Origins of the Young Americans for Freedom
The Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), a national organization for conservative youth, was founded in 1960, the same year as its more famous rival, the Students for a Democratic Society. Although it was the young left that dictated the terms of this decade, rebelling against their parent's consumerism, dodging the draft and embracing a laxer culture in regards to sex and drugs, it was the young conservatives in YAF who saw themselves as the true rebels of this period. Despite the fact that YAF was ignored in most histories written about the conservative movement and histories written about the 1960s, it remains a microphone for young conservatives to amplify and unite their voices in 2012.
In September of 1960, on the William F. Buckley family estate in Sharon, Connecticut, over 100 delegates, representing 44 colleges and universities from 24 states, met to seek ways and means of mobilizing the growing Conservative sentiment among America's youth toward political education and action. [1] The result was the Young Americans for Freedom, officially chartered on September 11, 1960 by the adoption of the Sharon Statement at the conference. It was in the Sharon statement that YAF explicated its critique of American society and proclaimed, "In this time of moral and political crisis, it is the responsibility of the youth of America to affirm certain eternal truths." [2] These eternal truths ranged from embracing ideals of economic freedom, rugged individualism, small government and most importantly, anti-communism which became the New Right's platform.
Above all, YAF appealed to young conservatives by creating a sense of community. This was the time of John F. Kennedy and Camelot idealism, which many young Americans embraced whole-heartedly. He was known as the "Young People's President," but what about those young people who did not see their dreams and ambitions for the United States embodied in him?Inclusion of Women
The task before them was to build up their numbers drastically so the media, other young conservatives, and politicians on the left and right would take note. The way they did this was to welcome everyone who embraced the principles of the Sharon Statement to their organization, including women. While Carol Dawson was the lone female elected to the twelve-person board of directors in 1960, which remained male dominated throughout the sixties, there was not a sense of overt exclusion. In fact, most women felt welcomed with open arms and many became chapter leaders on their campuses.
Overwhelmingly, women said they felt a similar sentiment, that "When you're a minority movement like that, you appreciate everyone who comes in. So it doesn't matter whether they're male or female, white, black, yellow, red, whatever," [3] as stated by YAFer Dawne Winter. YAF needed people, and so women did not feel relegated to the back, however women did not have equal representation on the advisory board. Additionally, in spite of the fact that young women and activism in politics was not a widely accepted notion, parents supported their daughters' decision to join the Young Americans for Freedom. Unlike women on the left, conservative women preached and embraced 1950's ideals and sexual mores. Since they did not attempt to overthrow the status quo, but simply encouraged more people to embrace it, parents proudly supported their daughters' and sons' decision to join YAF.
However, there were still issues, not about inclusion, but about the propriety of single women participating in national and local politics. Marilyn Manion addressed this issue in her article for the YAF monthly magazine The New Guard. Entitled "Politics and the Single Girl," cleverly modeled off the groundbreaking book Sex and the Single Girl, by Helen Gurley Brown, published in 1962, Manion confronted problems of mothers campaigning and women in charge all within a conservative mindset. While women in SDS wanted equal representation in leadership, Manion argued that, "if a woman [was] smart, [they could] go right ahead and run things as long as [they] let the men think they are running them" asserting that this was "one of the first things [women] should learn." [4] Her argument underlined what would become one popular critique of the women's movement from a conservative perspective, which advocated that women already held the power in their relationships with men. Manion also promoted the image of young women as activists. Assuaging fears that young conservative women might have about diving into this "dirty" world, Manion wrote, "But even the most diehard anti-women factions get slightly maudlin when a young, single girl enters the picture. We look so harmless." [5] She advocated using their femininity to disarm critics because nobody [expected them] to be interested in anything as dry as politics. [6] However this only worked if you had a certain look, the look of a clean-cut, fresh-faced American girl. What she wrote about was the ideal image of a conservative young woman.Miss YAF
