Conservative Shift on College Campuses?

[Frodo]

College rallies shift to the right:
Despite liberal reputations, colleges increasingly find student protests representing a conservative viewpoint.

By Jennifer Brown
Denver Post Staff Writer

Protests on college campuses are becoming more sophisticated and more often staged by conservative students.

Some conservatives say activism is growing because of a national network reaching out to students who've felt too threatened in the past to speak up on liberal campuses.

"The tides are turning on college campuses," said Jason Mattera, spokesman for the conservative Young America's Foundation in Herndon, Va. "Conservative students will not take liberal garbage anymore."

source

[afleitch]

This is also happening in the UK and has been documented recently. The Conservative Party recently reported that it had seen an unprecidented rise in the membership of university Conservative groupings. Under 25's in particular are swinging to the right on economic issues but remain socially liberal. According to the 2005 MORE exit poll, support for the Conservatives in the 18-24 age bracket (first time voters/students etc) while behind Labour was ahead of the Lib Dems and was in terms of percentage support, the highest support for the Conservatives in any age category below the age of 45

In such a permissive society perhaps there is that old youthful rebellion in play, except instead of rebelling like our parents did, against a conservative society, we are now rebelling against a liberal one. A friend of mine is conducting a dissertation based on this and has said that there is a growing, subtle shift in those under the age of 25 that has gone unoticed but will come into the fore in the next decade or so.

[Frodo]

You are talking about a libertarian shift on British college campuses, not a conservative one -at least in the American sense of the word.   

[afleitch]

You are talking about a libertarian shift on British college campuses, not a conservative one -at least in the American sense of the word.   

That is true, though in my opinion it is the modern American interpretation of Conservatism this is out of sync with the rest of the Western world.

[opebo]

I think the shift of which you speak occurred from sometime in the 1980's through about 2000 or so.. since then there has been a shift back to the left, in natural reaction to the right-wing status quo in the nation.

It is possible that the spreading infestation of religious has influenced youth adversely in the more benighted parts of the country.

[TheresNoMoney]

I don't think there's any big shift. Opebo is right that there is more likely to be a backlash against the Republicans because of their total control of the federal government. What you're saying is that young Republicans are more bold and vocal nowadays then they were in the past.

Nationally, Kerry won the under-age 29 demographic by 9% (54% to 45%). I imagine that the margin was much higher for the college-aged votes.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Sure as hell isn't happening at mine.

[afleitch]

Sure as hell isn't happening at mine.

I'm glad that its not A rightward lurch in the USA worries me. In the UK things for students are different, we dont tend to fall for moralistic garbage even if we are left or right wing

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Essentially the division in young 'uns in the U.K reflects a return to a more severe class polarisation; if polls, surveys and so on are to be believed kids from middle class backgrounds have swung to the right economically, while remaining socially liberal, while kids from working class backgrounds have swung to the right socially, while remaining socialists* economically.
Not quite sure what the cause is, but one possibility is that it's something to do with the great social divisions opened up in the '80's and early '90's; after all some of these first time voters are the children of the parents who were made unemployed as a result of the collapse of the manufacturing industry, while others are the children of the parents that became quite affluent as a result of the boom in financial services. Others are the children of the parents that were crippled financially by the bursting of the housing bubble in the early '90's. And so on.
You reap what you sow I guess.

This is beginning to be reflected with the two main parties; pretty much all of Labour's rising stars are socially conservative on most issues, while most of the Tories rising stars, if no socially liberal as such, are usually socially permissive.

*By that I don't mean Marxist. In a U.K political context, the correct word for economically leftwing is (usually) socialist. Not been used as much as it should be recently though.

[afleitch]

I hae to agree with you Al. One of the reasons I left the Labour Party was due to an undercurrent of 'moralism' that seemed to taking root, not that it has shown itself much. While I can be flexible on economics, my social liberalism is more solid. I think this is founded on my sexuality and I believe that any shift to the right socially or any pursuit of religious moralism of any sort would not be in my self interest.

[TheresNoMoney]

I'm glad that its not A rightward lurch in the USA worries me.

Yep, our country has already drifted pretty far to the right over the past 25 years. I can't imagine that it can go any further right.

[MODU]

Have they become more conservative?  No.  Have the conservative students become more out-spoken recently?  Yes.

[tarheel-leftist85]

Yes and no...I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking with other college students, and here's what I've gleaned thus far:  We're less radical when it comes to foreign policy and social issues, while more liberal on economic issues.  I think once we become the dominant generation in politics, you might see the overturning of Roe v. Wade (likely under a Democratic president) and the implementation of universal healthcare.  We'll be more family-oriented than our parents who were leading us down a path of Soddom and Gemorrah with their libertarianism cloaked in a thin veil of Evangelism.  Many of us are skeptical of organized religion like many of the Founding Fathers.  Most of us are willing to support a war, so long as it's executed properly.  College campuses are still dominated by libertine professors from a hedonistic generation (from every political sphere).

[Inverted Things]

Have they become more conservative?  No.  Have the conservative students become more out-spoken recently?  Yes.

I halfway agree with you here. During the 60's and 70's many students were only at college to get out of the draft. It shouldn't be at all surprising that campuses were rather left wing then.

Of course the conservative students were always there, but only recently did they start drawing attention to themselves.

So, the fact that college campuses are perceived as becoming more conservative is attributable to 1) an increase (percentage-wise) in conservative students due to the left wing having less reason to go to college, and 2) the conservative college students drawing attention.

[opebo]

I went to a small catholic college and it was liberal as hell. I do believe that at the larger colleges, from what I see on Fox News, there is a small uprising in conservative college kids.

