Republicans at BU: We do exist and we are not evil

College campuses are places where people are encouraged to speak their mind and be exposed to a wide variety of view points. Yet sometimes people that share different view points than the majority of the campus population are labeled as “racist,” “bigoted,” “xenophobic” and many other terms, even when the matter of race is not even involved.

Last November conservative columnist and founder of the Daily Wire, Ben Shapiro, was invited to speak at DePaul University by its local Young American’s Foundation chapter, a conservative student organization, in Chicago. Shapiro was then prohibited from stepping foot on campus and threatened to be arrested. The ironic part of it all was that Shapiro was invited to talk about free speech.  

Here at BU, many students attended a protest that was held against the ban and against the wall. Nicholas Fuentes, a well known BU Trump supporter who had attended the protest, was assaulted by a number of people who tried to steal his “Make America Great Again Hat” as well as his Trump flag. Luckily, no one got injured.

I’m not saying that all liberals hate conservatives and I have to agree that BU is not as radical as other college campuses. However, as a conservative I believe that it is my right to express my political views openly and I have received mixed responses from liberals.

Some of my best friends support Bernie Sanders and have been very accepting of my views, yet I have also faced backlash and lost about 40 friends from Facebook right after the election (mostly from BU), including one of my former roommates. The reason was because I shared a post from former Libertarian Party presidential candidate Austin Petersen that mocked Hollywood Liberals moving to Canada.

 

I designed an anonymous questionnaire geared toward BU’s College Republicans and a total of 17 BUCRs responded, representing each of the four years and all parts of the conservative ideological spectrum.

About half the students voted for Donald Trump during the November 8th general election. During the primaries, however, many students voted for or supported more moderate candidates, with a Republican loved among millenials, Marco Rubio, taking the lead.

Also many of the BUCRs seem to have warmed up to Donald Trump, even though a number of students who did not vote for him still remain a bit concerned.

BU students attributed Trump’s victory to his status of a businessman rather than a politician, his tendency to speak his mind, his appeal to industrial/ Rust Belt areas, his extensive media coverage, and of course his opponent, Hillary Clinton, being connected to corruption of the DNC.

Students were conflicted when asked about the role today’s left has played leading to Trump’s victory: A common theme was the shutting down of conservative voices.

Another theme included the enforcement of the culture of political correctness and endorsements from hypocritical celebrities like Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Miley Cyrus and others who, according to their fellow celebrity Mark Wahlberg, “are out of touch with the average person.”

A majority of conservative students at BU expressed discomfort when talking about their political views and admitted to losing friends because of those same views.

Many of those who dared to speak their mind received a huge amount of backlash not only from students but also from professors, especially during the week of the election.

Many have received personal attacks such as being called “idiots” and “white supremacists.”

One student wrote that he was asked to say something “super conservative and racist” so that others could post it on social media.

Gabby Lawrence (CAS’20), was threatened with liquid being poured on her computer because she had a Donald Trump sticker on it.

Concerning bias from professors, many students either kept their views to themselves in classes to gain the approval of their professors and not to risk getting a bad grade. 

However one student was brave enough to speak his mind. He was then told that was he was reading, which happened to be Equal Is Unfair by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins, was “garbage”.

Sadly, in our day and age a number of millennials freak out when they hear the words “republican” and “conservative.” The meaning of the phrase “love trumps hate” took a 180 degree turn when November 8th 2016 transformed into November 9th 2016.

Publications and websites that many millennials read such as the Huffington Post, Vox and the Daily Kos tend to demonize conservatives by portraying us as “xenophobic, misogenistic white males who hate poor people and minorities.”

For example almost a year ago, the Huffington Post published an article titled “An Open Letter to my Friends who Support Donald Trump” and went on saying “I can’t understand why you would support someone as hateful, sexist, racist and ignorant as Donald Trump.”

People think that because we voted for Trump that we support all his policies, like the so called “muslim ban,” which is completely false. Many republicans have come out against this order. Just because we believe something needs to be done about our southern border does not mean we hate Mexicans.

The next four (or eight) years are going to be crucial for our country and by moving further away from each other we are only making matters worse. After all, #lovetrumpshate right?