By
Tom McDermott
Most students have at least a rudimentary understanding of what the core beliefs of modern conservatism are. But why would any rational college student want to voluntarily accept them and actively promote them on campus? With the exception of a few schools such as Brigham Young and Washington and Lee, a healthy conservative philosophy is about as useful to a student's academic career as a broken hand.
It certainly does not help curry any favor with most professors. Although outright ostracizing is not as common, there's always a feeling that your fellow students think you're kind of kooky. And, in a way, they're probably right. Isn't it just a bit irrational to risk a bad grade by speaking up for your beliefs in class? Isn't it better to grin and bear it, keep your mouth shut, spit back whatever drivel comes out of the professor's mouth on the exam and ace the class?
History wasn't made by people who went along to get along. It was made by people who broke free from the dominant paradigm and shook things up. Leftists invariably believe this is their exclusive domain. They say things like, "You conservatives are all conformists." But conformity implies recognition and assent to the present authority. How can the people who challenge the orthodoxy of academia, often at their own peril, be the "conformists" and those who embrace and accept it as gospel truth be the "renegades?"
It has been said that conservatism is the antithesis of passionate ideology. That is not to say that conservatives are devoid of passion, but that its foundation is rationality. Conservatism is a direct appeal to the mind, not to the heart. It takes a well-reasoned analysis of the issues to support most conservative positions. Being a conservative entails research and a cognitive understanding of the issues. It requires much more than the well-worn pleas to emotion of the Left, like "Think about the children."
Although their analysis of the issue is usually flawed, liberals are masters at perpetuating the idea that they have a monopoly on compassion. "Don't worry, we'll protect you from the mean-spirited Republicans, who want to take away your kids' school lunches, go back to segregation, force religion down your throat and give guns to anybody and everybody." This type of class and race warfare, combined with the inherent give-us-the-power-and-we'll-be-your-savior message, has been the cornerstone of the dominant, leftist ideology since the 1960s.
Conservatives are assumed to be not only mean, but dumb as well. With the possible exception of Nixon, whom they believed must be destroyed as the devil incarnate, the liberal-dominated press has characterized every Republican president since Eisenhower as rock stupid. Ford was a bumbler. Reagan was a doddering old fool. Nevermind that Reagan won the Cold War and pulled America from the pit of a deep recession. Never mind that Nixon opened China, or that Eisenhower stabilized the return to democracy in Europe. All Republicans are dumb until otherwise proven in a court of public opinion.
Our venerated television president, Martin Sheen, recently called President Bush a "moron" in an interview. In a free country, it's acceptable for a Yale graduate with a Harvard MBA to be ridiculed by someone who failed the entrance exam to the University of Dayton. But when did acceptance by the Hollywood Left become the measuring-stick for one's intelligence? If you disagree with them, you obviously have some kind of mental defect.
So, let's recap. Tell someone you're a conservative on campus, and you're either stupid, mean, a conformist automaton, just plain weird or a combination of all the above. So why would anyone want to be a conservative? Simple. Because we're right.
