CEOs At 19

I don’t claim that my college friends make up a representative sample of America’s voting youth. But since they’re disproportionately Republican, I’m beginning to worry.

I’ve had inklings of dread for a while now. Back in May, a New York Times Magazine article, “Armies of the Right: The Young Hipublicans,” highlighted the growing numbers of campus conservatives, citing polls that show a decided rightward tilt in the political views of college freshmen. According to the article, in 1995, 66 percent of college students believed the rich should be taxed at a higher rate. Only 50 percent believed the same in 2002. Most of the 16 percent that changed their minds ended up in my blocking group.

Now consider two of my friends, both Californians. They both voted for Arnold, and, like the Terminator, are socially liberal. But they didn’t vote for him because he’ll allow domestic partnerships for gays. No, they voted for him because he’s fiscally conservative. Strange, especially since neither of them will pay taxes for another two years. Since they have nothing to gain in the short run from lower taxes, they must see a brighter, wealthier future ahead with Republicans at the economy’s helm.

Of course, a tax-cut-induced $500 billion annual national deficit doesn’t look particularly bright. Neither does our generation’s imminent financial disaster: Social Security running out of money when we’re in our prime (and our parents are in retirement). But, as my friends assure me, it’s Gray Davis’ fault. And now that he’s out of the way, things are bound to turn around.

All this speculation about the economy misses the point, though. The real catastrophe is a generation of college students preoccupied with money. With the economy in its sad state, my friends and many other college students are thinking less like activists and more like conservative CEOs. College students’ role in American society used to be above money.  Now money transcends us.

The glory days are fast fading into history, but they’re still inspiring. Students saved thousands of lives in Vietnam by agitating for peace. The blood spilled at Kent State, the thousands of lungs that burned from the murky stench of tear gas, the files the FBI still keeps about our fathers—our parents’ generation we aren’t—but we profane their legacy with worldly concerns. Fretting about the economy at the expense of abortion rights, immigration, war, personal liberties and education is dereliction of duty.

We, the college students, are the only group of voters who have both the luxury of relegating economic concerns to the background and the extra time to spend actively promoting our social views. We’ll be under the yoke of money and taxes and jobs soon enough. Whatever our social views, let’s vote with our hearts, not our wallets, while we still can.

—Alex Slack is an editorial comper.