I attended President Marx's "Talk About the Talk" a few weeks ago and I, aside from marveling at his cowboy boots, listened to the Left and the Right bite at each others' heels. Most of the discussion seemed inconsequential. Of course we should invite extremely conservative speakers to campus, and if Hitler came to speak, I would do whatever I could to get a ticket. What was important about the talk was how things were said, the manner of political debate on campus.
The most lasting impression of the talk was what has become a battle cry of sorts in defense of Justice Scalia: "It's good to hear opposing views because they solidify your own." It seemed as if the conservatives repeated this so readily because they have taken these words to heart. This is when I realized what the liberal majority on this campus has been doing: Building better Republicans.
Consider this hypothetical: Mildly conservative Joe arrives on campus and takes one of three paths. The first: After sitting through a few classes and participating in conversations at Valentine, he exclaims, "I've been so wrong. I love gay people. And let's fund welfare!" This is probably the most unlikely of the situations.
The second: He succumbs to the Amherst plague-apathy. He withdraws from political debate and instead concentrates on drinking and finding derivatives. This happens more than we'd like to admit.
These two paths are fine. I'm concerned with the third. Perhaps Joe decides that he's sticking to his principles. Perhaps he's so horrified by the liberals on campus that he clings to his beliefs. Perhaps he enjoys being the one voice of dissent at the lunchtable-"It's fun to be the conservative one." It seems that when you become a minority of any kind you are quicker to defend yourself. You find yourself sticking up for things that you may not even believe in, like when I bash America but feel oddly patriotic abroad.
"It's good to hear opposing views because they solidify your own." The more times you are forced to defend the war in Iraq, the more justified it seems. What may begin as an inclination becomes a solid belief when the liberal onslaught is through. I'm not saying the opposite never occurs. Every time I hear Theodore Hertzberg '04 speak I run as far to the left as I possibly can. He makes me more proud to be a liberal than Dolores Huerta did. Solidifying liberal views, however, isn't my concern. It's difficult to alienate a majority. I am concerned with what we are doing to our conservatives.
My concern isn't based on a desire to liberalize the campus conservatives. I'm a great fan of opposing viewpoints. It's too bad that we can paint politics in such black and white terms. Let me know if you fall somewhere outside the political spectrum. I don't think the conservatives should stop being so conservative, I just think we should stop making them so angry about it.
I wonder how many of us realize how different Amherst College is from the real world. Unless you enter a few specific fields, like the non-profit sector or academia, this is probably the last time that you will be in a liberal majority. We seem to think that the political beliefs that we hold while we're here matter. This isn't true. An open mind is what's important. Our political beliefs don't really come into play until we leave this institution.
When we do, many liberals will help people, and many conservatives will make a lot of money. That's not to say that liberals are doomed to financial failure. We probably are, I sure am, but I won't write us off just yet. We are so concerned with fighting those in power, those who hold the wealth, that we have failed to notice that many of those future power holders are fuming across the table from us. Their flee to the Right becomes their lasting legacy of Amherst College, and it influences their decisions and their views of the world when they leave.
Perhaps none of this is true. Perhaps everyone on campus keeps an open mind. That may be the case, but I have yet to see it. Should liberals try to change their behavior? Should they treat friendships with conservatives as if they don't want to hurt their chances of getting a bank loan in the future?
You may treat conservatives as you like, as long as you retain the openmindedness that's always been associated with liberalism. Don't dismiss the conservative viewpoint right away. Challenge instead of attacking. You'll get an opinion instead of a defense mechanism. Don't try to change the way anyone thinks. Just make your side of the argument as strong as possible.
This is the preliminary warmup for a lifelong political war. Don't let conservatives close their minds before the battle has begun. Start by opening your own. Just look at the current presidential administration. The last thing you want to do is build a better Republican.