You didn't go to school in St. Louis, did you?

[MaC]

oddly enough, my school Michigan State had the 2nd largest pro-Bush group in the nation for the 2004 election.  For what it's worth...

Seems like it's extremely liberal, but then there are conservatives.  The conservatives aren't as outspoken or loud as the liberal are.

[Frodo]

Yes and no...I've been doing a lot of thinking and talking with other college students, and here's what I've gleaned thus far:  We're less radical when it comes to foreign policy and social issues, while more liberal on economic issues.  I think once we become the dominant generation in politics, you might see the overturning of Roe v. Wade (likely under a Democratic president) and the implementation of universal healthcare.  We'll be more family-oriented than our parents who were leading us down a path of Soddom and Gemorrah with their libertarianism cloaked in a thin veil of Evangelism.  Many of us are skeptical of organized religion like many of the Founding Fathers.  Most of us are willing to support a war, so long as it's executed properly.  College campuses are still dominated by libertine professors from a hedonistic generation (from every political sphere).

It's interesting that you see our generation as being somewhat moderately populist.  It is difficult to know for certain in what direction ideologically college students tend to lean, since so many are (usually) apathetic about politics in general -and that goes for most college students.  So I really can't tell one way or another.

But from the few I have talked to, I have encountered much the same responses as you did. 

[7,052,770]

Facebook Pulse is a feature that lets you see what organizations are most popular on facebook and whatnot.

College Republicans are the #2 organization overall.  College Democrats are nowhere to be found.

Now I realize that's just facebook, but I definitely agree that colleges are becoming more conservative.

[TeePee4Prez]

Having been to both Lehigh and Temple I must say this.  During the 2000 election, Lehigh voted mostly for Gore, but Bush got in the 30s there which is pretty decent.  I would say that school is fairly libertarian for most of the students come from wealthy suburbs in North Jersey, the Northern and Western Philly burbs, and Long Island.  I wouldn't say a conservative shift there, but some of my pro-union and semi-protectionist views were shouted down by some professors and other students.  In my freshman dorm there was a guy who was from VA who had almost carbon copy economic views of A18.  I must say it is a very anti-censorship, pro-drug, and sexually liberal university though.  At Temple, both in undergrad and the law school (where my friend goes), if you're a conservative, it's best to keep your mouth shut unless you're in the Fox School of Business and even then it's pretty moderate.  I once had to bite my tongue with one professor who dimed out people who opposed AA.  My friend said in a law school class they were discussing abortion and he said he was only one of 2 pro-lifers in a class where the other 50 were pro-choice.  I don't even think Bush got double digits in 2000 or 2004.  Another friend that went there during the 2004 election said the mood was very somber the day after the election on campus.

[Dave from Michigan]

personally I think conservatives are just becoming more outspoken. 

[Beet]

Frodo, did the article provide any facts to back up its assertions? Not really.

The media always, every couple years, runs an article about how colleges are really more conservative than their reputation holds them, usually featuring interviews and stories of the "new" college conservative. In the early 1980s they were running stories about how "the tide is turning" on college campuses; throughout the nineties they "rediscovered the campus conservative." And now once again "the new college conservative." What a joke. Have they ever heard of William F. Buckley?

College students have never been as liberal as their reputation, except for a brief period in the late 60s and early 70s. There has always been substantial student conservatism on college campuses. The media knows that this "new conservative" story is a cash cow of sorts-- people will always been interested in reading stories like this because it fits in with their preconcieved notion about the direction society is heading (Just like their cooked-up polarization meme. Stories that fit the meme always get more readers than ones that dont. It must be a psychological thing). The media also knows that no matter how many times they "milk" this cow, colleges' liberal reputations will persist and they can run the same story again with different characters a couple of years from now.

The facts can be found below:

http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/heri/PDFs/full_political_attitudes.pdf

[opebo]

Facebook Pulse is a feature that lets you see what organizations are most popular on facebook and whatnot.

College Republicans are the #2 organization overall.  College Democrats are nowhere to be found.

Now I realize that's just facebook, but I definitely agree that colleges are becoming more conservative.

I don't know a lot about this facebook, but it seems like an organization for complete assholes.

[Beet]

Facebook Pulse is a feature that lets you see what organizations are most popular on facebook and whatnot.

College Republicans are the #2 organization overall.  College Democrats are nowhere to be found.

Now I realize that's just facebook, but I definitely agree that colleges are becoming more conservative.

That's because College Democrats is a do-good, issue-oriented, bleeding heart, masochistic wussy organization whose own philosophy dooms it to perpetual irrelevance. It has always been that way and god forbid it will always be that way.

[Alcon]

Looking through precinct results, I often find that the universities themselves are not as liberal as the areas around them.

This is true at the University of Washington (Kerry didn't break 70% compared to 75-80% in the neighbourhood around it), Southern Oregon University (Kerry received 74% compared to the 83% in the neighbourhoods around it), and several other universities.

[phk]

It might be for a variety of factors.

- Absence of students from lower-income households.

- In California, we have a stereotypical 'Asian' good-student sort of conservatism that is radically different from the conservatism practiced by Whites and is little represented in the Republican party. Asians are replacing the hippies on California campuses.

- Thing is that, Harry, College Republicans is the biggest club at Berkeley I gather, though I heard its rather useless as the members get drunk every weekend or so.

- Liberals and Leftists are probably divided between moderate-radical lines, for example, Marxist-Leninist Club vs Democrat Club vs DLC-Thirdway, whereas Republicans on campus tend to be very uniform in thier views.