Young Americans for Freedom

Young Americans for Freedom (or YAF) is a conservative youth group based in the United States of America. YAF was founded in 1960, and its greatest era in terms of numbers and influence was in the early 1960s. The organization continues to exist to this day.

Ideology

Since its founding, Young Americans for Freedom has continuously identified itself as "conservative". Indeed, the founders of YAF were among those who helped to define the modern meaning of this term in American politics.

Before World War II, most American conservatives were isolationist. But as the Cold War began to dominate American foreign policy, the old conservatism disintegrated. After Robert Taft was defeated for the Republican nomination in 1952, isolationist conservatism mostly vanished. In the 1950's, a new kind of "conservatism" arose. This new ideology was formulated primarily by the newspaper Human Events, the magazine National Review, and National Review's editor William F. Buckley, Jr. This new "conservatism" welded together three different strains: free-market economics, respect for traditional values and an orderly society, and anti-communism.

Young Americans for Freedom's founding statement of principles, the Sharon Statement, was written in September 1960 by M. Stanton Evans. Two years later, Tom Hayden's Port Huron Statement, the foundational document of Students for a Democratic Society, would become the unofficial "rebuttal" to the Sharon Statement. These two manifestos would frame the ideological struggles on American college campuses throughout the 1960s.

In the late 1960's, libertarianism began as a branch of the conservative movement. After 1969, the relationship between conservatives and libertarians was erratic. A majority of YAF members identified themselves simply as "conservative", but some identified as both "conservative" and "libertarian", and still others identified themselves simply as "libertarian". From time to time, power struggles broke out; when this happened, the libertarians almost always ended up losing.

In later years, new viewpoints would be amalgamated by the conservative movement, including neoconservatism in the early 1970's, the New Right in the late 1970's, and the Religious Right in the 1980's. Some YAF members identified with some of these philosophies, and others opposed them, and still others were content to simply identify themselves as "conservative" without further specificity.

History

In September 1960, Young Americans for Freedom was founded at a meeting held at Buckley's estate in Sharon, Connecticut. National Review publisher William A. Rusher and conservative fundraiser Marvin Liebman became the primary adult advisors to the group for the next decade.

YAF focused primarily on national and international politics, rather than on campus politics. YAF members were much more likely to pass out leaflets for a candidate for congress than for student body president.

The history of YAF can be broken into five periods.

National conservative activism, 1960-1965.

Beginning in 1960, YAF grew rapidly on college campuses. On March 7, 1962, a YAF-sponsored conservative rally filled Madison Square Garden in New York City.

In the 1960s, the Republican Party was divided between its conservative wing, led by Barry Goldwater, and its more liberal wing, led by Nelson Rockefeller. YAF members fell squarely on Goldwater's side. However, some YAF members had sympathy with the conservative Southern Democrats known as Dixiecrats, and thus from its inception YAF was deliberately non-partisan. By 1964, YAF was a major force in the campaign to draft Goldwater, and then after his nomination, to elect him President. Goldwater's massive defeat in the presidential election of 1964 demoralized many YAF members.

One major achievement of YAF during this period was their defeat of Firestone's plans to open a rubber plant in communist Romania. A large public-relations campaign by YAF, capped with a threat to spread "Boycott Firestone" leaflets at the Indianapolis 500, resulted in Firestone cancelling their Romanian plans in April 1965.

YAF faced opposition from far-right groups like George Lincoln Rockwell and his American Nazi Party because of the presence of Jews in YAF, and YAF's close relationship with Marvin Liebman. Most YAFers also kept their distance from segregationists such as George Wallace and conspiracy theorists such as the John Birch Society.

Reaction to radical activism, 1965-1971.

Liberalism and radicalism dominated campuses from the mid-1960s until the early 1970s, primarily as a result of the Vietnam War. During this era, YAF members felt outnumbered by the left on campuses, and spent their energy challenging and rebutting left-wing groups such as Students for a Democratic Society.

However, despite the stereotypes of "uncool conservatives" in later media depictions of this era, many male YAF members in 1970 had long hair and beards just like the left-leaning students.

YAF members tended to hold similar opinions to their older compatriots within the conservative movement, except on two major issues. A significant number of YAF members during this era supported legalization of marijuana and opposed the draft. YAF members vocally supported an aggressive policy of seeking victory in the Vietnam War, but opposed how the war was being conducted, such as the use of conscription and allowing the enemy sanctuary in the Laos, Cambodia and the north.

A smaller fraction of YAF members philosophically extended the traditional support of limited government in economic issues to social, and defense-related issues. This group came to be known as libertarians. This faction within YAF was expelled ("purged") following the tumultuous 1969 National YAF Convention. Members of this faction were among the founding members of the Libertarian Party in 1971.

The majority of YAF members during this era supported Ronald Reagan's successful bid for Governor of California in 1966, as well as his unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968.

Advocacy politics, 1971-1985.

