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Yesterday I decided to look up my local young republicans group, to see if I could actually do something political instead of just talk about it online. This is in the U.S. of course.
I was quite surprised to find that, while there are ostensibly two groups operating in my area (a major metro in a purple state), there's basically nothing happening in either. One of the groups seems completely defunct, with a broken website. The other looked more 'official' and the site worked, but there was exactly... one event listed for all the rest of the next year: an awards dinner months out, that costs $75 for anyone who is not already a member to go to.
Nothing besides a basic google form with regards to contact, and no other events or opportunities listed whatsoever.
I talked to an AI about this, and apparently this is the norm? ChatGPT recommended I volunteer to canvas or whatever at the official GOP arm in my state, but I wanted to at least go to some sort of social event to start out. Again, nothing! All official meetings, no unofficial mixers or community building volunteering or anything.
Seriously, what is going on here? These are the most major political organizations in the country, and they're being run far worse than most local Effective Altruism groups. This just makes zero sense to me.
FWIW, I looked up the young democrats group in my area, and that seemed just as bad.
Am I missing something here? Is there a reason why these incredibly powerful, important political parties seem to have zero effort involved in actually getting young people to work for them? Seems like an incredibly massive self-own.
Even a highly motivated and intelligent young person will basically be at a loss as to what to do with their political energy. No wonder our generation is so politically blackpilled. No wonder everyone freaked out about Charlie Kirk's assassination!
Am I missing something, or are things really this bleak for political activism amongst the youth in the U.S.?
The US doesn’t really have a party system like other democracies. There is no Democratic or Republican Party as an actual organization with a Leader and a membership base that pays $100 a year to be a card-carrying Republican and a committee of leaders that picks all the candidates running for every seat. That’s in many ways a good thing, and the result of a popular vote based primary system with open party affiliation, but it also means that the parties are amorphous. Even the National Committees are weird quasi-governmental service operations that manage conventions and assist with fundraising and advertising, they’re not leadership bodies the same way most other countries’ political parties have them, and their managers are neither the leaders of the movement nor have any actual political power if the ‘party’ has a majority in both chambers and/or the presidency.
That context explains why grassroots politics in the US is mostly driven by organizations dedicated to specific policy goals like Pro Life or Pro Choice or anti-ICE or PETA or the NIMBYs or the YIMBYs by whatever name. Around election time huge PAC funding allows paid organizers to fund both volunteered and paid campaigns that operate the way that canvassers to in more traditional party systems, but the ‘social club’ style party all year, every year, is less of an American thing.
Good to know, I suppose I hadn’t ever looked into it before. I’m just sort of surprised there isn’t more of an effort to collect and groom young talent into future leaders.
Why do you think the current setup is a good thing?
There definitely is, it's just funneled through more focused advocacy organizations, especially on the right. For the Republicans, there are basically two funnels through which young talent is nurtured.
The first is college organizations, both official college republican groups and independent groups like TPUSA, YAL, and YAF. These organizations connect conservative students with politicians and conservative NGOs via internships and leadership retreats and eventual job placements. The right has an extremely well organized system of internships (often paid--almost unheard of on the left) that it uses to maintain a pipeline of well-educated staffers since it can't simply rely on the universities to do it for them the way the left can. Unfortunately, if you're no longer in school this route is mostly blocked to you.
The second is professional organizations like the Federalist Society, Chamber of Commerce, various industry-based groups, which will often have "young X" chapters and events. These are usually more focused around networking, local political organizing, and fundraising, and aren't as actively dedicated to grooming the next generation of leaders, but are generally the sort of place aspiring Republican politicians should go if they want to gain access the actual informal party apparatus.
Despite the recent political realignment of Republicans becoming the party of the working class, it's still very much the case that grass roots Republican politics is centered around the country club, not the local party HQ.
^ Seconded and endorsed.
While the organizational center may have moved from the country club to the local steak house or climbing gym, the organizational structure and underlying principles have not changed.
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