There is an interesting article over at American Thinker by Christopher Chantrill who argues that right now the next generation of conservative thinkers are just starting to emerge from their shells to change the world.

To understand the basic problem of the conservative movement you have only to read the Washington Times by Ralph Z. Hollow on the recent “third force” conservative summit summoned by conservative activist Paul M .Weyrich.

“‘We want to rebuild a conservative movement independent of the Republican Party and of George W. Bush - and to emphasize that it is a third force, not a third party,’ said Phyllis Schlafly, 82.”

“‘The Democrats own the liberals, and the Republicans own the conservatives,’ said Paul M. Weyrich, 64.”

“‘The modern conservative movement has always been a fusion of economic, national defense and religious conservatives…’ said David A. Keene, 62.”

Could there be a problem here? Might it have something to do with the age of the activists?

I don’t know if it is age or experience that seperates the current crop of conservative leaders from the young people they are trying to reach, but I think it might have something to do with the nature of conservative thought.

I know that I have hardly any intention of getting seriously invovled in politics as a career, and certainly wouldn’t think of doing so before I had a career elsewhere and an established family. Chantrill has another theory however:

Maybe it’s even time to skip a generation and go with a bunch of untried rookies. But what do rookies know?

According to Robert Stacy McCain, Luke Sheahan of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education was counseling conservative students recently on forming a conservative campus club. Why not call it a Hayek or a Friedman Society, Sheahan suggested. “The reaction? Blank stares. ‘They had no idea who they were,’ Mr. Sheahan said.”

Virtually everyone who writes on this blog is on the younger side of their 20s and would agree that our generation struggles with the classical aspects of conservative thought. What does this mean for the future?

We Americans have experience of this. In 1775 George Washington was an old man of 43 and John Adams was 40. But Thomas Jefferson was 32, James Madison was 24, and Alexander Hamilton was 20.

Fifty years ago, twenty-something Bill Buckley rashly started National Review. In 1973 Paul Weyrich became founding president the Heritage Foundation at the tender age of 30. Phyllis Schlafly was once a young activist and conservative ghost writer. That’s how today’s conservative movement first got traction: from reckless youngsters that didn’t know their place.

The emerging conservative movement of the twenty-first century is probably forming around us right now. Reckless twenty-somethings are thinking reckless thoughts and planning reckless deeds. Soon enough we’ll know all about them.