At the GayPatriot dinner last week with Thatcher Honoree Dr. Nigel Ashford, we discussed the challenges college students face in coming out. No, not about their sexuality. While that’s still not a walk in the park, those who do come out meet with a supportive University administration and campus environment.
What is tougher is coming out conservative. On colleges, they face a critical University administration and liberal campus environment where young liberals are taught (acculturated?) to deride those holding views at odds with the prevailing orthodoxy. Those who do come out very often do not have a social network to help ease the transition, so many remain closeted about their political views.
With President Obama and the Democrats working to limit the choices of the younger generation while burdening them with more debt that have all previous Administrations and Congresses combined, many more might move in the conservative direction. Until then, it’s up to those brave few souls to speak out and so lay the groundwork for renaissance of libertarian ideas on college campuses*.
It’s not just in colleges where conservatives feel isolated today. As our group noticed when we gathered last week, it felt great to be able to talk openly about our political views, without having to defend them from the attacks, accusations and insults to which we have been accustomed. Much as it must feel for a gay man or woman in rural America to find others like him or her at the bar in the nearest mid-sized town.
So, it seems, as Dr. Ashford put it, conservatives today often feel as isolated and alone in big liberal cities as gays used to feel in small towns and villages.
RELATED: In Hollywood, Republican is the New Gay?
*I actually prefer “campi” as the plural of “campus,” but am not sure it’s correct.
Mark Levin credited exactly those difficulties in making him stronger and more resilient. I think there’s some sense to this. I know Falwell’s Liberty U debate team comes out on top year after year because they have to fight for every inch.
Looking back, coming out “right” demanded an intellectual rigor that my leftist friends never had to cultivate.
But, your point is well taken. I certainly felt needlessly beleaguered at the time.
Best wishes,
-MFS
Was Mike S. Adams from UNCW at the dinner? Sometimes I find myself agreeing with his columns.
Thought Adams was married…
Do I have the wrong Adams? Townhall.com Adams, right?
Best wishes,
-MFS
Here’s an idea – stop electing retards. People don’t like being associated with stupidity and failure, and at the moment, that’s all the Republican Party is bringing to the table. How has it still not occurred to you that this might have something to do with modern conservatism?
We’re still searching for someone as wise and witty as Barney Frank or Maxine Waters or Chris Dodd or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi or maybe Alsee Hastings.
You’re right, SOME people don’t like being associated with stupidity and failure. But other people recognize neither.
In Canberra it is the same – you have to hide the fact that you are Conservative or associated with the Liberal Party.
Being in college, I tend to find this liberal thing overblown. I have never felt I needed to stay quiet or repressed by the “liberal” power structure in my college. We have fliers and regular meetings of the young republican party, some libertarians groups, and so on. I have had several republican professors and conservative classmates.
I am not going to say I have not had to deal with liberally biased professors, dealing with one right now. I just think the idea that conversative students are repressed and attacked for their beliefs to be exaggerated. I am pretty annoyed we don’t study anything by Reagen in my presidental rhetoric class but we do have: Eisenhower, Nixon,Ford, Bush 41 and Bush 42.
If conservative is the new gay, will liberals support hate crimes legislation for activities directed against us?
#7 – Gee, DER, sounds like the ideal college campus. May I ask which bastion of higher learning you attend? (Just for comparison purposes.)
Also – what field does your liberal professor specialize in and what kind of remarks has he/she said that got under your skin?
Reason I’m asking – I graduated from The University of Texas in 1990 and had to deal with my own liberal profs/friends, so I’m wondering how things have changed in the last 20 years.
Regards,
Peter H.
Being in college, I tend to find this liberal thing overblown. I have never felt I needed to stay quiet or repressed by the “liberal†power structure in my college. We have fliers and regular meetings of the young republican party, some libertarians groups, and so on. I have had several republican professors and conservative classmates.
You’re absolutely right. I just finished college not long ago and we had a very robust conservative element active on campus. The ‘college is liberally biased’ thing is nothing but rank propaganda ginned up by conservative media stars like O’Reilly and Hannity – people that have been out of college for decades and have absolutely no frame of reference for the current reality.
