Published: Thursday, October 16, 2003
Updated: Sunday, February 22, 2009
At 19, I am a conservative Republican and an ideological minority. This country has gotten to a point where tolerant, "diverse" colleges and universities that advocate fairness and equality are beginning to ostracize those who don't hold one universal belief - that of liberalism. My social views have been bashed and underrepresented by the liberal majority at Rutgers and around the collegiate United States.
Registration records indicate the ratio of voting professors at top schools is ten democrats to every one republican, a documented fact and a pitiful, self-perpetuating tragedy, according to studentsforacademicfreedom.org. The ratio of commencement speakers on the left and right is even worse - a deplorable 15:1, according to www.frontpagemag.com. This is completely out of balance. On campuses there is more support for the Green Party than there is for the Republican Party! There is a hatred and loathing of conservatives, a trend that continues to flourish because colleges obsess with superficial diversity rather than intellectual diversity. I am intimidated and unable to express myself because there are overwhelming prejudices against what I believe in.
Witnessing 60 professors last week inappropriately label Rutgers Hillel and its Israel Inspires event as being "right-wing," and expecting that characterization in itself to be an accusation, has led me to believe conservatism has apparently become a crime. When was the last time there were 60 professors protesting all of the "left-wing" things that permeate campus? Never. Remember that these are the professors that teach us. Are there any significant forums for conservatives to express themselves in college? None. Can they say or do anything without being targeted or protested? Of course not. Rutgers promotes an intellectual imbalance, and in the process it distances conservative students. The majority doesn't care because the majority isn't conservative.
As a citizen of this country, it is my right to have a balanced education. Attention is not focused on the imbalance, but rather that it's stubborn for people like me to still remain conservative. Conservative reason is viewed as intrinsically wrong. This logic is beyond flawed - it's pathetic. Students can't defend its reason because their fundamental way of being taught is skewed!
"How so?" the skeptic wonders. In philosophy it is the professor's preference of theories of the self over theories of utilitarianism, of the libertarian over the communitarian. In sociology it is the preference of social conflict theories over functionalist theories - blame-society approaches rather than blame-individual approaches. In economics it is the questioning of capitalism, the bashing of "laissez faire" or "hands-off" (although many professors humorously teach void of ideological regulation). I'm not even going to mention subjects like history or political science. It is this fundamental favoritism in departments, the subtle imbalances that trusting student must embrace to get a good grade and the biased administration promoting it that enrages me. While everybody else happily jots down their daily notes, satisfied and gullible, writing in their blue books every liberal theory their beacon of academic insight taught them, I wonder what happened to the support for my beliefs. Where's my beacon?
In the first class I ever took at Rutgers, the professor begged the question, "Why is 'Communism' such a dirty word?" All the students in the class nodded and there was a chorus of "I knows." Then another student stood up and said, "If our country was socialist it would be a much better place to live." The entire class erupted in agreement.
Finally a student exclaimed, "Those conservatives are nazi bastards!"
Lovely.
The poor drones of Cuba could kindly explain to my professor, if they weren't being tortured by Fidel Castro, why "Communism is such a dirty word." So could the poor souls of Mao's China or Stalin's Russia. But I encourage gratuitous statements praising extremist left-wing tyrants, as long as there are statements praising extremist right-wing tyrants as well. Extremes are dangerous, but if presented, must be taught in a balanced format.
However, Marxism is taught freely at colleges throughout America, while it is regarded as perfectly normal for the theories of Friedrich Hayek or Leo Strauss to be ignored. (They were conservative fundamentalists, and it figures you have never heard of them). Sadly, many of the professors who embrace the "Communist Manifesto" have never had a chance to live in a Communist regime and experience its harsh realities. Perhaps only then would they we able to understand why so many of their descendants fled to Capitalist America.
I'm tired of President George W. Bush being used as a scapegoat for every social problem. I'm tired of people questioning the need for a military defense after madmen bomb and threaten us. I'm tired of frivolous lawsuits and obese children suing fast food restaurants and patients driving up insurance costs by suing the doctors that protect their health. I'm tired of the incessant protesting for the sake of protesting, and the constant belligerence against America without the acknowledgement of how much opportunity and freedom we have.
I realize right now I'm appealing to a collegiate audience that hates everything I stand for. I know there are those who will deny this imbalance, or who will tell me my views are wrong. (Did I say your views are wrong?) Politics aside, I implore you to desire an objective and balanced education. There is no conspiracy I speak of, just a sad truth. I am concerned for your welfare. One day when you graduate from this liberal oasis and enter the real world, you will find that half the country will be just like me. An unlikely state like California just ousted their governor because they were getting fed up with liberal politics. Perhaps you will work some day for a boss that is conservative, no doubt for a company. This is your wake-up call.
So go ahead. Criticize my conservative column. Continue to nurture the lack of political balance at universities everywhere. Do it to conform. Do it because you love ignorance. Do it because you're young, gullible, and you're manipulated into thinking it is your collegiate duty to hate the status quo. Do it because 60 brilliant Ph.D.s at Rutgers actually think conservative propaganda is beginning to become a problem, when at one of the only conservative rallies last year (supporting the troops - not the war), there were more protestors than there were supporters. Do it because people like me are evil and shouldn't have the right to express themselves on campuses where extremists have the right to spit on my American flag and slander my American character.
Call me names, and frown at me because of my beliefs. It happens in my classes every day and I'm used to it. Maybe you liberals will realize I'm the one who's the underdog, and you'll start rooting for me.
James O'Keefe is a Rutgers College sophomore majoring in philosophy. His column, "Feathers of Steel," appears on alternating Fridays.
NJO: Originally published in The Daily Targum.
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