Life as a Conservative on Campus isn’t Easy
In a column at the Detroit News, Derek Draplin writes about the reality of being a conservative on a college campus.
On a college campus, it’s not easy being Conservative
As a political science student at the University of Michigan I always felt as though I had to tiptoe around class discussions in fear of outing myself as a “teabagger Republican.” As a conservative student, my worst fear was getting bad grades simply because of my political inclinations and not being taken seriously in class discussions.
Like many of my peers at UM, I was partially “in the closet,” leaving hints only by arguing for the constitution, individual liberty and less government dependency. I knew that telling a class “I’m conservative” would get me laughed at, even ridiculed. Before you think I’m exaggerating, consider what some of my friends have faced.
I’ve gone through few political science classes where students or professors didn’t bash the Koch brothers or call Bush a “war criminal.” Often the policies of President Barack Obama are criticized, but ultimately he’s given an A for effort for his attempts at social change.
Yet social justice and progressive politics emerge as the norm on campus, and the result is a benevolent view of government.
Once a student told me she believed the federal government should pay for womens’ tampons, describing it as a “right.” She gave me a blank stare when I asked her if she thought that could result in more government influence over her body.
Comments
“Just a couple weeks ago an extremist group, By Any Means Necessary, hijacked the university’s Board of Regents meeting by violently barging in….”
Conservatives know that leftists can get away with all sorts of violent acts, while conservatives will be punished even for doing nothing wrong.
Campus administrators and professors, themselves too cowardly to commit acts of violence, happily use leftist thugs to intimidate conservatives into silence and passivity. Unfortunately for them, that passivity cannot last–and some conservatives will conclude that the liberals are no more deserving of tolerance and respect than any other variety of fascist monster.
Hard being a Conservative on campus? Not just campus, but at work, in our neighborhoods (I live about 30 miles east of Ann Arbor), at the grocery store, at the library, and even across my backyard fence. ‘Any Means Necessary’ should have been tarred and feathered. The Left will go on and on until they are stopped and…yeah, punished.