In the 1970s, YAF became much older, demographically. Rather than stage campus demonstrations, they focused on influencing national politics by lobbying and occasionally by staging and publicizing small demonstrations. When the Nixon Administration enacted wage controls and price controls, abandoned the gold standard, and improved relations with Red China, YAF felt he was abandoning conservative principles. They publicly denounced the administration for these moves, becoming the first conservative organization to do so. They supported Reagan's almost-successful bid to win the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 and his victorious race for the presidency in 1980.

On college campuses YAF was a large political group, more conservative and less partisan than the College Republicans. YAF members were willing to oppose liberal Republicans and support conservative Democrats and third-party candidates. During many local and national races throughout this era, YAF members were divided about whether to support a moderately conservative "electable" candidate or to support a staunchly conservative long-shot candidate.

In 1980, Young Conservatives of Texas was formed by a group of YAF members in Texas that broke off to found their own organization. Since that time, YAF itself has never had a major presence in Texas itself.

By the 1980s, many of YAF's leaders were in their thirties and were long out of college. Some of them held positions in government while continuing to run YAF as a lobbying and fundraising group for conservative causes. This era ended with an unpleasant financial scandal which led to YAF losing most of its assets.

Campus activism, 1985-1990.

After the financial collapse, most of the older YAF members went on to other things. YAF became again dominated by a younger element. During this era, a new generation of liberal and radical activism was growing on college campuses, and YAF members began focusing on opposing these movements. This growth was strongest in California, where YAF members staged protests in favor of aid to the Nicaraguan Contras, in favor of Reagan's anti-communist policies, and in opposition to the United Nations.

At the same time, internal problems paralyzed the YAF hierarchy. The National Board was still controlled by lawyers and lobbyists who remembered the glory days of YAF fundraising in the early 1980s. The new activist element resented and distrusted this "old guard", and began to gradually whittle away at their power. In 1989 an alliance of Californian and New York activists ousted most of the "old guard" from the National Board. By 1991, the National Board of YAF contained a majority of Californians -- the first time a single state had had a majority in the governing council of YAF. However, this new regime found itself unable to effectively run YAF as a financial and organizational entity.

The strength of YAF activism was shattered by the Gulf War that begin in January 1991. Most YAF members considered President George H. W. Bush to be insufficiently conservative, and his rhetoric justifying the war ("a new world order") to be dangerously utopian. So when the anti-war protests in major American cities were confronted with even larger pro-war demonstrations, many YAF members were on the anti-war side (albeit for very different reasons than the left). This cut YAF off from the young demonstrators supporting the war, even though these people would normally have been a source of recruits for YAF's next generation of activism.

This disconnect, along with the organizational and financial problems that prevented any effective national mobiliatization of YAF, resulted in a rapid shrinkage of the organization in 1991.

Advocacy politics, 1991-present.

In the 1990s, YAF returned to national advocacy politics. The national office organized petition drives and staged a variety of P.R. events to promote the conservative viewpoint on a variety of public issues. Often these events would have an attention-grabbing theme such as "Pardon Oliver North!" or "Impeach Janet Reno!"

YAF continues to exist today on numerous college campuses and continues to advocate conservative issues. Its most recent activities have been demonstrations against affirmative action and left-wing campus speakers.

Lasting influence

Young Americans for Freedom's greatest direct influence was felt in the early 1960s. During that time, conservative activism on college campuses was actually greater than liberal activism.

Young Americans for Freedom's indirect influence is felt through the great numbers of conservative political figures who began their careers as members of YAF in college. These alumni include former National Chairman Robert Bauman (U.S. Congressman from Maryland, 1973-1981), former California Chairman Pat Nolan (Minority Leader in the California State Assembly during the 1980s), Dana Rohrabacher (U.S. Congressman from California, 1989-present), Dan Quayle (Vice President of the United States, 1989-1993), and a great number of other national and state politicians.

External links

• Young Americans for Freedom

Further reading

• Andrew, John A., III. The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press (1997), 286 pages, ISBN 0813524008 (paper). Covers the history of YAF from 1960 to 1964.

• Crawford, Alan. Thunder on the Right: The "New Right" and the Politics of Resentment. New York: Pantheon Books (1980), 381 pages, ISBN 039474862X (paper). A negative portrayal of 1970s and 1980s conservatism, including much material on YAF.

• Nash, George H. The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945. Wilmington, Delaware: Intercollegiate Studies Institute (1996), 467 pages, ISBN 1882926129 (hardcover). A history of the different strains of conservative ideology from 1945 until 1976, updated to 1996 in the second edition.

• Rusher, William A. The Rise of the Right. New York: National Review Books (1993), 261 pages, ISBN 0962784125 (paper). A history of American political conservatism from 1953 until 1981, updated to 1993 in the second edition. Includes much material on YAF.

• Schneider, Gregory L. Cadres for Conservatism: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of the Contemporary Right. New York: New York University Press (1999), 263 pages, ISBN 081478108X (hardcover). Covers the history of YAF from 1960 to 1985.