Social Issues Splitting Young Republicans From Their Elders

By JONATHAN MARTIN MARCH 10, 2014



From left, Nicholas Blincoe, Matthew Leahy and Elliott Brietta, college students from Arizona, talked with William Temple, a Tea Party supporter from Brunswick, Ga., at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday. CreditDrew Angerer for The New York Times


OXON HILL, Md. — It was difficult to miss Ian Jacobson at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Known as Rooster, he was 33, with an ample beard, earrings and a towering orange-and-aqua spiked Mohawk haircut. But he also sported a pinstriped suit, French cuffs and natty contrast collar.

Mr. Jacobson’s sartorial contradictions matched those of his politics: he is among the young Republicans who is pro-free market on fiscal issues and libertarian on social ones. While his views represent a potential growth wing for a party that is losing among other demographic groups, they also show an emerging tension with the older social conservatives at the core of the party’s base.


“I want us to return to our roots,” Mr. Jacobson said while attending the conference over the weekend. A self-described “libertarian-leaning Republican” from San Antonio, he sketched out his ideal political party as one that freed individuals to chart their own course in their personal and professional lives.

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Ian Jacobson, 33, known as Rooster, is among the young Republicans who is pro-free market on fiscal issues and libertarian on social ones.CreditDrew Angerer for The New York Times

He had a ready assessment of his party’s opposition to same-sex marriage and legalization of marijuana. “It’s ridiculous, it’s time-consuming and it’s taking focus away from where it should be — on economic issues.” While much attention has been devoted to the split between the establishment and the Tea Party, the growing divide along generational lines among Republicans could cause a significant a rift.


Younger conservatives are more firmly staking out a libertarian orientation on social issues in a way that will shape the 2016 presidential primary as candidates seek to appeal to activists who are in the party because of social issues and also to younger voters who see some aspects of cultural conservatism as intolerant.


That young people, regardless of party, prefer a live-and-let-live approach on social issues is nothing new. In 2012, President Obama defeated Mitt Romney by 23 points among 18-to-29-year-olds in part because of the president’s more liberal cultural views. But what is increasingly alarming to some cultural conservatives is that it is not just young Democrats who share those views — and that this youthful libertarianism is not fading when the Republicans of tomorrow graduate from college.


In a recent New York Times/CBS News poll, 56 percent of Republicans under age 45 indicated support for same-sex marriage rights compared with just 29 percent among older Republicans. That split was on display at CPAC, an annual conclave of some of the party’s most conservative activists. The split did not take place among the high-profile presidential candidates, who largely avoided divisive social issues or mentioned them only to praise their party’s big-tent tolerance, but the conversation was easy to find elsewhere.


“This is the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” Alexander McCobin, 27, the head of a libertarian student group, said about same-sex marriage during a panel titled “Can Libertarians and Social Conservatives Ever Get Along?” Mr. McCobin’s statement elicited both applause and a smattering of groans.


“I think it was very much a generational difference, too,” he said later, adding a warning to Republicans: “They need to start embracing libertarian issues or it’s going to start really hurting them in elections.”


He said it was time for social conservatives to recognize a shifting society. “People can be socially conservative in their private activities without trying to impose their views on other people,” said Mr. McCobin, who leads “Students for Liberty.”


What is striking is that even some young social conservatives, who do not want their party to abandon its platform on culture, say Republicans would de-emphasize those issues. Anna Page, 19, a Wellesley freshman attending CPAC, said support for same-sex marriage was now a matter of “pure statistics” among millennials. “If the party wants to move forward and appeal to our generation they have to appeal to the majority to succeed,” Ms. Page said.

Zach Pohl, an Ohio State junior who was strolling through CPAC wearing a Russian-style winter hat with “OBAMA” and the Soviet hammer-and-sickle emblazoned on it, said he was not really moved by the same-sex marriage issue. “Religiously, I don’t agree with it, but at the same time I don’t really care,” Mr. Pohl said.


Leading social conservatives worry about the rise of libertarianism or apathy on social issues in the ranks of young Republicans. Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, a cultural conservative, acknowledged that libertarian social views were no longer confined to free-spirited college Republicans, but were taking root among conservatives in their 30s and 40s.


Mr. Santorum said that when he speaks to youthful audiences he gets feedback after his remarks about how they had not previously heard his case about the importance of cultural conservatism as it relates to the centrality of the family. “They don’t hear it from pop culture, they don’t hear it from the media, they don’t hear it from anybody unless they’re going to church and even in church now they’re not hearing it in a lot of churches,” said the once and perhaps future presidential candidate. “So when you’re only hearing one side of the argument it’s pretty easy to be convinced.”


Mr. Santorum, though, said Republicans should not abandon their social conservative base, but rather should take a lesson from Pope Francis. “Young people love him, right?” Mr. Santorum said. “Has he changed his position on marriage, has he changed his position on life? No. A lot of this about is what we’re for, not what we’re against.”


While views on same-sex marriage highlight an obvious division in the party, there is also a widening generational gap when it comes to marijuana. Half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents under 45 support legalizing the drug, while two-thirds of Republicans over 45 oppose making pot legal, according to the Times/CBS News poll.


“People view it as a waste of government resources,” explained Gabriel Sachs, 19 and a Purdue University sophomore, about keeping marijuana outlawed. “We’re sending people to jail for this drug that doesn’t really hurt anyone.”


Mr. Sachs’s profile illustrates the new Republican vanguard: he supported Mitt Romney for president and likes his party’s stance on the minimum wage and taxes, but he also is exasperated at Indiana legislators for trying to enact a ban on same-sex marriage. He is also active in his campus’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.


“The older folks have their beliefs and I think it’s kind of ingrained in the party, but I think as more young Republicans come out and vote, hopefully the tide changes,” he said in a recent interview on campus.


There is no division, however, on the issue of abortion, with young and old opposed in almost equal numbers. Still, younger Republicans are more willing to support a candidate who does not share their position on abortion than those over 45, according to the poll.


Rachel Dobi, 21, a junior at Geneva College, a Christian school in western Pennsylvania, described herself as “very” conservative on cultural issues. But she urged Republicans to focus on areas with broader appeal to young voters.


“There’s more to the Republican Party than gay marriage,” she said.

“We’re also about, ‘Hey do you want a job after graduation?’ ”


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/11/us...ders.html?_r=0