#10 – Again, Levi, provide names and dates.
Plus, since you crow about being in the “top 5% of earners,” how did you manage to grab such a juicy capitalistic job like that fresh out of college?
I can only hope that you at least graduated in the top 5% of your class, but your posts kind of rebuke that notion.
Regards,
Peter H.
Just on a personal and anecdotal level, when I engage conservatives in political conversation, as a gay man, even if they disagree with me on “gay” issues vigorously and clearly, so far I have always been treated with respect, even graciousness . The only time I get name-calling and wishes for my injury or death or other kinds of tantrums is from liberals who find a conservative gay man, ironically, a crime against nature. 🙂
#12 – I hear you, EssEm. I get better treatment by conservatives at my local GOP precinct meeting than I do from liberal gays at my local bar.
Hypocrisy, thy name is liberalism.
Regards,
Peter H.
Try former Marxist and New Lefty David Horowitz who analyzes bias on college campi.
What’s more, I had an American History professor in Houston who taught that we stole our country from England and Texas stole the state from Mexico. Are you telling me there was no bias there? Was that just “rank propaganda”?
#9 I go to the university of Cincinnati, which has a lot of local area students and Southern Ohio is the heartland of Republicans and Conversatives in Ohio. I felt more of an outsider for being a Hillary supporter during the primary than being a McCain supporter in the general election.
The worst I have had it has been this quarter, my professor in American History: 1929 to the present. The most obvious comment was when he compared FDR and Bush 41. They both came from old money backgrounds only FDR really loved the common people and Bush 41 didn’t. I just thought was just really rude. To be fair, when we were learning about the Great Depression and New Deak, he did point out that the New Deal did not end the depression.
My presidential rhetoric class just annoys me cause I have to keep hearing about Obama all the time. Everyone one in that class talks about him and so and so, want to shoot myself by the end.
But like I said I do have conservative professors, including my favorite one. He refer to the UN as the blue hats that go around raping in Africa. It was so awesome.
#10 – Again, Levi, provide names and dates.
Heh, no thanks.
Plus, since you crow about being in the “top 5% of earners,†how did you manage to grab such a juicy capitalistic job like that fresh out of college?
I can only hope that you at least graduated in the top 5% of your class, but your posts kind of rebuke that notion.
You’re confusing me with someone else.
#15 – Good points all. Thanks for sharing, DER.
Regards,
Peter H.
#16 – So you refuse to justify your assertions? Fine. You’ve just proven without a shadow of doubt that you are all talk and no facts. Therefore, you should just be considered an ignorant troll.
Regards,
Peter H.
“conservatives today often feel as isolated and alone in big liberal cities as gays used to feel in small towns and villages.”
That makes no sense to me. In a big city, liberal or otherwise, one can find just about anything so why would gay conservatives be any different. With the internet and other media it’s quite simple to find connections. I can understand if you mean particular neighborhoods or at community gathering places but the whole city? In NYC there are gay chess player groups, gay gamers, gay Jehovah Witness groups, gay sci-fi book clubs etc. so can you really claim that you can’t also find gay conservatives in a big liberal city? I even knew a guy who tried to start a gay Holiness Pentecostal church, he wasn’t very successful but that was more likely due in part to the fact he wore daisy dukes most of the time when not leading a service. 🙂 I’m certainly not arguing with any personal experiences that people have had I just don’t see how it’s possible to be that isolated.
To clarify, I do realize that within any gay group or gathering or whatever, conservatives would most of the time be the minority and I have no doubt are met with less than polite reactions.
I even knew a guy who tried to start a gay Holiness Pentecostal church, he wasn’t very successful but that was more likely due in part to the fact he wore daisy dukes most of the time when not leading a service. 🙂
lol
#20 – “I do realize that within any gay group or gathering or whatever, conservatives would most of the time be the minority and I have no doubt are met with less than polite reactions.”
Sort of hypocritical by gay standards of “not being judged,” don’t you think ADD? But then again, we are talking about liberals here. Hypocrisy is part and parcel of the liberal agenda.
Regards,
Peter H.