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The Young Cons have been getting more attention recently. I must admit that I did not know who they were until Real Time With Bill Maher showed their rap performance on the Mike Huckabee Show. Obviously, they were the butt of a few of Maher's jokes. However, let's zoom out and take a wider view of things. They have been on Fox & Friends (the FoxNews morning show), the Mike Huckabee show (as mentioned previously), The O'Reilly Factor, a show called The Strategy Room (viewers were treated to an a Capella version this appearance) and on CNN Radio. Many of the pieces I read about them labeled them "an Internet sensation" although they have not reached the level of being used for a customized "Rick Roll."
The Young Cons are composed of two 20-year old members: Joshua "Stiltz" Riddle and David "Serious C" Rufful. Riddle's nickname, Stiltz, stems from his giant-like 6'9" frame and Rufful's nickname, Serious C, comes from his self-proclaimed status as a serious Christian and a serious conservative, according to the Young Cons' official website. Their hip-hop group is linked to a Facebook group that Riddle and Rufful administer called "Young Conservatives." There are 6,288 members in the group and, judging by the frequency of Ronald Reagan pictures and references on The Young Cons' site and in the Facebook group, they seem to think he was the greatest president in American history. I would say they worship Reagan but they make it very clear that they worship Jesus Christ.
The Young Cons espouse a philosophy that Jesus Christ, Ronald Reagan, and Martin Luther King Jr. are the rightful and foremost "flag-bearers of the true conservative movement." Not only do they have their official website and Facebook group, they are on MySpace Music, Twitter, YouTube and their song is available for purchase on ITunes for $0.99. I will share the lyrics of The Young Con Anthem here and the emphasis (bolding) as well as the numbering will be mine:
Serious C:
"Yo this ones for all the young conservatives.
Yo…. one time….
I rep the Northeast and I'm still a young con,
Let your voice release, you don't have to be obamatrons.
I debate any poser who don't shoot straight,
Government spending needs to deflate,
Your ideas are lightweight,
Ya careers in checkmate
I frustrate. I increase the pulse rate
I hate when,
government dictatin, makin, statements, bout how to be a merchant,
How to run a restaurant, how to lay the pavement
Bailout a business, but can't protect an infant
Deficiencies are blatant, young con treatment
I stand one man, outnumbered at my college
Thank you Miss Cali for reminding us of marriage
(1) Can't support abortion, and call yourself a Christian
I support life, you're a puzzled politician
Terrorists were imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay,
(2) Now they're in our neighborhoods, planning out doomsday
No such thing as utopia,
no government can control ya, baby ya,
Reap the benefits hard work, self reliant
Listen to Stiltz, my dude's a lyrical giant
Yo Stiltz… make it two time… please"
Stiltz:
"I'm 6′9 head and shoulder above the rest
Liberals playin checkers, I'm playin chess
My conservative view is drill baby drill
You can say you hate me but
I'm praying for you still
My dislike for thee most def is not hyperbole
Taxes are the subject and I will spit them verbally
I'm just livin life a conservative philosophy
Sorry Hilary not a right wing conspiracy
(3) We need more women with intellectual integrity
I'm talkin Megyn Kelly not Nancy Pelosi
My main motto is you best work hard
It's not the hand you were given, but how you lay down your cards
I don't speak lies but I spit the facts
28% the new capital gains tax
Porkulus bill lacks a few stats
The more money we spend, the more mine is worth Jack
(4) The Bible says we're a people under God,
Usin radar for radical Jihad
AIG was hooked up by Chris Dodd
A classy gift ain't an Ipod
The standards of my crew ain't republicans dude
(5) I'm reppin Jesus Christ and conservative views
Study history and true conservative moves
Every single time they refuse to lose
I'm starting to see a modern day Jimmy Carter
When really nothin but a Reagan era starter"
Serious C:
"Yo, We americans son
Hit ya with some knowledge
The movement has begun
Everyone can succeed
Because our soldiers bleed, for us
I said it in the verse,
now I'll say it in the chorus"
Stiltz:
"We young conservatives son
Hard work is our motto
The movement has begun
(6) EVERYONE can succeed cause our soldiers bleed, daily
My views are rock solid, no chance you can break me"
Serious C:
"Phase me, make me, into something that ain't me
Serious c… can't nobody shake me
great like the Gatsby, poppin posers like acne
Don't matter if your gay, straight, Christian or Muslim
There's one thing we all hate, called socialism.
It's loathsome, and America ain't the outcome,
Raise taxes on the people,
And you're gonna feel symptoms, problems
I gotta message for a young con:
superman that socialism,
waterboard that terrorism"
Stiltz:
"I fulfill the role that's inherently mine
Teaching politics through my rap and my rhyme
I'm signing off this track with a question in mind
How will this country get its precious change in time?
