The results of the latest national poll of America’s 18- to 29-year-olds by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School, released on November 19, noted — among other things: “Young Republicans are far less comfortable sharing their political views with professors than Democrats and Independents.”
The poll found that 87 percent of young Americans between 18 and 29 years old describing themselves as Republicans are comfortable sharing political views with their parents, 74 percent are comfortable sharing political views with their friends, 49 percent are comfortable sharing political views with their colleagues at work, 41 percent are comfortable sharing political views with their supervisors at work, but only 35 percent are comfortable sharing political views with their professors.
In contrast, 56 percent of young Americans describing themselves as Democrats and 51 percent calling themselves Independents are comfortable sharing political views with their professors.
The College Fix quoted Harvard sophomore Cathy Sun, who was involved in the creation of the poll, who told the website in a phone call: “The poll results showed that Republicans are far less likely to feel comfortable sharing their political views with their professor.”
The conservative website observed that the Harvard poll’s results are similar to those found by “College Pulse,” a poll conducted by The College Fix in September, which found that 73 percent of Republican students answered “yes” to the question: “Have you ever withheld your political views in class for fear that your grades would suffer?”
A report posted by the New Right Network in September observed that conservative students on some college campuses fear more that receiving poor grades from their professors for expressing their views, but actually fear physical assaults and harassing behavior, as well. The article cited a Los Angeles Times report from Los Angeles TV station KTLA on September 29, about Matthew Vitale, a UC Riverside student who asked campus police to arrest a fellow student who grabbed his “Make America Great Again” hat from his head and verbally attacked him with profanity-filled accusations of promoting “genocide.” The Times, normally considered to be a very liberal news organ, reported:
Many conservative students say efforts to silence them have escalated since President Trump’s election last year. Massive protests shut down campus talks by right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos at UC Davis and UC Berkeley this year and led to unprecedented security costs for other speakers, such as conservative writer Ben Shapiro.
A November 19 article posted by The New American reported the experience of Whitney Bailey, an associate professor at the College of Human Sciences at Oklahoma State University, who in 2017 took an unpaid leave of absence to accept an appointment at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from incoming President Donald Trump.
Whitney subsequently filed a lawsuit against OSU, alleging that Democrats at the university denied her a promotion because of her political beliefs.
Photo: Deagreez / iStock / Getty Images Plus
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Liberal Hypocrisy Rampant on College Campuses
Warren Mass has served The New American since its launch in 1985 in several capacities, including marketing, editing, and writing. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Warren writes from Texas and can be reached at [email protected].
