Introduction
 "At Mory's, a private Yalie watering hole on campus... the tall, gangly Pierson Pachyderm they called 'Grufus'...would raise the chalice and intone: 'I am going to be the governor of New York state one day.' Everyone would laugh and razz George Elmer Pataki and try to make the mailman's son from Peekskill spill the...Cup, which according to protocol would make Pataki the buyer of the next round."  "Among the leaders of the Union, the Conservatives tend to predominate. Bill Buckley and Brent Bozell will be among the most famous, but scarcely among the only...alumni who will lead the great crusade of American reaction." |
The Conservative Party, the nation's foremost collegiate philosophical debating society, stands alone among Yale institutions. It is a haven for those who believe that ideas have consequences, and that the best of what has been thought and said by man deserves rigorous exploration. Our members come from all over the conventional political spectrum, but are united by a devotion to the production of principled and profound leaders. The formation of such individuals can only be fostered in the crucible formed by openly advancing one's views against the views of others—within the Party, the University, and the canon. In this spirit the Party holds events each day which are designed to investigate every facet of philosophy and the human condition, culminating in the weekly Debate Caucus, which is structured in a traditional parliamentary format derived from the House of Lords. Other events of the Conservative Party include the Sir Thomas More Lectures, where an academic subject of interest is discussed over lunch each Friday at Mory's Temple Bar; the Allan Bloom Forum, a series of speaking engagements in which distinguished scholars and commentators from around the world reflect on current philosophical and cultural questions; High Table in Berkeley College, where friends of the Party informally gather for dinner from Monday to Thursday; and Toasting Sessions at Mory's Temple Bar, where much tradition ensues. Graduates of the Party are never forgotten. Each summer, the Party holds its Hamptons Retreat, hosted by a Party alumnus on the southeastern shore of Long Island. Members and alumni reunite each November at the boisterous Yale-Harvard Debate, held on the eve of The Game. The Party hosts an Alumni Banquet each May, at which Party veterans reaching back to the Thirties reminisce about old times and new. There are two things in particular which members find most irreplaceable about their experience in the Conservative Party: the depth of friendship found in its halls, bound by the trials of moral introspection and philosophical examination; and the depth of worldview which necessarily follows from a shared aspiration to restore statesmanship and honor to public life. |