Politics on the Hill:
Have conservative speakers initiated a swing to the right?

by Scott Milne '14
OPINION CONTRIBUTOR

Late one night I was studying in the Dunham common room, and a girl barged in yelling and cursing into her phone. I eavesdropped on her conversation - it would’ve been hard not to - and what she said surprised me. She complained about her roommate’s ignorant conservatism and complained that she and another friend were the “only liberals on this campus.” I was dumbfounded. Hamilton College, a bastion of conservatism? Hamilton, after all, ignited two national controversies over welcoming Susan Rosenberg and Ward Churchill to the school a few years ago. Rosenberg is a former Weather Underground terrorist that refused to apologize for her past, and Churchill famously called the victims of 9/11 “little Eichmanns.” Though actually extended by Hamilton’s Kirkland Project, the invitations of these two radicals suggested to me an incredible amount of ingrained liberalism at Hamilton as a whole. This girl had clearly lost her mind.

Or maybe she had not. Revisiting the Rosenberg and Churchill controversies, one must remember that the College was faced with a massive community backlash. So perhaps the Hamilton community is more conservative than its faculty’s actions suggest. But to avoid falling into mere speculation, I will not focus on whether there are numerically more liberals or conservatives on campus. The real issue is whether Hamilton is actually committed to intellectual diversity, and if it counters its publicized liberalism with conservative options.

Sifting through the daily deluge of campus emails, I find the occasional lecture on some liberal or feminist cliché. But I have also been pleasantly surprised by the quality and quantity of non-liberal speakers. Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, gave a passionate speech on the important, if safe, subject of free speech. Writer and self-proclaimed “green conservative,” Stephen Hayward, gave an utterly refreshing talk on the economics and practicality of current environmental policies. Manhattan Institute Fellow Nicole Gelinas gave an enlightening talk on the recent stock market collapse, confirming fears that our politicians don’t understand the intricacies of the markets they try to control. Then-candidate and current Republican Congressman-elect for the 24th District Richard Hanna came for a chat. Professor Waller Newell of Carleton University articulated and defended values of traditional manhood. And most visibly, Hamilton recently hosted Dr. Condoleezza Rice in the venerable Great Names series. Surely this isn’t the behavior of an oppressively liberal institution.

But all this comes with multiple caveats. For one, Rice was the first non-liberal speaker since Rudy Guiliani eight years ago. Secondly, the question and answer portion of the event embarrassed Hamilton as professors and students alike played a juvenile game of ‘gotcha’ with Rice, confronting her with tired liberal mantras circa 2004.

Indeed, the Alexander Hamilton Institute (AHI) sponsored most of the speakers listed above, not Hamilton College. This indirectness suggests a tepid tolerance of these differing viewpoints, far from an embrace of them that would be expected in a truly intellectually diverse community.

In the words of Professor Eismeier: “Hamilton College is very fortunate to have the AHI as a neighbor. Not only does the AHI enhance the quality of intellectual life on campus, it is also an oasis of intellectual diversity. More than seventy AHI Undergraduate Fellows now see the AHI as a place where students, faculty, and citizens of very different political persuasions can argue civilly about important issues. My advice to Buttrick Hall is to embrace the difference and recognize AHI and its leader Professor Paquette as assets for the College.”

In conclusion, the AHI has proven itself a worthy destination for those seeking balanced discussion; Hamilton should nurture and expand upon its relationship with the AHI. But I must say that my expectations of intellectual diversity have been exceeded. Granted, I had low expectations. But as a center-right guy, I’ve found plenty of worthwhile events to take up my time here. It just takes a little digging to find the gems.