Abbreviation | YAF |
---|---|
Formation | 1969 |
Type | Youth organization |
Legal status | 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization |
Purpose | Conservative activism |
Headquarters | 11480 Commerce Park Drive, Sixth Floor, Reston, VA 20191 |
Region served | United States |
President | Scott Walker |
Affiliations |
|
Budget | Revenue: $33,050,410 Expenses: $26,250,582 (FYE December 2019) [1] |
Website | yaf |
This article is part of a series on |
Conservatism in the United States |
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Young America's Foundation (YAF) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit conservative youth organization founded in 1969. In 2018, the Los Angeles Times called YAF "one of the most preeminent, influential and controversial forces in the nation's conservative youth movement." [2] Scott Walker, former governor of Wisconsin and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, became President of YAF on February 1, 2021.
Notable alumni members include Jeff Sessions and Stephen Miller. [3]
Young America's Foundation held the first National Conservative Student Conference in 1979. [4] [5] It is a co-founder of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference and has been a prominent supporter of the event since then. [6]
In 1998, it purchased the Reagan Ranch, "Rancho del Cielo", near Santa Barbara, California, with the help of a $10 million endowment from Amway billionaires Richard and Helen DeVos. [3] [7] Donations, including $200,000 from orthodontist Dr Robert Ruhe, allowed YAF redeem the mortgage on the Reagan Ranch early. [8] YAF president Ron Robinson said YAF's goal was to preserve both Reagan's legacy and the ranch itself and that it would maintain the facilities as they existed when the Reagans lived there. [7] [9]
According to Time magazine, by 2004, there were no left-wing youth organizations as powerful as The Young America's Foundation (YAF), The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) and The Leadership Institute. [10] The Time article noted that in surveys of incoming college students by the American Council on Education, a "majority of 2003 freshmen – 53% – wanted affirmative action abolished, compared with only 43% of all adults. Two-thirds of freshmen favored abortion rights in 1992; only 55% did so in last year's survey. Support for gun control has slipped in recent years among the young, and last year 53% of students believed that 'wealthy people should pay a larger share of taxes than they do now,' compared with 72% 11 years earlier". [10] The New York Times cited more polling in 2005 to describe American college students' "renewed shift pronouncedly to the right on many defining issues", a movement it said was "fueled and often financed by an array of conservative interest groups" including Americans for Freedom, Young America's Foundation, the Leadership Institute, the Collegiate Network, and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. [11]
By 2017, YAF had 250 high school and college affiliates known as Young Americans for Freedom, which was originally a separate organization. [3]
In July 2019, it was announced that former Governor of Wisconsin Scott Walker would become YAF's president in 2021. [12]
In November 2019, YAF cut ties with a long-time featured speaker, Michelle Malkin, who voiced her support for alt-right activist Nick Fuentes. [13]
YAF's stated mission is "ensuring that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values." [14]
YAF is a member of the advisory board of Project 2025, [15] a collection of conservative and right-wing policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States federal government and consolidate executive power should the Republican nominee win the 2024 presidential election. [16]
YAF has twice sued the Know Your Enemy podcast charging trademark infringement due to a satirical labeling of a membership tier on Patreon as "Young Americans for Freedom". [17]
Young America's Foundation is a tax-exempt educational foundation. The Foundation's programs include lectures on college and high school campuses, conferences throughout the United States, and campus activism initiatives. These programs are broadcast on C-SPAN. Young America's Foundation also preserves the Ronald Reagan Ranch and his Boyhood Home, runs the National Journalism Center (NJC), and oversees Young Americans for Freedom.
The National Journalism Center which was founded in 1977 by M. Stanton Evans, [18] : 489–98 is currently a project of Young America's Foundation that places college students and recent graduates at media organizations in the Washington, D.C. area. [19] Notable alumni include Ann Coulter, Tim Carney, and Malcolm Gladwell. [20] [21]
On March 16, 2011, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) passed a National Board Resolution which resulted in the merger of two organizations[ specify ] into the Young America's Foundation on April 1, 2011. [22] YAF was founded on September 11, 1960, [23] at the family home of William F. Buckley in Sharon, Connecticut. [24] The charter for the Young Americans for Freedom, written by M. Stanton Evans, the Sharon Statement, [25] : 21 was described by K.E.Grubbs in 2010 as "the late 20th century's single most elegant distillation of conservative principles". [26] The Heritage Foundation described the Sharon Statement as "a succinct summary of the central ideas of modern American conservatism". [27] [28]
Donors include Pat Sajak and Amway billionaires Richard and Helen DeVos. [3] Robert Ruhe (1929–2013), an orthodontist in California, was the single largest donor of the YAF, with his legacy estate gift of $16 million. This resulted in a doubling of YAF's programming, which includes campus speeches. [8] During his lifetime he and his wife donated generously to YAF, particularly in terms of paying off the mortgage of the Reagan Ranch. [8]
New Right is a term for various right-wing political groups or policies in different countries during different periods. One prominent usage was to describe the emergence of certain Eastern European parties after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the United States, the Second New Right campaigned against abortion, LGBT civil rights, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), the Panama Canal Treaty, affirmative action, and most forms of taxation.
Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) is a conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960 as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians on American college campuses. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and the chapter affiliate of Young America's Foundation. The purposes of YAF are to advocate public policies consistent with the Sharon Statement, which was adopted by young conservatives at a meeting at the home of William F. Buckley in Sharon, Connecticut, on September 11, 1960.
