By By Emily Cummins, Assistant News Editor
Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist for The New York Times, gave a lecture at Monroe Hall last Wednesday, on the future of conservatism. This lecture was the second event of the University’s Define ’09 segment. He is the youngest regular Op-Ed writer in the history of The New York Times, a former editor of The Atlantic and co-author of Grand New Party. Political commentator David Brooks has lauded his book as, “the best single roadmap of where the Republican Party should and is likely to head.”
The discussion was in a question and answer format lead by a University political science professor; Douthat responded to questions on the evolution of both journalism and conservatism. In regard to being the youngest columnist for The New York Times and on top of that a conservative, he said, “I see my youth and inexperience as an asset.”
He believes that there is a quiet desperation that newspapers are facing in these hard times and this decline of print media and rise of internet media, has changed the procedure in rise of one’s career. “The rise of blogging, for better or worse, makes young people more known for their opinions.”
He then continued with his definition of conservatism, which differs from the mainstream conception of it. “It is the defense of institutions that make the United States unique,” he explained. He gave the example that the United States is traditionally a pro market society and conservatism is the protection of such ideals. He then elaborated on this explaining that conservatism is the minority party now because they confuse policy and principle.
“They are struggling to adapt to the new problems by proposing old solutions… just being able to run against Obama years down the road does not absolve conservatives of not being able to address issues now,” he said.
He believes that conservatives are losing ground because they are not focusing on that the concerns of the American people. Douthat then laid out his proposition for conservatism in the future.
“You cannot rebuild the Republican party of just upper and working class whites… Democrats look like the party of 2040, while Republicans look like the party of 1980,” he said. He stressed that young voters are not only concerned with the image, but also with the message. “Young people do not yet feel the burden of conservative issues… the only issues that young voters are conservative on are abortion and social security,” he said.
Douthat concluded with his thought that “so much depends on whether or not this (Obama’s presidency) goes good or bad.”
Freshman Jenny Hart gave her response to the event and said, “this was my first Define ’09 lecture and I was really happy to see that the school got a conservative to speak when it is known that we have a very liberal campus.”