The modern conservative movement began after William F. Buckley Jr. chronicled perceived left-leaning biases at Yale in 1951, where he attended as an undergraduate. He published a book called “God and Man at Yale,” which accused the school of being anti-Christian and preaching “collectivism.”
But Campus Reform updated the strategy for the internet era, and others followed. A similar website, The College Fix, started around the same time. A much larger group, Turning Point USA, started a watch list of professors it deemed purveyors of “leftist propaganda” and launched Charlie Kirk to conservative stardom.
“When we started,” said John J. Miller, the founder of The College Fix, “we didn’t feel like we had a ton of competition.”
Campus Reform “mainstreamed the strategy” of using anecdote to craft a narrative of higher education, said Isaac Kamola, a Trinity College political science professor who has studied the group.
“In the last few years, especially after the Black Lives Matter protests, that’s been taken up by lots of organizations,” he added.