I found some commentary on this on Instapundit. This is not something that is entirely foreign to me.
I won’t bash my teacher’s down too hard, I have really enjoyed my class, but the predominance of a liberal viewpoint has given me some cause for concern this quarter. Here I am, with a largely conservative perspective on life, walking into my first quarter of college… and I was completely unprepared for what I was walking into.
But it wasn’t the instructors that surprised me as much as my classmates. One of my classmates simply stopped speaking to another girl in our classroom because she was very open about her conservative perspective. Another of my classmates was nearly brutal when she sprayed us with her left wing point of view on why Bush stinks.
At one point, one of my instructors digressed into a mini-speech about not understanding how Bush could have been re-elected when there were so many people who were against this war… but she didn’t push that point of view on us. She asked us out of a need to understand. I didn’t feel comfortable enough with myself in the classroom to answer her. I wish that I had, I am sure that she would have listened to what I had to say.
This brings me to my point. The circles that you expose yourself to play a large role in your understanding of other points of view. If you never see a conservative perspective, how can you hope to appreciate it? If you never see a liberal perspective, how can you claim to understand it?
This is the most important thing I have learned from college this quarter: It takes all kinds to make this world what it is. Conservatives and liberals need each other to keep a balance in our political system that benefits the needs of everyone. While my views are largely conservative, and it may not seem like it at times, I do recognize the importance of a liberal perspective on things, and sometimes… even manage to agree with one.
However, in answer to what my intructor asked us that day, I think I might have said: “Because there are so many more people that think that what we’re doing in Iraq is the right thing. Kerry portrayed himself poorly by continually talking about Vietnam. It was the wrong issue, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. America doesn’t want another war that tears this country apart. To many people, Kerry gave off the appearance of a man who could make that potential a reality.”
