your principles down on paper or produce a video outlining them and a whole other thing to act them out in an influential and meaningful way. Now that YCC has successfully done the former we will see if they can deliever on the latter.
In any case, I'd say the YCC is worth checking out. For all of you who are going to be at CPAC this Friday and Saturday make sure you stop by the two events that YCC is hosting. The first is a “Rebuilding the Movement” brainstorming session on Fri, Feb 27th from 10-11am in the Palladian Ballroom and the second is the 5th Annual Reaganpalooza Young Professional Networking Event on Sat, Feb 28th from 8:30pm-3:00am at the Hawk & Dove bar/restaurant in DC. I plan on attending both.
