I think we'll see major differences between Gen Y and their elders, even among young conservatives --
Young Right Tries to Define Post-Buckley Future
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: July 17, 2004
In 1954, when he was 28, William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review to bear the standard of a fledgling conservative movement defined by three commitments: to fight Communism, to diminish the federal government and to uphold traditionalism in social affairs....
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Now, many conservatives say, the current Bush administration is testing that definition of conservatism as it has never been tested before, from the expansion of federal health and education programs to the campaign to remake Iraq. And as Mr. Buckley prepares for retirement by handing over control of National Review, a new generation of young would-be Buckleys is debating just what conservatism means when their side has taken over Washington, and yet they still do not feel that they have won....
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"We have a lot of conservatives who reflect the values of the mainstream culture," (says Austin Bramwell,26, chosen as one of five National Review trustees by Buckley). "There are polls that show younger-generation conservatives trust the government much more deeply than their parents did."
The increase in federal domestic spending under President Bush would have been "unimaginable" to conservatives a few years ago, he said, and so would foreign policies like the invasion of Iraq....
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....several conservatives, young and old, said the greatest division in the movement pitted young traditionalists against their more libertarian peers. David Weigel, 22, the former editor of a conservative magazine at Northwestern University, a contributor to the libertarian magazine Reason and an intern at the editorial page of USA Today, said that last spring his college paper had trouble finding any conservatives on campus who supported amending the constitution to ban same-sex marriage.... He contended that even young conservatives who maintained a strict moral code for themselves were increasingly reluctant to regulate the behavior of others....
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/17/arts/17CONS.final.html