The American Conservative Union (ACU) is an American political organization that advocates for conservative policies, ranks politicians based on their level of conservatism, and organizes the Conservative Political Action Conference. Founded on December 18, 1964, it calls itself the oldest ongoing conservative lobbying organization in the U.S. The ACU is concerned with issues such as personal liberty or freedom, and traditional values, which they define as foundations of conservatism.
Peter Franz Schweizer is an American political consultant and writer. He is the president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), senior editor-at-large of far-right media organization Breitbart News, and a former fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution.
The Sharon Statement is the founding statement of principles for Young Americans for Freedom. The views expressed in the statement, while not considered "traditional conservative principles" at the time, played a significant role in influencing Republican leaders in the 1980s. Written by M. Stanton Evans and adopted on September 11, 1960, the statement is named for the location of the inaugural meeting of Young Americans for Freedom, held at William F. Buckley, Jr.'s childhood home in Sharon, Connecticut.
Rancho del Cielo is a ranch located atop the Santa Ynez Mountain range northwest of Santa Barbara, California. For more than 20 years, it was the vacation home of Ronald and Nancy Reagan.
Richard Art Viguerie is an American conservative figure, pioneer of political direct mail and writer on politics. He is the current chairman of ConservativeHQ.com.
World Freedom Day is a United States federal observance declared by then-President George W. Bush to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe. It started in 2001 and is celebrated on November 9.
David Arthur Keene is an American political consultant, former presidential advisor, and newspaper editor, formerly the Opinion Editor of The Washington Times. He was chair of the American Conservative Union from 1984 to 2011. Keene was the president of the National Rifle Association of America for the traditional two one-year terms from 2011 to 2013.
In American politics, fusionism is the philosophical and political combination or "fusion" of traditionalist and social conservatism with political and economic right-libertarianism. Fusionism combines "free markets, social conservatism, and a hawkish foreign policy". The philosophy is most closely associated with Frank Meyer.
Libertarian conservatism, also referred to as conservative libertarianism and, more rarely, conservatarianism, is a political and social philosophy that combines conservatism and libertarianism, representing the libertarian wing of conservatism and vice versa.
Lee Willard Edwards is an American academic and author, currently a fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He is a historian of the conservative movement in the United States.
Liberty International is a non-profit, libertarian educational and networking organization based in Dallas, Texas. It encourages activism in libertarian and individual rights areas through the 'freely chosen strategies' of its members. Its history dates back to 1969 as the Society for Individual Liberty, founded by Don Ernsberger and Dave Walter. The previous name (ISIL) was adopted in 1989 after a merger with Libertarian International was coordinated by Vincent Miller, who became president of the new organization.
Medford Stanton Evans, better known as M. Stanton Evans, was an American journalist, author and educator. He was the author of eight books, including Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies (2007). he died of cancer on March 3 2015 at Virginia at age 80.
Donald A. Feder is a media consultant and free-lance writer. He is also World Congress of Families Communications Director. Feder operates Don Feder Associates, a right-wing communications firm.
The Future of Freedom Conference is regarded as the first explicitly libertarian conference series ever held in the United States. Debuting in 1969, the conference's keynote speaker was Austrian economist Prof. Ludwig von Mises.
The Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI) is a nonprofit educational organization that promotes conservative thought on college campuses. It was founded in 1953 by Frank Chodorov with William F. Buckley Jr. as its first president. It sponsors lectures and debates on college campuses, publishes books and journals, provides funding and editorial assistance to a network of conservative and libertarian college newspapers, and finances graduate fellowships.
Phillip Abbott Luce was an American author, lecturer and political organizer who had earlier taken leadership roles in communist organizations, mostly the pro-Red Chinese Progress Labor Movement (PLM), only to repudiate them by early 1965. He was indicted in 1963 as one of the main leaders and spokesman for an unauthorized trip to communist Cuba that arranged an audience with Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. He was later acquitted in a 1967 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which ruled that "Crimes are not to be created by inference." After his split from PLM, Luce became a leading campus activist in the conservative Young Americans for Freedom (YAF), gravitating towards libertarianism by 1970, speaking at the "Left-Right Festival of Liberation" conference in 1970, later known as part of the libertarian Future of Freedom Conference series.
Alliance of Libertarian Activists (ALA) was a libertarian student organization primarily located in the San Francisco Bay area, mostly active at University of California, Berkeley, established in 1965–1966, and considered the first campus group to adopt the term “libertarian.” ALA gained members from both the purged Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) Moïse Tshombe chapter and the Cal Conservatives for Political Action (CCPA) at UC Berkeley, which was a continuation of the 1964 Cal Students for Goldwater, both founded and first chaired by Dan Rosenthal.
The California Libertarian Alliance (CLA), a political advocacy organization, was founded in 1969. It was spearheaded by Dana Rohrabacher, Shawn Steel and supported by John Schurman, Dennis Turner, Ron Kimberling, Alan Bock, Gene Berkman, and other followers of the Libertarian Caucus after the defections and expulsions of radical libertarians resulting from the 1969 Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) convention in St. Louis, Missouri. Centered in Los Angeles, the CLA claimed to have over 1,000 members by 1970. Other sources put CLA membership at “more than twelve hundred members” by the end of 1969.
The Sharon Statement would last as the late 20th century's single most elegant distillation of conservative principles
This statement of principles denies the basic premises of Progressivism and liberalism...the concerns for liberty remain the same over the centuries.,