“Conservative” seems to have become a word synonymous with “racist”, “sexist”, and “xenophobic”. People of my generation see them as unable and unwilling to face change, and stuck in their ways. To be fair, I do know a lot of people who are this way. I also know many liberals who will never try to listen to someone who says “I have more conservative views”. From my own personal experiences, the same people saying “You’re stuck in your ways!” refuse to acknowledge different views. I’m a conservative, and I feel uncomfortable even attempting to bring that up in such a liberal state, city, and college.

College is a place of free expression, and it’s nice for me to be able to be myself around like-minded people. But, when it comes to politics, I couldn’t feel more shut out. It’s like I’m an outsider. Political arguments were crazy this year, especially with the election. It doesn’t help that I took a political science course this semester, either. I had to sit through an hour and forty five minutes of most of my opinions being shot down before I could consider voicing them. Despite claiming the classroom to be an “open environment”, I was too terrified to speak up against what my older classmates were saying. I’m almost certain that I was the only conservative in the room.

While I do define myself as a conservative, I do not connect with the stereotypical “old, rich white man fighting against change”. No, that is not what the new wave of millennial conservatives is.

There are some things that I agree with in the Republican party, such as:

○ Second Amendment rights (I don’t believe in taking guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens to “stop gun violence,” when the people already getting guns illegally will continue to do so)

○ Closing the border (While the idea of a wall is extreme, I don’t want open borders like Obama proposed and Hillary supported. I want to focus on the issues in America, and helping the poor/homeless in our country, without having illegal immigrants to worry about)

○ Limited government (Yes, there are some cases where the Federal government really does need to step in, like in cases of National Security, but I don’t believe they need to control every aspect of our lives and regulate commerce)

○ Limit of minimum wage increase (You aren’t supposed to be making a living off of a minimum wage job. They’re meant for high school and college students to get some type of experience in the workforce, while getting a higher education. Raising the minimum wage results in increased prices)

○ No use of Affirmative Action (Someone should be hired at a job, get into a school, etc. based on their ability. Race, and gender, for that matter, should not be a factor)

Likewise, there are things that I agree with in the Democratic party, including:

○ The legalization of same-sex marriage (Everyone deserves to marry who they love. Why is that even an issue?)

○ Pro-choice (I personally could never get an abortion, and I don’t agree with getting one, but I wouldn’t stop a woman from doing so safely because of these beliefs)

○ Embryonic stem cell research (If the stem cells are already available as a result of an abortion, why wouldn’t it be okay to study their effects on people?)

○ Separation of Church and State (Yes, our country is mostly protestant, but that shouldn’t be the deciding factor in making laws)

I recently discovered the hashtag #LiberalPrivilege on Twitter, and the tweets I’m seeing accurately describe how it feels to be a conservative in college. The one that stuck with me the most said:

“#liberalprivilege is being able to openly state your beliefs on college campuses while facing little to no backlash.”

People at Emerson don’t realize how lucky they are that they can go around talking about what they believe in. I would love to do that without getting called a horrible person… especially in response to the election.

Another interesting distinction between liberals and conservatives is the fact that practically everyone in my generation ranks on Fox News, saying it’s not real news, and just spreading propaganda and lies. I would like to point out that almost every news outlet in the country is left-wing, favoring and only having Democrats on their networks. Fox is the only one that leans more towards the right, and is automatically labeled as “lying propaganda”, but no one will question the liberal focused networks because they agree with what is said.

Whenever I was asked about voting, the question was phrased as “did you vote for Hillary?” Not “Who did you vote for?” And when I said “no”, I was met with strange and almost pissed-off glares from other students. I will not openly say who I voted for, because it shouldn’t matter. Hillary won in my state regardless of my vote, anyway.

The response to Trump’s election is something I never thought I would see. My entire campus practically shut down. Students were receiving psychological help, and almost all professors were cancelling classes. I heard several students blaming third-party voters, saying that they might as well have not voted. Just a day before, they were the same people saying “If you aren’t happy with a candidate, you can vote third-party!” I suppose that only works when you’re confident that your candidate will win. It was also strange to hear how every Hillary supporter I talked to just knew without a shadow of a doubt that she would win. This was the opposite of most Trump supporters I met, who were not sure at all. In fact, they were saying they believed Hillary would win, but still held onto hope.

I also feel that I’m one of the only students who is happy to see Obama stepping out of office in January. I’m sorry, but the fact that he willing went around Congress several times with executive orders is inexcusable.

I have personally experienced more hate from liberals about my beliefs than I have the other way around, yet everyone sees the Republican Party as a party center around hate. This new wave of millennial conservatives is far more open-minded than some of the older generations, and we are going to help shape the party to have a more positive outlook, but we’ll still be keeping some core policies and ideals. I should be able to walk into class and talk about being against open borders without being labeled a racist. Hopefully, in the future, this will change for college students.

For people calling for safe spaces, they sure don’t make any place safe for us.