Like many small, liberal-arts colleges in the Northeast, a majority of Brandeis students are liberal Democrats. However, this week is Conservative Coming-Out Week, featuring a series of events designed to bolster awareness that Brandeis has a conservative community. According to self reported political affiliations on thefacebook.com, which about half of Brandeis students are part of, there are about 1148 liberal leaning Brandeis students registered and about 149 conservative.
The week opened with a speech by Cathy Young, a Conservative writer for the Boston Globe and it concluded with a documentary about Ann Coulter, the well-known conservative pundit who has written books with titles like How to Talk to a Liberal (If you Must). This documentary, directed by Patrick Wright and Elinor Burkett, has extensive interviews with Ann Coulter and footage of her from speeches at colleges and programs like The View and the Today Show. In the documentary, Coulter is shown speaking on all the hot issues she asks, why not go to war just for oil? and calls Democratic primary voters insane for supporting Howard Dean early in the election.
The Brandeis Republicans said they would still like to bring Coulter to speak here, if only to bring light to the fact that there are conservatives here, said president Robert Schwartz 08, a sentiment echoed by other members of the Republican club.
According to Schwartz, Most students do not understand my viewpoints and think that Im just a stupid, ignorant moron.
For Schwartz, it is not just students who are liberal, but the philosophy of the University itself. Whole departments are based upon liberal philosophies such as post-modernism and the idea that everything can be solved via diplomatic relations, said Schwartz.
Schwartz said he feels that President George W. Bush is an incredible leader, even though he does not agree on all his policies. It is simply untrue that the President is an ignoramus, said Schwartz.
Even the large Orthodox Jewish community on campus does not change the overall liberal make-up of Brandeis, according to Schwartz.
Many members of this group have conservative views, but … there are still liberal viewpoints on various issues, he said.
The Brandeis Republicans had many events throughout this year. They, according to Schwartz plan to bring more speakers to campus again next year and are actively pursuing new avenues for fundraising and new events.
According to the Brandeis Republicans the main goal behind conservative Coming-Out Week is to show Brandeis that Republicans are not so scary or different.
It would be nice to have a campus that is truly tolerant of a diverse set of ideas … One of the main ideas of the club is to increase awareness of our political ideas, said Schwartz.
