Let’s make one thing clear from the outset: I’m a Republican.
In recent months there has been a marked increase in the volume of student-written articles concerning the ails and trials of being a Republican on a liberal campus. The articles all make similar arguments — Republican students are disenfranchised, feel pushed to uncomfortable political peripheries, lose confidence in their arguments and blame schools for institutional unfairness in hiring liberal professors and "diversifying" its student body.
Though these arguments carry some weight, they fail to address the real problem — college Republicans feel like they can’t express their views and therefore retreat in silence. This is neither the fault of liberal students nor liberal schools; it is the fault of Republicans on liberal college campuses.
To those who have turned to the Internet — with little calculation — to streamline their petulant pouting, what do you want to accomplish? If raising awareness about the issue is your answer, then what types of responses from your peers do you anticipate? There will be a clear division between the receptions of Republicans and Democrats. Will this create empathy, temper malcontent, and motor reform? No. When like-minded individuals get together their sentiments are strengthened, not lessened, and therefore, the irreconcilable gulf between college Republicans and Democrats grows.
If you want to improve outcomes at your school do not tell people how you feel, tell them what you know. If you happen to be talking with a few Bernie Sanders supporters about Wall Street’s excess and ungovernability, don’t walk away or air an accusatory excuse like, “you’re too inflexible to listen,” or selfishly proclaim, “I don’t need to listen to you.” State what you know. Talk about the negative ramifications of speculative trading taxes - how they would decrease trade volume on options and equities, leading to a decrease in market liquidity and interfere with price discovery. Remind them big banks are required to undergo a yearly stress test under assumed, extreme macroeconomic conditions. One of the fundamental purposes of college is to learn from your peers. If you’re unwilling to share what you know, and you complain on the Internet about how you are a marginalized, silenced minority, then no change will follow.
Now, what about the unfair institutions? If you sense that your academic work has been treated poorly by a biased professor, or by your peers, don’t complain on the Internet. By visiting websites like ratemyprofessor.com and harshly criticizing your professor’s biases, you in effect eliminate the informational asymmetries necessary to create classrooms in which students take a class based on course content, not a teacher’s content. If I identify as a liberal and I read your blast about your professor’s propensity to favor more progressive taxes, then I am more likely to take his or her class. Constructive pushback in the classroom is therefore replaced by head-nodding and the classroom problem is unsettled.
This is not a request to my fellow college Republicans to be more extroverted or in-your-face about your views. This is a reminder that improvements result from measurable action. If you want to change the Democratic milieu on college campuses, then seek a balance between what you say and what you do.
