How To Survive College As A Republican

 

There is a saying that states that “if you are a young Republican then you have no heart and if you are an old Democrat then you have no brain.” What if you are a young Republican entering college? There is no question that you will be in the minority, if you enter college as a Republican and stay that way throughout all 4 years. I personally went to a liberal leaning college in New York City, so I can share with you the experiences that I had. This will help you understand what you may be getting yourself into when you are getting ready to go off to college this fall.

The first thing that you have to expect is that almost all of your professors will be liberal even if you are business major like I am. You may be saying to yourself that that’s not a big issue because you are friends with plenty of liberal leaning people. This is a naïve assumption to make because college professors tend to spew their philosophy onto the students often with little to no discussion. I have had a professor that bloviated about how terrible President George W. Bush was for 15 minutes at the beginning of every class. He didn’t ask for any rebuttals for two likely reasons. The first was that he probably would lose the argument and the second is that it had nothing to do with the subject matter which was accounting. That’s right you heard me. Classes that have nothing to do with politics will involve the professor talking about politics often. In fact, I have never even taken a political class in college because I had AP credits from high school.

You shouldn’t worry that all of your classes will be like this; likely only some will have these types of professors. The other professors will moderate discussions which occur among the students. If you’re thinking to yourself “that sounds better,” it really isn’t. In this situation you will likely have a vast majority of your classmates making leftist arguments that you find highly disagreeable. At this point you say to yourself “should I speak up?” This is an important thing to consider when you are arguing with potentially 3 or 4 people at a time. This depends on what type of person you are. If you aren’t the type that speaks up, then maybe you should take a pass at this. I’m the type the student that is always participating, so I usually spoke up. It is certainly not easy to argue with a whole class as well as the teacher. Honestly, I probably lost most of the debates I participated in. You have to be clear and concise which is difficult if you are only 18 years old and aren’t a skilled speaker. I think one thing that you can take solace in is the fact that your opinions have been challenged to the point where it makes you intellectually stronger.

I actually took an environmental science class which is an interesting situation to be in considering the fact that I don’t believe in hydrocarbon caused climate change. We had to watch the “Inconvenient Truth” in the class which was painful, of course. I have to say that my professor was very accepting of my beliefs because I articulated my skeptical stance towards human caused climate change in all of my homework assignments and I still got an A in the class. This is important to note. Even though there are horror stories where professors fail you for professing conservative beliefs, this never happened to me. I even had a socialist English teacher once, but I doubt that she actually remembered what we discussed in class when she was doing her grading.

If I had to sum up the experience you will probably have, I would say that college will be a lot of fun. You will meet liberals who you will befriend and have awesome times. However, there will be times when you are frustrated immensely because your teacher said something insanely stupid and you weren’t allowed to respond. There will be the ridiculous white privilege signs on your campus. There will also be anti-cop protests that go on. At times you may want to stay in the closet and not state your opinion, which is completely fine. The fact of the matter is that I was a non-confrontational person and disagreeing with people constantly was exhausting. The bright side is that when you find a friend that is a Republican you will instantly cherish him/her. It’s a bond that can be very powerful and supportive. If you maintain your principles, then graduating as a Republican will mean that you are an intellectually rigorous person who can stand up to anyone in a debate. You will have to constantly look up facts to prove your points because there will be many people who disagree with you. In the end, this is a badge of honor that you should be proud of achieving.

I hope this helps those young students who are worrying about how college will be, if they are a Republican or Conservative. You are a free thinker which is a remarkable sign of intelligence.