1.
Questions You Couldn't
Ask Your Liberal
Professor 1

2.
:
What advice do you have for college
conservatives who are surrounded by so
many, adults and students alike, who
demonize their views?
— $helb1 Luikart, Trinit1 Universin

3.
4/
The purpose of college is to find out the
truth, especially about things that are
worthy, and especially by discovering
what those things are.

4.
‘
That has always been hard to do, and it
has always met with a lot of resistance.
Modern liberalism is arrogant in its
ascendance, and it often constitutes
an obstacle.
x7

5.
ONE
KEEP ON.
It is not, after all, loyalty to
a party or movement that
makes the best education,
except, that is, the party
that seeks and values
knowledge of the
best things.

6.
fi
Must conservatism constantly look to the
past, or is there an effective way to study the
great minds of the past and apply their
insights to a future that is distinct from both
our present and our past?
— Lhasa Padusniak, Princeton University

7.
A:
I do not think the
conservative movement
is interested in the past
unduly. Rather, it is
interested in the
abiding and the true.

8.
«X. :1’
It is a fact that the past is the only thing
we have to study, and the greatest things
written about the abiding and the true
are necessarily in the past.

9.
The present is fleeting, after all, and
Churchill pointed out the obvious
when he said that "the future,
though imminent, is obscure. "

10.
@
Why is it that schools place such heavy
emphasis on the idea of “tolerance” that
they are willing to censor students with
opposing ideas?
— Hunter lhrman, Hope college

11.
Does not the emphasis on tolerance
have to do with one of the chief strains
of educated opinion today: relativism?
Everyone is entitled to his own values.

12.
The worth of a thing is in the fact that
someone values it. The absolute right to
define one’s existence, as Supreme Court
justice Anthony Kennedy says, is the basis of
all.

13.
But this will not work. Relativism is
vulnerable to a logical problem. ..

14.
Let us say my value is
to dominate you.

15.
Let us say I think the
contest among values
should go to whoever
is stronger.
How does one argue
against that if all
values are equal?

16.
The problem soon resolves /
itself into the idea that
there are sovereign views
for our moment in history,
and these are the views
defined by the social scientists
whose business is defining
such things.

17.
It is according to these standards
that some are ostracized and
others celebrated.

18.
The worth of a thing is in the fact that
someone values it. The absolute right to
define one’s existence, as Supreme Court
justice Anthony Kennedy says, is the basis of
all.

19.
ii "77
1 : ' I . _._
The development of these new standards is 7
rapid. A president may oppose the new
definition of marriage in one year and '_
excoriate those who do so a short time later. ,
- _ . . . _.. .,. .. : :,: :;> E 5
_ ~-.7.-. -_+: '“""”' 77 7 7-7 777 1' _‘; ;“§ / ,;_

20.
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These things change. One must fall in line,
and he had better be on time.

21.
In an election, should conservatives vote
for the “lesser of two evils” or for a more
fringe candidate who is more truly
conservative but can’t possibly win?
— Andrew Luff, Laihoiic University
of America

22.
That is a prudential judgment, meaning the
answer depends upon the details.

23.
"i
. WE ~ .
an , __, 7 _. ‘
. ... ... . 5351!! iiimi Imm . '!! i!. i mm 7 -S —
If a candidate is pretty good and can
do marginally better, and might win, and
someone else would do much better
but has no hope, well, then, are we to
let the best be the enemy of the good?

24.
In the united States, we have a two—party
system. Some large features of our political
system agitate that way, and I think on the
whole this is fortunate.

25.
There may be 3
cases when a 1, is 7 7, A
protest vote, ‘a/ _ 77 **'i>"°-.
if large enough, *7.‘ 5,
could make a ’
difference to one L‘ e. ',_
of the major ~ 775:?
parties, shock it I I .
into improvement, . ‘we
or maybe even ,7: ,5; , .
replace that party. 3/
7°‘7’. -' II‘ , ‘ Ki" we
I, 177 77777 7777777

26.
The latter has happened only three or four
times in American history. It has sometimes
(I think of the birth of Abe Lincoln's party)
been a good thing.
/

27.
CC
There may also be absolute cases, or nearly
absolute cases, when one simply could not vote
for any of the candidates likely to win.

28.
In 1933 Germany held a
plebiscite to give Hitler
trans—constitutional
powers. One would vote
against that, even
knowing that it was
going to pass.

29.
Later Hitler himself was on the ballot: he was
going to win, but one could not support him in
any case. Unless, that is, Hitler was threatening
to shoot your children, which sometimes he
was.

30.
E
How serious of a problem do you think
the polarization of American political
life is?
- Even Peterson, Popperdino univorsitj

31.
I think this acrimony is characteristic of times
when the differences are fundamental.

32.
In the American
Revolution very hard
words were spoken,
including against some
Founders by other
Founders. if
If there is animosity
and debate, it may
mean the debate is
about something.
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V

33.
“' . . re. ».. I ‘V
J ‘W . . 4 A §
Better, because more effective as well
as more human, to be civil.

34.
Lincoln said Douglas's
policy would lead to
the enslavement of
all Americans.

35.
Churchill said that the
socialist in Britain
would ultimately have
to use a secret police or
Q "a Gestapo" to achieve
L his ultimate aims.

36.
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1 . A . -
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‘. _'-I -‘p / ‘my , '_~ I’ /
_ »-: .i. .'. v:. -iii". '« i ' . -.5. -'. .¥a . -3.
But they both said this was not the
intention of their opponent, whom
they otherwise held in esteem.
I
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2
3 .
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37.
Q g 0
Many politicians seem to care much more
about winning elections than actually making
a difierence in government and substantively
adding to the public debate. How can such an
approach he changed?
- Ben ldzik, Franciscan Universitj

38.
It is hard to win elections, but much harder
to make a difference having won.
41¢! -r*"' ‘V ””

39.
The political system was
made to be resistant to
change, and it has become
resistant to change in a
different way through the
advent of bureaucracy.

40.
Elected officials do not
have as much power as -, ,._
they used to have. It i‘i
should be a high » I I
purpose to repair this.

41.
W Constitutional government provides for
real changes of direction to be debated
I and decided.
W Bureaucratic government takes a lot of
1. that out of the political process.

42.
Most public officials I know are trying
to make a difference. In times like
these, doing so takes unusual skill.
-LARRY ARN N
Larry Arnn is president of Hillsdale College. He is committed to providing an authentic
liberal arts education and a thorough grounding in America's founding principles the
very principles he studied as an ISI Weaver Fellow at the Claremont Graduate School.
Republican & Democratic party image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr.

43.
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