Right-Wingers Call in to C-SPAN Show on Youth Issues, Claim ‘Socialism’ Doesn’t Work

On Saturday morning, Campus Progress Communications Associate Sara Haile-Mariam was a guest on the popular C-SPAN show Washington Journal, where she talked about the recent Campus Progress National Conference, youth activism and issues that are important to our generation. She also responded to callers from across the country, many of whom had some, uh, shall we say, interesting, insights about young people and the state of the country.

What really struck me as I watched was the tone of the conservative callers. They were, for lack of a better word, pissed. My personal favorite was Jeff from Connecticut (doing my home state proud Jeff!) who was angry because young people don’t do anything and don’t fight in wars and also want to get an education. Also, Jeff was very adamant about reminding viewers that Communism is bad!

Jeff: First of all, you know, all of you young students it's great that you're progressive etcetera, etcetera -- but you don't do anything. You've never done anything. It's the older people that have fought the wars. Dig up the oil, dig the coal, brought in the technology, we're the ones that fought and died and you all sit on your campus while we pay for your education and you tell us what we're supposed to do with the world how 20, 15 million illegals are supposed to come here, you want to call them undocumented, I hang around with the Mexican people their wonderful people but you cannot bring in anybody ... You students think you have all the great ideas. You put Obama in there and he doesn't know anything. He's screwing up the country. He's screwing up the world. And you young people should at least pay close attention because communism, by the way, does not work. Socialism does not work. There will not be universal health care ... and it's the older people, the working people like me, who do the work ... and you don't do anything except sit there and yap and tell me what I'm supposed to do with my money

Sara, who is a better woman than I would have been in the situation, managed to shut down Jeff’s ignorant rant in a calm, composed way:

Sara: Jeff I'll actually tell you, I grew up in Connecticut so we have that in common, we might disagree on how to advance the country but we've got that. As for the points that you made ... I thank you and I respect you because you're right, a lot of what I'm able to do, just, in terms of the work that I'm doing in politics, is as a consequence of those who have come before me. I acknowledge that. I am grateful for that.

On the other hand I would take issue with some of the points that you raised. It is young people who are out there fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And so I not only do this work to talk about what this country should do on issues I do this work because when they come home they should be taken care of. It is young people who were pivotal in the Civil Rights Movement not just in terms of organizations in the South but even young people up North who took bus rides down south to register voters.

And so you've seen young people play a role in advancing our country in a progressive direction and just advancing our country period. I often think of something that Robert Kennedy once said "Our answer is the world's hope; it is to rely on youth." Now that doesn't in any way mean that we don't need the council and guidance of those who are older and wiser. I don't claim to have all the answers, but I do have a lot of questions and I'm going to ask those questions because fundamentally the decisions that are being made by this Congress, by this President, by those in power, are decisions that I'm going to have to live with and my generation is going to have to live with and so thank you for calling, I do appreciate your insights."

Maybe Jeff was having a bad day and decided to deal with it by calling into CSPAN at 8:30 on a Saturday morning, but as is often the case with right-wingers, it’s pretty apparent that his anger and frustration is symptom of something larger at play in the conservative movement: Anxiety about the fact that the country and the young people who are poised to become leaders – and already are in many ways – are decidedly more progressive than they have ever been, and show no signs of slowing down.

You can watch the entire video below, or clips from it on C-SPAN.

Katie is the Communications and Outreach Manager for Campus Progress.

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