Amanda Prevette

YWC's honorary chairman Tom Tancredo was the first speaker at the inaugural Tea Party Convention in Nashville just yesterday. As is expected, the usual types are up in arms about his comments on multiculturalism, immigration, and what would have happened if McCain had been elected.  Below is ABC's writeup of the speech:

The opening-night speaker at first ever National Tea Party Convention ripped into President Obama, Sen. John McCain and "the cult of multiculturalism," asserting that Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country."

The speaker, former Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., told about 600 delegates in a Nashville, Tenn., ballroom that in the 2008 election, America "put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."

Tancredo did not stop at the Democratic president -- ripping McCain, R-Ariz., the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, for shaping up to be a repeat of "Bush 1 and Bush 2."

"Thank God John McCain lost the election," he said, voicing his belief that McCain would have presided over big budgets and lacked a tough stand against immigration.

Tancredo served 10 years in the House of Representatives and made a name for himself with his ardent opposition to immigration. He believes the 2008 election served to galvanize the right.

"This is our country," he told the crowd. "Let's take it back."

Read the rest of the story here.

I was only able to find clips of the speech, but I will update the video once the whole thing is uploaded.

"You owe it to your philosophy to learn how to win."  This statement by Morton C. Blackwell, president of the Leadership Institute, rightly applies to the members of Youth for Western Civilization.

As part of our mission to "organize, educate, and train activists dedicated to the revival of Western Civilization", YWC sent representatives from Liberty University in Virginia, Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, Auburn University in Alabama, San Diego State University in California, and Washington State University in Washington, to the Youth Leadership School (YLS) in Arlington, Virginia on December 5-6.

During the two days of political "boot-camp," the YWC members were taught how to effectively recruit members, host activism events, garner publicity, and manage crisis situations.  During one of the YLS group activities, Daniel Ashwood, vice president of Liberty University YWC, proudly shared his group's "balloon poster" that took a stance against illegal immigration:

Paul Welch, president of Auburn University YWC, felt the experience was well worth the trip and the long, arduous hours.  He made it clear he gained valuable knowledge and left with enthusiasm to implement the techniques learned during the training:  “The Leadership Institute's Youth Leadership School provided me with essential training for launching a career in politics and effectively recruiting others to my student organization.  Since completing the training, I utilized the recruiting techniques and the membership of my chapter has doubled.”

Most importantly, over the course of the weekend the members of YWC built camaraderie with each other.  On Friday, the national YWC leadership held a social gathering for all the attendees.  Everyone took a trip to the nearby Iwo Jima Memorial and had the opportunity to meet YWC president and founder, Kevin DeAnna, vice president, Devin Saucier, and East Coast field director, Amanda Prevette.  The campus leaders shared battle stories, successes, and exchanged ideas for the coming new year.

After learning valuable techniques in political technology and forming lasting friendships, YWC members left Arlington with a renewed sense of purpose and guidance, ready for the battles ahead.

Former US Treasurer Bay Buchanan was invited by the University of North Carolina Youth for Western Civilization chapter to speak about the importance of free speech and the dangers illegal immigration pose on society.

The event had several officers on site to prevent outbursts similar to those at the Tom Tancredo speech in the spring. However this didn't keep Haley Koch, who was arrested for disorderly conduct after the Tancredo event, from holding a "performance" in the lobby before Bucahanan's speech.

The "performance" included two students pretending to beat Koch with a horse whip, chains and a paddle. She was then bound and gagged and then led into the auditorium for the speech where she stayed for half of the speech before walking out.

Buchanan's talk focused on the need to enforce existing immigration laws and on how our culture has become too politically correct. To many of the leftists in the audience, enforcing such laws is "racist" and "bigoted." They also found political correctness necessary so as not to "offend" anyone in our society. However, as Buchanan told the audience, “The word ‘offended’ is an active verb. It means you choose to be offended. So who are you to decide what I can and can’t say?”

A few protesters tried to distract Buchanan from her speech by shouting at her, but she did not acknowledge or respond to their childish tactics. Despite the few attention-seekers in the audience, Buchanan spoke for close to an hour before taking questions from the audience.

Overall the event was quite the success.