Where Have All the Liberals Gone?

When an abortive anti-war rally during the Gulf War attracted more camera-noting first-years than earnest anti-militarists, student politics past and present lamented: Campus politics at Harvard is not what it used to be.

Conventional wisdom dictates that partisan politics at Harvard is dominated by a large, vocal liberal majority. But while liberals might dominate the campus numerically, theirs is an increasingly salent majority--and conservative groups have taken their place to shape the direction of campus debate.

The change is difficult to notice at first. Activism during recent election campaigns, and membership in liberal student groups, seems to support the image of Harvard as a liberal bastion.

"Compared to the real world. Harvard is liberal," says Matthew J. Strong '95, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe College Democrats. "It's more of an ingrained type of thing."

"Even though there's a great conservative force here too, overall. Harvard is a more liberal school. It's a challenge to be a conservative here," agrees Karen E. Boyle '94, president of the Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Club.

During the fall presidential campaign, almost 1,000 people signed up to join the College Democrats, Strong says. "We had so many events during the campaign. We had hundreds of active members."

By contrast, the Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Club has about 100 dues-paying members, according to its president. Karen E. Boyle '94. Republican activism was not very high among Harvard students during the recent presidential election. Republican students admit.

"The fact was, people were not thrilled about campaigning for George Bush," says Thomas E. Woods '94, vice president of the Republican Club and an editor of Peninsula, a conservative journal.

But there's more to campus activism than election campaigns, and after Bill Clinton's November triumph, the College Democrats seemed to relinquish their active role. "People deal with campus issues through other groups. Campus issues don't really have a relation to the Democratic Party," Strong explains.

Today's Harvard liberal activists bear little resemblance, for example, to the 400 anti-ROTC protesters who in the spring of 1969 occupied University Hall and ousted several College deans from the premises.

The ROTC debate of the past two years--which focused on the ban on gays rather than on antimilitarism--was marked by no angry protesters, no well-attended rallies.

Although the ban's elimination was a primary point on Clinton's platform, the only group that took a vocal stand against Harvard's connection to ROTC was the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Students Association (BGLSA).

And whiie the number of conservative organizations seems to rise, membership in liberal groups is dwindling. The Progressive Students Association, once an active voice in the debate over divestment in South Africa, has only 12 members, according to its former coordinator, Gian G. Neffinger '93.

On campus issues, in fact, it is Harvard's conservative groups that use high-profile activities to dominate debate--and often, to define the agenda. Their liberal counterparts remain all but silent, relegated to a reactive position.

Activist Conservatives

In the spring of 1991, Bridget I. Kerrigan '91 grabbed national headlines--and the ire of many students--when she hung a confederate flag from her Kirkland House window. National columnists focused on Kerrigan's assertion of free expression, and used her example to expound against the tyranny of political correctness.

In the fall of 1992, Peninsula's special issue on homosexuality triggered an angry backlash from liberal and gay groups. The BGLSA responded with a rally on the steps of Memorial Church denouncing the publication. Editors from the liberal monthly Perspective faced off against their Peninsula counterparts in an Institute of Politics debate before a capacity audience in the Starr Auditorium.

This semester, Thomson Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield Jr. '53 did his part to cleave the campus along ideological lines. Mansfield, the conservative icon of Harvard's predominantly liberal Faculty, linked the admissions office's affirmative action policies with grade inflation at Harvard.

The controversy over the choice of Gen. Colin L. Powell to speak at Commencement today may further bolster conservative forces on campus, some students say. Vocal outcries against Powell's position on the military's ban on gays may alienate students who are indifferent, or who are ardent Powell supporters. "Many seniors are concerned about their Commencement being disrupted by the protests of liberals," Woods says.

Boyle points out that her club has been contacted for comment by The Washington. Post and The Associated Press, as well as The Crimson and Harvard Magazine.

"Our official stance is that we're elated he's coming and we support his ban on gays in the military," Boyle says.

Even some of the organizations less likely to be activist have joined the campaign to support Powell's visit. According to Christopher B. Brown '94, one of its members, "The Conservative Club is mostly a discussion group."