The ideal image was not only cultivated in articles like Manion's, but also in a spotlight section on young, female YAFers starting in 1967 called "Miss YAF." Lauren Christie Lighbourn typified this image in her spotlight in 1968. The article opened with her musings on politics, about which she said, "I think conservatism affords the best outlet for individual expression and development…and besides, most leftists are really ungroovy." [7] Also included was a list of her hobbies and activities in YAF, which included helping to found her campus chapter. The article ended with an anecdote that exemplified Manion's earlier assertion that young females seemed harmless to the outside observer. It told the story of Lauren winning the title of "Miss Simi Valley" and welcoming then Governor Edmund Brown to the Valley. Because of her long blonde hair, no one noticed the "Reagan for Governor" buttons holding up her "Miss Simi Valley" ribbon. [8] Miss YAF offered a dual appeal to both young men and women. It cultivated the image of a homemaker, picturing Lauren holding a jar of Knotts Berry Farm Jam, fully clothed, but still traditionally appealing and attractive. Miss YAF showed young men that this was the type of woman attracted to the Young Americans for Freedom and it told young women that this was the type of woman they could be in YAF and maybe eventually have their own spotlight in The New Guard. Aside from highlighting attractiveness, the spotlight also told women that they too could become leaders in the organization contrary to the popular belief that young, white men dominated YAF. Though an outside viewer could view "Miss YAF" as objectification, insiders saw that this spotlight was meant to celebrate the active conservative women involved in the organization. Miss YAF also added a touch of glamour to the image of a conservative woman, when the idea of "glamour" was still synonymous with Jackie Kennedy and the idea of a conservative woman was associated with stodginess. Earlier in the decade, while Jackie Kennedy resided in the White House, The New Guard warned against the pervasiveness of liberal bias, even in fashion magazines. The author forewarned that though fashion magazines did try to educate its readers in topics ranging from poetry to science, the emphasis [was] on Youth, and as [was] to be expected, the Liberal line and its accretive image wind[ed] its way through the layout. [9] Magazines did this by praising Jackie Kennedy as a real role model for young women "at last" and referred to the latest fashions as "frontier" evoking JFK's New Frontier and implying that only liberals were in vogue. Young conservative women did not see Jackie Kennedy as representative of them or their values and turned to YAF not only for the politics but to find conservative role models like the female authors writing for The New Guard.Presidential Politics
YAF's national network entered the world of electoral politics in 1963, gearing up for the 1964 election. Thus began a campaign on the part of the Young Americans for Freedom to "draft" Senator Barry Goldwater to run against Kennedy for President of the United States. Robert Bauman, National Chair, urged YAFers to convince Senator Barry Goldwater that the people of American want him to run for President in 1964, [10] by joining the "Draft Goldwater Committee," an ad hoc group, as well as attend the "Draft Goldwater Rally" on Independence Day in Washington, D.C. Their goal was to transform the Republican Party into a vehicle for conservatism [11] and Goldwater was the bridge to accomplish this plan. The New Guard endorsed Goldwater in 1963 and YAF launched an aggressive plan to see him win the GOP's nomination which included the Washington report sent to New Guard's readership, campaign materials service, a designated hot line to collaborate political action and informational aid for organizing and fundraising as well as moving their headquarters to Washington, D.C. The central message propagated by YAF throughout the year was that Barry Goldwater could do more for conservatism than any other potential Republican candidate. [12] The election of 1964 was the culmination of four years of effort. Goldwater received the Republican Party's nomination and with it, YAF and conservatives received the stamp of approval from their Republican peers that they desired for years. Eyes turned to young conservatives for the first time and Goldwater gave YAF full credence for his decision to run when he said, "these young people are interested in conservatism and I felt that if I didn't make myself available they might become discouraged." [13] Ironic that Goldwater said this about deciding to run because after his loss in the general election, mainstream media felt that young conservatism was "dead." However, mainstream media and society underestimated the young people who joined the Young Americans for Freedom.YAF built its movement in the 1960's, gained electoral ground in the 1970's, and finally took the White House in the 1980's with the election of Ronald Reagan.
Notes
[1] Young Americans for Freedom, Inc. The First Ten Months, pg 1. 1961
[2] Sharon Statement, The First Ten Months, Addendum A
[3] Klatch, Rebecca E. A Generation Divided: the New Left, the New Right, and the 1960s. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1999.
[4] Manion, Marilyn. "Politics And the Single Girl." The New Guard. May 1964. YAF Archive, Washington, D.C.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] The New Guard. "January 1968: Miss YAF." January 1968, 23.YAF Archive, Washington, D.C.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Foster, Elizabeth. "What the Well-dressed Girl Should Think." The New Guard. January 1962. YAF Archive, Washington, D.C.
[10] The New Guard. June 1963. YAF Archive, Washington, D.C.
[11] Andrew, John A. The Other Side of the Sixties: Young Americans for Freedom and the Rise of Conservative Politics. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1997.
[12] Ibid, 173.
[13] Ibid, 179.
