AALARM, which takes a strong anti-abortion and anti-gay rights stand, has sparked a national movement of its own. AALARM National currently has 35 chapters nationwide.

"People are becoming conservative because more and more every day they are seeing the traditions that they were raised with sloughed off," says Wasinger, explaining his group's popularity. "They don't want to see their morals sacrificed to the liberal whims of a vocal minority on the national level."

Wasinger claims that AALARM's extreme views have encouraged many moderates to become more conservative.

"AALARM has pushed the boundaries on the right side far enough out so that people in the middle can move to the right without fear of being ostracized by the community at large," he says.

But Wasinger insists that AALARM's main goal is not to ease the stigma for moderate conservatives but rather to pursue its own extreme agenda.

"If we can make people move to the right, then we have triumphed," says Wasinger. "If we can make them believe what we believe, then we have triumphed even more."

In the past, AALARM has been criticized for its strong but allegedly simplistic views, the brash manners of its leaders and its sometimes zealous--some say offensive--strategy.

"They don't expand on their ideas enough," says Emil Michael '94, president of the Harvard Republican Club. "They say something without defending themselves."

Even Peninsula leaders concede that AALARM has erred at times. "Firm convictions. Good intentions. Sometimes they make mistakes," says Mc-Donald.

While AALARM leaders dismissed accusations of having superficial positions, McDonald says it is an inevitable and unfortunate characteristic of a club whose primary focus is challenging a purported liberal majority.

And while AALARM acts as an activist group generating publicity for the new conservative agenda, Peninsula says it develops reasoned arguments to support AALARM.

"They are the phalanx of the conservative movement," says Roger J. Landry '92, a Peninsula council member and co-founder. "We would be the philosophical command central."

The Other Side of the Right

While AALARM and Peninsula are roughly on the same ideological wavelength, more moderate--and older--conservative groups like the Harvard Republican Club and the Salient differ from them substantially.

These organizations do not present a coherent radical voice. Instead they are groups in which students of varying degrees of conservatism express themselves.