Political Diversity: Pipe Dream or Not?
By Brandon Routman
Staff Writer

Take a random sampling of Pomona students and you will generally find a diverse group of kids, at least in respect to the demographics we are used to hearing about. According to the Pomona College website, “In a voluntary self-report, 6% of all current Pomona students identified themselves as African American, 13% as Asian American, 8% as Latino American, and 1% as Native American.” Through admissions and recruiting, measures are taken to ensure this diversity. The theory behind this is that a more diverse student body produces a heightened dialogue of ideas and, eventually, a more sustainable environment for learning.

However, there is one group of students which seems conspiciously absent from this otherwise diverse mix of people: conservatives. Granted, young people generally seem more inclined to align with Democrats over Republicans and liberalism over conservatism, but even when this is taken into account, the balance at Pomona is still far too skewed to the left. Frankly, before coming to college, I did not think I would mind. After all, I have considered myself liberal ever since my parents pinned a “Vote Democrat” button on my pre-school trousers. I am anti-capital punishment, pro-choice, pro-gun control, and anti-Bush. I consider myself a fairly staunch liberal.

Nonetheless, I do lament the lack of a few more outspoken conservatives here on campus. Perhaps it is because I subconsciously miss home: Kansas, a citadel of hardcore Republican values and a place where I was an obvious political minority. Within my first month at Pomona, it has become clear I am not in Kansas anymore. I have only met a handful of overt Republicans so far.

This seems to exemplify the point I want to make: there is a definite social pressure on campus to act liberal and hide conservative tendencies–this is precisely the thing we don’t want. Liberalism should not be about following the crowd, it should be about maximizing the exchange of ideas and tolerating dissent. We should be welcoming opposite viewpoints, rather than suppressing them by popular demand. If being liberal at Pomona entails suppressing opposite viewpoints, then the very core of liberalism has been corrupted.

Just as khaki shorts and Birkenstock sandals are popular on college campuses across the nation, so too are Ralph Nader and Michael Moore. These days there seems to be a “liberal image” to buy into (both intellectually and commercially) for kids who think themselves too cool or too smart for the conventional American mainstream. Gradually, though, this image is becoming the mainstream, and being liberal is losing much of its validity in the process. The messages and ideals it once espoused are now becoming more and more inflated and vacuous. And to be perfectly frank, while I despise this trend, I am as guilty as anyone of perpetuating it. I too have hopped on the liberal bandwagon to be thought of as ‘hip.’ By no means do I place myself on a higher pedestal than the group of people I presently criticize.

How do we go about stopping this insidious trend? The answer is surely not a clear-cut one, nor is it an easy one to implement. However, to be specific to Pomona, I thought the diversity discussion in the freshmen orientation was a good start. The establishment of the Pomona Student Union, the goal of which is to ameliorate the apparent lack of political diversity on campus, could also be a step in the right direction. Ultimately, though, these steps won’t solve the entire problem. There is no magical number of discussions or clubs that will change this trend, if the change goes against our own will. In short, we must want to do this ourselves. Now is the time to reopen our minds and reaffirm our dedication to liberalist philosophy. Perhaps we might even become a little self-critical in the process.