Young Americans despondent about the direction of the country can take solace in the path President Ronald Reagan blazed following the policy failures of the 1970s, former Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker says.
The high inflation and international chaos bedeviling America under now former President Joe Biden are reminiscent of the similar circumstances that prevailed under President Jimmy Carter nearly a half-century ago, Walker said in an interview with The Daily Signal.
But with the right leadership and policies in place, the two-term former Republican governor of the Badger State is confident America can find its way again in the 21st century just as it did in the 1980s when Reagan unleashed the American economy and rebuilt the U.S. military.
By becoming more acquainted with the ideas that Reagan brought into office, the former governor said, college-age students will be better positioned to assume leadership positions among their peers amid hostile environments within academia.
That’s where Young America’s Foundation, a nonprofit organization known for its student-oriented programming, comes into play, he said. YAF, as the group is widely known, gained media attention over the past few decades for bringing conservative speakers onto college campuses.
Walker, who served two terms as governor from 2011 to 2019, will mark his fourth anniversary as the foundation’s president on Saturday. In 2021, he succeeded Ron Robinson, who had served as YAF’s president for 43 years.
The Carter/Biden and Reagan/Trump Parallels
“Now, more than ever, when you look back at where we were under Carter and where we are under Biden, we have not just economic challenges, but global challenges like we did back then,” Walker said. “It’s important to let today’s young generation know that there are lessons in resiliency from the Reagan era. We overcame these challenges, and the key was strong conservative leadership. It wasn’t just his personality or that he was great communicator, it was because he communicated great ideas, and these ideas worked.”
Young America’s Foundation, headquartered in Reston, Virginia, merged in 2011 with Young Americans for Freedom, which was founded in 1960 at the Connecticut home of conservative commentator William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of National Review magazine.
YAF acquired Reagan’s rustic Rancho del Cielo near Santa Barbara, California, in 1998 and is in charge of its preservation. The group continued to expand its programming after acquiring the National Journalism Center in 2001, which runs training programs for aspiring journalists. The Reagan Ranch Center opened in Santa Barbara in 2006. More recently, YAF also took over Reagan’s boyhood home in Dixon, Illinois, in 2020 and operates regularly scheduled public tours.
Over the next few years, Walker expects to build on existing programs for college, high school, and even middle school students. One of his overarching goals is to develop a presence on every college campus throughout the country. YAF’s in-house legal team and outside allies such as Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, are integral to those efforts as they are constantly working to guarantee free speech rights.
“We like to say that if you’re under attack, YAF’s got your back,” Walker said. “I don’t just mean our students. We’re willing to go to bat for any conservative, right-of-center student on any campus in America.”
Free Speech for Campus Conservatives
The foundation’s attorneys typically find themselves dealing with cases involving efforts to deny conservative speakers access to campus. Those students who have encounters with campus administrators who are hostile toward their free speech rights have access to a “campus bias tip line” that YAF maintains to solicit specific information.
“What we often find when a student wants to bring a speaker to campus is that it don’t get denied outright, but they get what we call unrealistic barriers put in their way,” Walker said. “We simply shoot through these instead of immediately going to court action.”
The National Conservative Student Conference for college students, now entering its 47th year, also remains a major focus of the foundation. But Walker is also placing a strong emphasis on the high school and middle school programs held at the Reagan Ranch. Walker sees a “ripple effect” at work that benefits the conservative movement.
Since YAF’s high school program was initiated around the same time the foundation acquired the Reagan Ranch, it became the ideal setting for high school conferences, he explained. High school students also attend conferences in Washington, D.C., and in Dixon, Illinois.
“We also now have a middle school program,” Walker said. “But we treat it differently. We call it a middle school expedition and it’s a shorter program than what we have for high school and college. We require a family member, such as parents, or grandparents, to be with the students. It’s been very effective, since we’ve seen almost all the middle school kids come back for the high school program, and the high school program has really accelerated our work for the college program. We find that right out of the gate in their freshman year in college these students become leaders on their campus.”
YAF has been able to make significant inroads with younger Americans through its YouTube platform, which currently has about 8.1 million subscribers. Walker’s goal is to get the site up to somewhere around 5 billion views.
“The data shows that YouTube is still the No. 1 way to get information to younger audiences,” Walker said. “We need to have a really heavy presence on campus, and to push back against unfair rules and regulations.”
Victory Over Biden Admin on Title IX
YAF scored a significant victory against the Biden administration last year when it filed suit against the Department of Education over the administration’s rewrite of Title IX policies. Biden sought to allow biological males to use female restrooms and locker rooms based on “gender identity” and require the use of preferred pronouns. A federal court issued an injunction temporarily halting the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX policies in response to YAF’s litigation.
“The injunction was a good example of us helping beyond just our members,” Walker said. “The injunction provides relief from the rule to every student on any college or university campus in America where there’s at least one individual YAF member.”
On Jan. 9, a federal judge vacated the Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite in a ruling that applies nationwide. YAF hailed the court’s decision.
Walker also made the point that all students, from across the political spectrum, deserve access to free speech rights that should be vigorously defended. But in discussing some of the recent pro-Palestinian protests on college campus, Walker made it clear that protesters should not be permitted to jeopardize the safety of their fellow students.
“It’s fine to speak out,” he said. “But it’s not fine to threaten Jewish students, and it’s not fine to prevent students from going to class because they are Jewish. That’s not free speech. That’s harassment, and there are safety issues.”
In confronting campus unrest today, Walker once again points to the example set by Reagan, this time within the context of his disputes with Communist Party members in Hollywood. While leading the Screen Actors Guild in the 1940s and 1950s, and when testifying before Congress, Reagan did not object to people joining the Communist Party per se. But he did object to those people being funded by the Soviet Union without disclosing that support.
“Reagan was very strategic in how he did this,” Walker said. “You want to be careful about how you push back against communism, so you are not using communist tactics. Reagan was basically saying he does not think it’s a good idea to become communist, but if you’re paid by someone to do this, and if there is some foreign influence, we should know this. He was making a distinction.”
‘Obvious Style Differences,’ Convergence on Policies
Reagan’s clash with communists during his time as SAG president figures prominently in the recently released biographical film based on “The Crusader,” a book authored by Paul Kengor, a Grove City College professor.
Portions of the biopic, starring Dennis Quaid, were filmed at Rancho del Cielo.
Looking ahead to the next few four years, Walker sees an opportunity for President Donald Trump to make progress in areas where Reagan could not. While there are “obvious style differences” between the two presidents, he said, there is a certain convergence on matters of policy.
“On the economic side, both pushed tax cuts, and both pushed massive deregulation,” Walker said. “My great hope is that Trump can get more done in certain areas.”
The YAF president is enthused about the potential for Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency, also known as “DOGE.”
“It was amazing what Reagan could get done just having the Senate for six of eight years and never having the House,” Walker said. “There’s a potential for Trump to get even more done on the spending side. My advice to President Trump is: ‘Don’t stop.’”
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
