The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and the Claremont Institute, an organization focusing on America’s founding principles, hosted an all-day symposium Tuesday with speakers discussing how America’s early ideas can be applied today.
Featured speakers Jonah Goldberg, a contributing editor to National Review and author of the bestseller “Liberal Fascism,” and Hugh Hewitt, a nationally syndicated radio talk show host, spoke to a largely adult crowd of over a hundred.
Speakers discussed issues of social security, the right to bear arms, judicial power, the free market and more, all drawing on the values of the founding fathers and how those concepts are relevant to current public policy.
Spencer Anderson, research operations manager of the Heritage Foundation, said he hopes that this event will be the first of many on other college campuses across the country every year.
Spencer said he wanted attendees to walk away with more information about early American ideas.
“We are trying to re-instill those ideas, especially in the college audience,” Anderson said.
Some students groups, including the Bruin Republicans, helped to promote the event beforehand to students.
David Lazar, chairman of Bruin Republicans, said he hoped students took advantage of this opportunity to hear a side of current issues that is not very popular at UCLA.
“(They discussed) interesting perspectives on issues and some history on the topics,” said Lazar. “I think it is a great opportunity to see a point of view that isn’t often part of the discussion here.”
There were also faculty speakers from the UCLA School of Law, Claremont McKenna College, Chapman University and Pepperdine University, and representatives from the Heritage Foundation.
Many of the speakers addressed the need to reach out to a younger generation to ensure that the ideals of the founding fathers live on in policy today.
Though the UCLA student population is largely liberal, Anderson said he hoped to reach out to the younger generation of moderate and conservative students.
“It has been tough to reach out to students,” Anderson said. “We are facing an uphill battle, but we had one-third of the RSVPs from students.”
Tiffany Del Rio, a forth-year political science student, heard about the symposium through her involvement in the Young America’s Foundation, an organization for conservative youth, and came to get more information about the opinions of these organizations.
Charles Kesler, a fellow at the Claremont Institute, was a part of one of the panels and said he was very concerned about the state of higher education today. However, he said he was hopeful that students could get a proper education about conservative ideals and America’s founding principles outside the classroom, because he felt they were only getting a liberal side of the story at school in their textbooks and from professors.
“There is no hope for education, which is corrupt and foregone, but when you look at the best-selling history books today, they are about the founding fathers,” Kesler said.