The Kids Aren't Alright...
...and unless there is a radical sea change in politics, the country won't be either
Earlier this month, the Young Republican National Convention took place in Dallas. There was an election for officers, and the mainstream Republican ticket easily defeated a MAGA-based nationalist ticket.
This has a lot to do with why:
I made my way over to a group of Young Republicans who were aware that I was a journalist. NYYRC Vice President Nathan Berger walked up to us, and aggressively asked who I was and why I was there. At that moment, I couldn’t place his face, though I was pretty sure he was a member of NYYRC.
“Do you know Gavin Wax? I’m a journalist, and I write about him,” I said, then told Berger he looked familiar. He assured me that I didn’t. Someone asked what club he was from, and when he said New York, one gestured to me and said that he must know who I was.
Berger snapped that he did not know me, then immediately announced that I had just written a piece for The Nation, and everyone should read it.
“Sounds like you know who she is!” someone replied to Berger.
Uncomfortable with Berger’s temper and bizarre confrontation style, we made our way downstairs, where we ran into Wax and Hall. Wax began yelling at the person next to me, screaming that I was antifa and demanding to know why he was talking to me. This was a Young Republican event, he said, and I was not a Republican. “Did you know that she’s antifa?” he asked.
The YR being yelled at told Wax that he didn’t know who he was, but his angry, loud demeanor did not make him seem particularly credible. Wax announced that I was secretly recording everything everyone said to me, and it dawned on me that I probably should record this interaction. When I pulled out my phone, Hall pointed out what I was doing.
“Yeah, I know that she’s recording,” Wax replied. “And I love that you admitted that you committed multiple felonies in Florida.”
When I countered that the places were public—or at least not venues where you’d have an expectation of privacy—Wax smirked. “OK, you can argue that in court. I cannot wait for the arrest warrants.” He turned back to the YR who was talking to me. “But anyway! Good luck, she’s recording everything you’re doing, and have the best time here.”
While Wax was happy to cause a scene, most of the YRs just avoided me, though a few were willing to talk. Wax is brash and aggressive on Twitter, and he will leverage his followers against outspoken YRs whom he considers RINOs. At YRNC, that brutish, Trumpian approach to politics was not the norm. Multiple people who heard Wax confront me apologized for his behavior later.
Now the barbarians in the New York Young Republican Club are not representative of most Young Republicans, even of the small nationalist wing of the organization. But it does show the problematic future for political society.
For years, most antisocial behavior occurred by young activists on the political left. From the anti-globalist Battle of Seattle, to Portland, to environmental terrorism, it was always leftists who acted like they could not function in a polite society.
Now, thanks to Donald Trump and his boorish behavior, that behavior is becoming more prevalent among young activists on the nominal right.1
The ringleader of this goon squad is Gavin Wax, the President of the New York Young Republican Club. Professionally, he is Executive Director of the National Constitutional Law Union, an outfit set up by the Proud Boys lawyer. He has also been a speaker at CPAC Hungary, among other organizations of the far right. It’s as if the NYYRC takes their boorish, anti-social behavior with him.
Wax, of course, is merely a thinner, less rich, less famous clone of Donald Trump without even Trump’s limited resume of success. The New York Young Republican Club does little when it comes to even minor tasks in attempting to win elections. Arguably, they do more harm to New York Republicans than good.
Meanwhile, though, the club does bring it an entire universe of far-right, universally reviled speakers that their trollish base gets off on rubbing elbows with.
While Wax is the most publicly boorish and the NYYRC is the most obnoxious as a unit, they are far from the only examples of this in the modern “conservative” movement.”2 Modern “conservatism” has devolved from a movement that attempts to win elections and a movement that has serious conversations about policy issues to a movement of acting like an asshole both in person and online, as evidenced in the example above. Oh, and personal fealty to their personal Godking, Donald Trump
The issue here is not their seemingly near-erotic fascination with Donald Trump. It’s not even about their politics, which I find completely un-American. It’s about how the young activists of the GOP are virtually indistinguishable from the young activists on the left, both in attitude, temperament, and behavior. And the young activists now will become the older, more “party elder” activists later. And that means not only will today’s young boorish activists become tomorrow’s old boorish activists, it means that they will pass on their boorish behavior to the next generation of political activists.
Those political activists will become tomorrow’s candidates. Tomorrow’s elected officials. And gone will be the actual effective elected officials who can accomplish things and the world will be full of more Paul Gosars, more Louie Gohmerts, more Matt Gaetzs, more AOCs, more Nina Turners.
That’s not a world where anything gets done. It’s a world of chaos.3
Right now, the kids aren’t alright. And unless a radical sea change in politics sweeps Trumpism and far-right leftism out to see, our country will continue to not be alright either.
Nominal right because as we know Trumpism is left-wing statism
Ibid.
Anarcho-Libertarians want to know where they can sign up for this