2008 Woodie Awards
Discourse on a social disease common to liberal campuses
Originally published Jan. 26 in The Daily Targum, the newspaper of Rutgers College
guest columnist Andrea Cortland
Issue date: 2/4/05 Section: Forum
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I'll openly 'fess up to anything if I've done it. I'm quite comfortable with whom I am, how I feel and how I choose to act. However, recently at the University, I suffered a sort of social shaming and inquisition initiated with my utterance of perhaps the four dirtiest words possible: I voted for Bush.
Rutgers is a fairly liberal institution. Many of our professors hold liberal outlooks and feel free to express their anti-Bush sentiment during lectures, as if we're actually paying our hard-earned money to hear their half-wit political opinions. Liberal groups like RU Democrats have more of a presence on campus than conservative groups such as Rutgers College Republicans.
Of course, the University is located in a liberal area of the country. After all, New Jersey went "blue" in the recent election. Lastly, on the whole, we're a liberal age group. Overall, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was more popular than George W. Bush with youth voters on our coast.
I felt the pro-liberal sentiment at Rutgers was rather strong, so in the days prior to the election, I tried to keep as low a profile as possible. I attempted to politely decline repeated offers to wear a "Kerry-Edwards" sticker or post a pro-Kerry poster on my door without explaining my personal views.
When the Bush-bashing would start in a social situation, I just remained tight-lipped, smiled and looked away. I did not engage in political banter with anyone or wear any pro-Bush paraphernalia to garner attention or openly express my political beliefs. I just lived and let live and desperately tried to avoid letting anyone know for which candidate I would be voting.
They figured me out, though.
Apparently, at Rutgers, not openly supporting Kerry was a crime - one that allowed people to badger you with questions about your political opinions and refuse to accept your polite, nondescript statement that you "don't want to talk about it." It seems at the University, if you're not a liberal - specifically, if pre-election you weren't a Kerry supporter - people feel as if they are entitled to an explanation.
Since when does conservative thinking make one such a social pariah? And furthermore, since when must people openly state an explanation and defense for their conservative views in order to hold them?
