Thank you.
Conservatives who can think independently of the Koch minions are endangered by Koch funding. That is why there is no longer any debate. Nobody is listening to each other anymore. That is why everyone is so polarized and why campuses have run amok with groupthink and why a conservative student like the OP has trouble finding a decent place to go to college where he/she won’t be red meat for the wolf pack.
I won’t comment other than to let you read “Dark Money” by Jane Mayer.
Conservatives are endangered because of… other conservatives?
I did not know this.
Let me get some popcorn.
It’s actually kinda true–there’s been a coup on the right, funded by the Kochs. But the process started by the Kochs and the Tea Party they astroturfed has given even them their comeuppance–Trumpism is a natural evolution of the rhetoric of the Kochist right, but even the Kochs didn’t see him coming. I don’t know where the GOP is going, but it’s interesting, that’s for sure.
There are different strains of conservatism. There is the Trumpist/nativist strain (arguably descending from Buchanan’s paleoconservatives). There are the “Main Street” conservatives like Luger and Bob Dole who use to be the right wing of the GOP but now are the moderate wing (because they were willing to compromise some times) as the GOP marches towards wingnuttery. There are the (extreme) economic libertarians like the Koch brothers. There are also social conservatives and a small contingent of interventionalist neoliberals who mostly care about invading other countries. There use to be socially liberal, fiscally responsible Rockefeller Republicans in the GOP but they’ve pretty much been completely wiped out at the national level. Anyway, because the extreme economic libertarians like Koch, Club for Growth, and various Tea Party groups primaried Main Street Republicans and caused the GOP to be the party of intransigence, extremism, and no-compromise, they left a big opening and (an increasingly frustrated; and frankly, bigoted) GOP base that someone like Trump (who, IMO, is, in both temperament and knowledge, too unsteady and ignorant to have the world’s most fearsome military and nuclear arsenal at his command) could exploit.
This has very quickly turned into a “Goldilocks” thread. And, by that I mean, the OP appears to have a couple of deal-breaking requirements that are slightly at odds with each other, making it very difficult to find the right fit or what is far more likely, the correct ED choice in a situation where he hasn’t visited any of the colleges he is considering.
In this case, the OP wants to attend a prestigious college or university (probably, outside The South, though he hasn’t actually put that into words) that won’t have “a lot of raging liberals.” Mind you, he doesn’t say he wants to be around lots of conservatives. If it were a matter of simply finding his “peep”, the choice would be simple: pick the larger school. Rather, he is turned off by social activism.
Let’s face it, social activism is code for gender or racial politics. No one gets riled up enough to get into anyone’s face over the repeal of Dodd-Frank or right to work laws or the desirability of a public option in our health care system - even assuming they know enough about these issues to have an opinion in the first place. But, how to find a college or university prestigious enough to be among the top fifty destinations for higher learning in the country, but, apathetic enough to have had no Black Lives Matter demonstrations over the past year or any confusion over bathroom designations or whether “yes means yes”? That’s a pickle.
Personally, I’d start with athletic conferences. You want a college (more likely a university) that is Division I. Why? Because any college with a sizable minority population (and that includes most of the Top Fifty) had better have an active sports scene to keep everybody too busy to demonstrate about anything. A corollary to that would be a college with an active fraternity and sorority scene. Look at the Clery Act statistics for the Big Ten and Pac Ten universities; they are among the lowest for reported rape and sexual assault for colleges their size in the country. Whether that’s because they actually have fewer rapes and assaults is anybody’s guess, but, my own opinion is that it is because the culture makes it less likely for these things to get litigated in public.
In short, it leaves out the Ivy League, NESCAC (really, most LACs located anywhere In the country.) It does leave quite a few flagship publics. It also includes a couple of large private universities like Stanford and Northwestern and some interesting exceptions to the LACs like, Colgate, Lehigh, Lafayette, and Davidson.
Hope this helps.
@circuitrider Correction: I have visited NU, but I have yet to visit Williams. I’m hoping to do so in the next few weeks. Anyway, you seem to think NU is the way to go for my standards?
Then, this whole exercise is useless.
@circuitrider Then don’t comment on the thread.
@circuitrider I’m looking for advice, not ridicule.
@MrAustere, A visit to Williamstown should solidify your decision one way or another. Williams’ insular mountain location is a plus for some and a negative for others. You’ll know when you get there.
To me, the fact that Morty Schapiro, Northwestern’s president, spent a total of 20 years as Williams first in the economics department and then as president, says a lot of about the cultural synergy between the two schools. Nevertheless because their physical environments and sizes are quite different, the undergraduate experience would be different too.
I’m a parent, not a student, so I can only give you a second hand view on political activism at Williams. My impression is that although the student body, faculty and administration definitely lean left, there’s a reasonable amount of leeway and respect for conservative arguments on economic, government and foreign affairs issues.
Social issues skew strongly liberal and conservative views on abortion and LGBT issues may be less acceptable. Prejudice based on gender or racial equality would definitely not be acceptable.
Environmental activism --concerning issues such energy, climate change, conservation – is widely supported perhaps because of Williams nature-friendly location.
Many of my son’s friends have chosen careers in public service – environment, law, economic development – reflecting their commitment to social and environmental issues. Their involvement is on a serious and professional level seeking pragmatic solutions to complex problems. For example, the head of the Nature Conservancy is a Williams graduate who moved into environmental stewardship by way of Goldman Sachs.
The Williams name is well known and respected by professional and graduate schools throughout the country. Career and graduate school advising is excellent, and because your professors know you personally, you can count on meaningful recommendations. Of course acceptance to a top tier law or business school depends mostly on your own performance, but for sure the contacts and relationships that you make at Williams last a lifetime.