High Standards for Harvard Republicans

By Colin J. Motley

Every Republican undergoes an identity crisis upon arriving at Harvard. Transplanted from their Southern, Western or (in my case) Mid­western bastions of conservatism, right-leaning freshmen find themselves in a political environment that is unwelcome at best—and hostile at worst: the center of East Coast liberalism. At least that’s how I felt when I was a freshman—part of a small minority that could take noth­ing for granted and would fight hard to have its views heard.

Traveling to the Conservative Political Action Conference should have been a relief. Held in February in Washington, DC, this annual convention brings together all the elements of the conservative move­ment, from pro-lifers to libertarians to gun rights activists. Spending three days in the company of such familiar faces while listen­ing to the words of Republican luminaries like Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Tim Pawlenty seems about as far removed as possible from lecture halls filled with gay rights activists, self-avowed feminist radicals, and Bush-haters listening to the words of professors on the short list for President Obama’s climate-change panel.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I arrived at CPAC only to find myself still part of a besieged mi­nority: a staunch conservative who was nonetheless unwilling to degrade my own political dialogue to the level of hurling slurs against John Edwards’ sexu­ality (all the more inappropriate now, given recent events) or to label any Democratic policy proposal as “communist.” It seems approaching political issues with an eye to analysis and reasoned debate is not juicy enough to get the conservative base riled up.

Speakers to the Harvard Republican Club are fond of reminding its members that, as Harvard Re­publicans, students in­volved in HRC are part of both the “Republican wing of Harvard” and the “Harvard wing of the Republican Party.” For freshmen, this is an important lesson: To gain respect on cam­pus, Harvard Republi­cans must forsake the polemic of Glenn Beck in favor of rigorous analytical and empirical arguments. To gain re­spect in the Republican Party, we must be com­mitted to the cause and masterful in our grasp of policy to allay fears that we are “Republicans in Name Only.” The added challenge is that these two communities’ higher standards often con­flict, so to be a Harvard Republican respected by the student body and the national party requires special skill.

Consider the plight of the Republican at Harvard. Far be it from us to play the victim, but it goes without saying that Harvard Republicans have a much harder task to convince the campus of their ideas than Harvard Democrats. Few students would condemn protestors’ disruptions of speeches by the World Trade Organization (“WTO kills poor farm­ers!”) or the U.S. military (“No blood for oil!”) at the Institute of Politics, but conservatives are held to a different standard. For example, a student who waited until the Q&A period to challenge Barney Frank on the stimulus package during a forum at the IOP was nearly booed offstage by the crowd. The range of tactics acceptable for use by Democrats on campus to advance a political agenda is significantly larger than that available to Republicans.

So instead of going on a hunger strike to win an extra $1.10 in hourly wages for security guards, Harvard Republicans must adopt a more level-head­ed approach. They must use empirical arguments instead of moral ones, invite speakers who can ap­peal to the broader campus community, and be more respectful when engaging our fellow undergrads. A “Support ROTC” rally has more appeal than “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day.”

Unfortunately, such caution earns Harvard Republicans skepticism from GOP loyalists. “Sup­port our Troops” donation drives don’t solidify those conservative bona fides quite the way an “Affirma­tive Action Bake Sale” would. Many Republicans mistake modesty of method for paucity of principle. If you aren’t in Harvard Yard with a bullhorn exhort­ing students to stop that Marxist president of ours, then you must not be a true, red-blooded Republican.

To convince other Republicans that being in the Northeast hasn’t turned you into Chris Dodd, you’d better have analytical arguments that match conser­vative principles. Take partial privatization of Social Security, for instance. An impending budgetary disaster is more compelling to conservatives than the potential gains to senior citizens’ incomes from new investment. Action beyond debates and speakers is also necessary: If you can’t bear a bullhorn, you can at least oppose Democrats when they wield theirs. That Harvard education should make you a policy whiz on topics from health care to foreign affairs. No Harvard Republican can be a single-issue student, and your non-Harvard conservative friends will quiz you on the details of policy that your Republican brethren at Harvard will have taken for granted.

The challenge seems daunting: Can any Harvard student appeal to liberal classmates and earn the trust of other conservatives at the same time? In the HRC, that is our raison d’être. We work to be strong conservative voices on issues that attract campus support, like the restoration of official recognition to ROTC on campus. Our friends at the Salient achieve the same goal through a different method: reasoned and well-researched scholarship in support of con­servative principles. No matter how you choose to be involved in the conservative community at Harvard, you will face the same challenge. The upside is that your work to meet the higher standards expected of the Republican wing of Harvard and the Harvard wing of the Republican Party is fantastic preparation for dealing with politics on the national stage. Recep­tivity to conservative ideas is not guaranteed and true believers need to know you’re for real. So, as with all challenges, I can guarantee you’ll be the better for having faced it and succeeded.