"Our purpose is more ideological and less partisan," Brown says. "We want to promote conservatism as a coherent social and political policy."

Yet this "less partisan" club postered in support of Powell, and urged Powell supporters to call President Neil L. Rudenstine, Brown says.

Throughout the months-long Powell debate, campus liberals have remained strangely silent. Instead of trying to rally around the issue, blanket liberal groups like the College Democrats have placed the burden of protest on smaller special-interest groups such as the BGLSA.

Unwelcome Conservatives

Despite their pivotal role in shaping campus debate, conservative students still complain about Harvard's liberalism. Students on the right side of the political spectrum complain about the false origins of the College's liberal reputation, attributing the extent of campus liberalism to students' desire to win social acceptance in a liberal environment.

"I think a pretty large majority of the Harvard campus is liberal, but I would say quite a number of those people are liberal because everyone else is," says Brian E. Malone '96, a member of the Republican Club and a writer for Peninsula. "I think a lot of it is 'peer pressure liberalism.""

"People who don't have particularly strong convictions either way take the path of least resistance, which would involve being liberal here at Harvard," Woods agrees.

This widespread adoption of liberal views can turn into large-scale hostility, say conservative students, who detail ways in which their views have made them feel unwelcome.

Woods compares Harvard to the Soviet Union under Khrushchev, "where if you hold certain views you're wrong, out of the bounds of debate." Woods adds that the "reckless name-calling" of liberals, employing epithets like "fascist" and "racist", greatly damages political discussion.

E. Adam Webb '93, former president of the Association Against Learning in the Absence of Religion and Morality (AALARM), explains the "welcome" conservatives receive with a hypothetical: "It's your freshman year and you come from a traditional community. You come to a place where people abhor your entire way of life--your desire to have a wife and kids, your belief in God."

"You feel like you have no place here, you feel that people don't care about your issues," Webb says.

AALARM, Webb explains, was conceived as a group to raise campus awareness about the views of the right on issues such as abortion and homosexuality, and to serve as a support group for conservatives.

Robert K. Wasinger '94, chair of AALARM's presidential council, says the group has about 50 members, and engages in postering and debate to alert the campus to a "large silent conservative minority" that deserves fair consideration.

Strong denies the existence of left wing intolerance at Harvard. "There is a general liberal respect between the left and right," he says. "Harvard's not as bad as they [conservatives] make it out to be. They look for straw figures, and raise more alarm than there really is cause for."

The liberal leader insists that while conservatives are a minority, their views are respected. But conservatives respond with anecdotal evidence to support their charges.

"One time, I debated someone very heavily on an issue, and did my best. Her response to her friend, after the debate, was, 'Oh, he's crazy,"" says N. Van Taylor '96, president of the Harvard Republican Action Council, a splinter group of the Harvard-Radcliffe Republican Club which focuses on working directly with the GOP and its campaigns.

"As a conservative, I can respect other people's opinions. It hurts when someone dismisses me just like that," Taylor says.

Background Noise

Both liberals and conservatives think they other side retains a high profile in campus debate and each side accuses the other of receiving over representative media coverage.

Boyle says that although there is "a great conservative force here too," liberal groups get more attention here. She attributes the greater focus on liberal opinion to the campus media, saying that the events of the left-leaning groups get more coverage.

Strong, on the other hand, maintains that conservatives are helped by the media.

"The ultra-right-at Harvard is overrepresented due to the media and sensational views of the ultra right," Strong says. "Newspapers engage in a feeding frenzy over the right wing."

If conservatives do make aggressive attempts to grab the attention of the student body, there is a reason for it, they say. Conservative students--and conservative professors like Mansfield--often use widespread campus liberalism as an explanation for their own activism.

"It is fair to say the general tendency on this campus is not to take the conservative opinion into account," Brown says. "Expression of our opinion must be done vigorously, to overcome leftist background noise."

Despite the continuing back and forth on the issue du jour, whether it's a long-running campus debate or a national controversy, one thing is clear: The campus left has grown tamer. When it comes to partisan politics, the visible activists on campus are predominantly conservative. And perhaps it is conservatives, more than liberals, who will forge Harvard's reputation for the future.