Being a Conservative at PEA
Preface: This article is not meant to be viewed as an attack towards any student or faculty here at Exeter. I have had wonderful and productive conversations with people leaning towards the left. Instead, the purpose of this opinion editorial is to discuss how my conservative views affect my life at Exeter.
When I heard that 58% percent of the Exeter community is left-leaning, I was not taken aback. I had already felt that as a conservative here on campus, life was certainly different for me. But before discussing the extreme leftist culture here on campus, it may be useful to note that I grew up in a predominantly Republican town in New Jersey. And so, naturally, my first few weeks of classes left me in shock.
According to Phillips Exeter Academy’s website, Harkness is described as “[exploring] ideas as a group, developing the courage to speak, the compassion to listen and the empathy to understand.” However, from my experience, this is the realistic version of the statement: “It is where we pat each other on the back for expressing the same viewpoint, and discourage those with opposing viewpoints to truly speak up.” Through my own encounters, I’ve found that bringing a conservative perspective to Harkness discussions results usually in heavy backlash.
A conservative student walking into class at the start of the new term instinctively hopes that his peers will accept his viewpoint, and that the teacher does not hold strong liberal beliefs. If this is not the case, they know to keep their heads down. Unfortunately, I did not follow this norm last term.
"The best course of action is to accept that the school is predominantly liberal. That being said, conservative students should still be able to express their contrasting viewpoints without fear of backlash."
Following the tragic massacre at Las Vegas last October, the teacher decided to change the class plan and discuss what transpired. For twenty minutes, it was a never-ending discussion about “banning guns.” I decided to interject and say, “Firstly, it is infringing on the Second Amendment of the Constitution, and it defeats the main purpose of its creation. Following the Revolutionary War, the Thirteen Colonies feared another tyrant taking control of the United States. So, they allowed people to own guns, so that they could fight tyranny. Even if a tyrant won’t exist in our lifetime, history has repeatedly shown instances of a democratic government turning into a dictatorship.”
The class fell silent. The conversation had already transitioned from discussing the senseless killing of sixty innocent lives, to gun rights. But after I’d expressed my opinion on this issue, they proclaimed that I “supported the killer because I disagreed with laws that would outlaw firearms.” Afterward, I was labeled as the “a**hole that supported the shooting.” This reaction was similar in other situations when we discussed politically-charged issues such as gender-issues and universal healthcare. I was often met with a similar fate. Nonetheless, it does not compete with some of the markedly one-sided ideologies espoused at Assembly Hall.
If the deans here on campus are looking for potential reasons for the lack of attendance, they should look at the content of some of our assemblies. I am not supporting the act of students skipping assembly because they simply do not like or agree with the speaker. I am also not implying that all assemblies are egregious. However, with some assembly speakers holding obvious biases and closed-minded political affiliations, it becomes infuriating to hear the same wage gap statistics without diving deeper, or calling Trump a joke, even if I am not a personal supporter of his.
Some conservatives have tried discussing this issue with faculty here on campus and are hopeful for changes to follow these conversations. This will unfortunately not be the case. The best course of action is to accept that the school is predominantly liberal. That being said, conservative students should still be able to express their contrasting viewpoints without fear of backlash.