Right-wingers say the darndest things.

The folks over at Love Global Warming — no joke, that's the name of the blog — are bent on revealing the truth about Young People For and other "so-called environmentalist organizations that prey on young people all over the free world."

Apparently YP4 is a "communist front [organization] whose only reason for existence is to trick the youth of America into throwing out our way of life and adopting communist ideologies."

Oh May--Month of flowers, couples holding hands to make you feel bad about yourself, and of course the usual craziness on campus.

Liberal indoctrination, gun bans and “pro-homosexual clubs”... it’s another Right Wing Watch on Campus round-up!

But first: What do you do when Ann Coulter comes to your campus? 2008 fellow Betsy Ott at Northern Michigan University organized a Truth Rally with the Progressive Student Roundtable “to promote diversity, tolerance [and] acceptance.”

Read on for more.

Daily Kos had a post yesterday describing an unsettling move by folks on the far-right to reassert themselves on a campus only now starting to recover from its history as a right-wing institution. The jist:

One of the reasons I was so fortunate to have been able to attend Take Back America was that I got the opportunity to hear the perspectives of a number of people in the organized labor movement. Despite my fairly progressive upbringing, this was a constituency that I rarely heard from. I didn't grow up in a union household, nor did I know anyone who did. In fact, I daresay the sizable majority of my generation had little familial exposure to the labor movement.

       Many student groups at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio were outraged when they heard that ultra-conservative Ann Coulter was coming to speak on September 6th. Inspired by this upcoming visit, student groups formed a coalition with organizations including People for the American Way, Equality Ohio, Progress Ohio, HRC and NOW-Cincinnati to counter Ann Coulter's $20,000 speaking fee and raise some money of their own to support the student groups on campus working to uphold the many values Coulter is famous for assaulting.

Yup, they are at it again...

Last week, the Michigan Daily  reported College Republican plans for yet another "Catch and Illegal Immigrant Day".  The organizer of the events is a young woman named Morgan Wilkins.  For more background check out Daily Kos.

While Republicans have since condemned the event, it seems that the right-wing campus organization Young Americans for Freedom has "stepped up" to organize the event.

Has everyone read the 2006 report, "A Gift to Democrats: How Democracts Can Win Elections by Making Young People a Top Priority?"? If not, you need to.

We all know the right wing has been focused on the development and cultivation of young people for decades, and that progressives have been behind the curve. The right wing spent nearly $50 million last year on nonpartisan, nonpolitical activities, cultivating its young people - and $200 million over the last four years. People like Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff, and Grover Norquist have emerged from those efforts.  

Even though the right-wing's efforts are tremendous (and changing the face of our public, nonprofit and ideas sectors), young people are the only age group who turned out for the progressive candidate (Kerry) in 2004. We're 60-70 million strong and we're the most diverse generation ever in America.

The report makes clear what a lot of other data also point to:  Young people are a potent political force, and politicians ignore young people at their peril.  What it comes down to is that without young people, you can't win.  The millennial generation is as large as the baby boom generation, and millenials tend to be more politically aware and engaged than their predecessors.  We also tend to be more progressive than the population as a whole.  Listen up everyone: The better that we are at incorporating young people into the progressive movement, the more effective the progressive movement will be.