Three things taught me conservative love:
(7) Jesus, Ronald Reagan, plus Atlas Shrugged
Saving our nation from inflation devastation
On my hands and my knees praying for salvation"
Serious C:
"Yo, We americans son
Hit ya with some knowledge
The movement has begun
Everyone can succeed
Because our soldiers bleed, for us
I said it in the verse,
now I'll say it in the chorus"
Stiltz:
"We young conservatives son
Hard work is our motto
The movement has begun
EVERYONE can succeed cause our soldiers bleed, daily
My views are rock solid, no chance you can break me"
On Bold 1, I bolded to point out that they went back to the reliable political well of abortion. Though he flatly states you cannot be a Christian and be pro-choice, there's also quite an argument to be had whether that is the case since being pro-choice is simply the stance that women have a legal right to choose abortion. I won't get into that discussion here, however.
Bold 2 I found entertaining because it is factually inaccurate. We have gone to great lengths to avoid bringing anyone from Guantanamo to live in the United States even if the Pentagon has deemed them safe. Over a dozen Chinese Uighurs (Muslims from a province in in northwest China named Xinjiang) were judged to only be a threat to China and yet we had to settle them in Bermuda and Palau. Entertaining little ditty with no bearing on reality.
Bold 3 simply made me laugh out loud. Is there anyone, anywhere besides these two fellows that consider Megyn Kelly an intellectual? Nancy Pelosi is not one either, but they didn't claim she was.
Bold 4 struck me as interesting because the Bible says nothing about the United States whatsoever. It's actually The Pledge of Allegiance that says we're "one nation under God" and it didn't say that until Congress legislated it in 1954 to provide a stark contrast to the atheist Soviet Union. Perhaps they should read the Bible more frequently instead of simply "reppin for Jesus" when they rap.
Bold 5 is important because it says unequivocally that, in the Young Cons' minds, Christianity and politics are most certainly linked.
Bold 6 I found interesting because it is the same method that Republicans have been using since Jimmy Carter: wrap yourself in the flag and talk about soldiers dying to protect us while sending them to fight in God-awful, out of the way places we have no need to interfere in. 99% of Democrats respect and support our troops, but you wouldn't know that from listening to people like The Young Cons. Democrats hating our troops is the urban legend that just won't die.
Bold 7 shows the troika that The Young Cons and their supporters venerate: Jesus Christ, Ronald Reagan and Ayn Rand.
Jesus is good but, all too often, people that talk about following him are the least like Jesus in the bunch. Also, we have a little something in this country called the separation of church and state. The state shouldn't get much into the church's business and the church not much into the state's business. The Young Cons seem poised to advocate a rollback of such a policy as conservative heresy.
Reagan is acceptable, but they need to realize that they cannot carbon copy Reagan's policies from 1980 and paste them straight into today's environment. One simple example is taxes. When Reagan came into office, the top bracket income tax rate was 70%. By the time Reagan left office it was 28%, a full 42% lower. The highest that tax rates have been since Reagan left office was 39.6% under Bill Clinton from 1993-2000. Only two years out of Reagan's eight years was the tax rate lower than that highest rate post-Reagan. In 1987 the rate was 38.5% which was 1.1% lower than the Clinton high. In 1988, the top bracket tax rate was 28% and Reagan raised the tax rate on the bottom bracket 4% (from 11%-15%) to accommodate for the tax cut for the highest bracket. Today we sit with a top bracket tax rate of 35%, exactly half the rate as when Reagan rode the "lower taxes" campaign issue into the White House. (Source for all tax rates) Cutting taxes has ceased to make logical sense in today's world. In fact, obsession with this particular policy is one of the primary factors driving our government to borrow itself into oblivion. The government has certain responsibilities and one is defense, something that Reagan was also strong on. Giving the Pentagon the ability to stay on the cutting edge of military technology is not cheap and it is something I am in favor of. However, it is not something that we should be borrowing funds from China to finance. In fact, in a $1.25 trillion budget proposal for 2010 the Defense Department accounts for $671 billion of it. The Pentagon accounts for 53.57% of the entire federal budget. (Source for budget figures) Anyone that wants to cut taxes in this day and age is not checked into the Reality Inn.
Ayn Rand is, well, Ayn Rand. She is a cult political writer who inspires fierce loyalty among a small group of admirers. She came up a few months ago when some continually threatened they were "going Galt," which means to go off the grid and forget society.
Having read all of this about The Young Cons, the question is this: are they drawing young voters into the conservative movement or are they simply the butt of mediocre jokes?
