The long and divisive 2016 election cycle has left no part of the conservative movement unaffected – and young conservatives are no exception.
Where millennial conservatives would have otherwise been united – either due to shared values or shared opposition to the Left – the nomination and election of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has divided the movement.
The Trump question – whether or not to support and vote for him – caused many young conservatives to paint themselves in a corner; some deciding to side with the pro-Trump contingency of the Republican Party and others siding with the Never Trump movement, while at the same time, inadvertently alienating themselves from the side they did not choose.
This juxtaposition left young conservatives in a difficult place, as choosing one side estranged yourself from the other and choosing neither side left you isolated and out of the movement entirely, while as young people, many were desperate for political experience and could not afford to sit out the election.
Within that split-faction picture, an almost defining part of a person’s conservative ideology – whether pro-Trump, reluctantly-Trump or Never Trump – involved their opposition and demonization of the other side. Many young conservatives took this election cycle to question, judge and ridicule the decisions of their peers, without taking into the account the long-term impact of these negative actions.
Joshua Thifault, an outspoken young conservative and the Advancement Director for Turning Point USA, was a self-described “huge Rubio supporter.” Thifault switched his support to Trump after he realized Rubio could not win, citing a reality check and a claim that Trump was the route to stop the corruption in D.C.
“This election has fostered a nasty environment within the conservative movement, and I’ve received attacks from both Never Trump for supporting him and the pro-Trump for not supporting him enough or early enough,” said Thifault.
However, Thifault did add a positive note, “I’ve had prominent young conservatives on the Never Trump side privately speak to me and tell me they can’t wait till this election is over so we can become personal friends and professional allies again.”
Benji Backer, a freshmen at the University of Washington and a CNBC contributor, was a Scott Walker supporter and Never Trumper since the beginning, stating that he understood young conservatives voting for Trump to stop Hillary, but disagreed with their overall assessment of the election and the future.
Backer added that much of his concern regarding Trump had to do with the candidate’s impact on young people and how he could turn them away from conservatism, “hopefully the conservative movement can start a real effort to bring young people onto our team because right now the polls show that it’s just not happening.”
So how can young conservatives steer the movement away from this fierce division? Does the unification of the party rest on mutual opposition toward the Left or shared values and principles on the right?
The pro-Trump Thifault views the future of the movement as resting on both mutual opposition and similar values, “regardless of how the election goes, both sides need to come together and work to solve the ideological and real life issues on our side, as the alternative would mean allowing the Left to continue to win in politics and culture.”
Backer, who is Never Trump, shared almost the exact same sentiment as Thifault, saying, “all these conservatives who disagree on a presidential candidate agree on most of the down ballot candidates, our core values and our opposition of the Left, so we have to focus on what we agree on instead of continuing to tear the party apart.”
Adding, “we need to have both sides of the party, both pro-Trump and Never Trump, to come together and put our differences aside, move forward and work towards building our movement in the future.”
However, the aforementioned shared opposition goes deeper than simply opposition to the Democratic candidate this election cycle. Even with a Trump election, the Left still controls higher education, pop culture and much of the media, and young conservatives will have to unite against those forces.
Leftism on college campuses is an especially noteworthy point of unity for young conservatives – if they cannot come together to fight safe space culture, liberal indoctrination and violent SJWs, then the Left wins in the very communities these young conservatives live and learn in.
Young people reshaping the conservative movement to represent the values they believe in would be ideal, so as to create a stronger point of unity than simply opposition to the Left.
Danielle Butcher, a Future Female Leader staffer and a Never Trumper, believes bringing conservatives together and finding common ground on principles is the answer to the conservative movement’s problems, “we need to realize that other conservatives who support different candidates than we do aren’t making personal attacks against; we have to learn how to disagree without attacking each other and instead, focus on what we agree on.”
Butcher also worries that with the conclusion of the election, an even more divisive rift between young conservatives could happen: “I think there are going to be those people who get on their high horse and say ‘I told you so, I knew this would happen’ and I think it’ll be very tempting to resort to that and continue the fighting by blame shifting.” Adding, “we really need to avoid that, we’re all going to have to live with it, so we might as well focus on building a better GOP.”
Ariana Rowlands, the UC Irvine College Republicans President, originally supported Marco Rubio but shifted to Trump following the Florida primary, “I felt that electing Trump was the only way to keep conservatism alive for my generation, but that’s just my opinion and [Never Trumpers] have a different opinion and that’s fine – I don’t dislike them for it.”
Rowlands concluded with positivity toward the future of conservatism: “We have to focus on the future and look at the problems in the country and within the party, we have to come together and find solutions.”
“I want to work toward a great America like the ones our parents had the opportunity to live in – I’m more concerned with that than who we all voted for on November 8,” added Rowlands.
Electing Trump may prove ultimately insignificant for the movement as a whole, as conservatism will live on past the 2016 election and the young leaders now will shape that future. Liberty-loving Americans need to be especially concerned with unifying young conservatives, as they are the movement’s hope for a positive future beyond 2016.