As I write this article, my mother and I discuss the things I should do with the next four years of my life. We discuss the future I hope to have and the implications of my dream job, both for myself and my family. We talk about activities — I bring up marching with the HOT band this fall. She advises me to take up running classes in college. I talk about making appointments with my pre-law adviser. She recommends that I stop by the gym and sign-up for kickboxing or self-defense. She doesn't say this because I am overweight or lacking in hobbies or extracurricular activities.
My mother says this out of fear for my life.
An overprotective mother would seem to be the problem here, right? Except, she’s right to be afraid. I am a young conservative with strong opinions who hopes to become a political commentator.
At a time when the political scene is so polarized, to aspire to become a political figure in any sense of the word is dangerous. Conservative pundits like Ben Shapiro regularly receive death threats. The death threats levied against Shapiro were so concerning that Shapiro’s father was forced to write under a pseudonym during their time at Breitbart News. When the California State University Los Angeles chapter of the Young Americans for Freedom brought Shapiro on campus to give a speech, leftist protesters barricaded the doors and pulled fire alarms as Shapiro and the students were sneaked in, by armed police, through the back entrance. The protesters claimed the speaker of the day was using offensive language, in spite of the fact that almost none of them entered the theater. It is no coincidence that Ben Shapiro happened to be the first conservative speaker to visit the campus in recent memory.
Above: Students at CSULA block the entrance to the theater where conservative pundit Ben Shapiro was supposed to speak (2/25/2016 Photo courtesy of Michael Knowles)
For my part, I’ve been fortunate enough to have never been physically threatened for my conservatism. On the other hand, whenever I have been more open about it — say by wearing a T-shirt with the GOP elephant on it — I've had some less than pleasant experiences and comments. A gay friend of mine, who had never before questioned our friendship, asked me if I “was one of those Republicans who wanted [her] to burn in hell?” Similarly, conservative friends of mine warned that I was going to get shot for wearing such an offensive article of clothing. My sister, afraid of the potential backlash, let me test the waters by wearing my shirt out before she got around to wearing hers to school. Things like television and media coverage of the election cycle can be difficult to swallow, especially when shows like "Glee" and "Switched at Birth" often paint conservative characters as rude or downright evil and politicians, who no longer represent the views of the conservatives who elected them, are used to classify and stereotype.
For fear of being outnumbered or for lack of desire to enter a political fight, or maybe simply because they feel people should make their own decisions, conservatives became cloistered. In public schools, in universities, on TV and on social media, the conservative presence faltered. By the same token that Barbie dolls are now manufactured in varying body shapes and colors and societies encouraging women to enter STEM fields pop up regularly, I’m left wondering if the lack of popular conservative role models for young Republicans to look up to has impacted our numbers because let's face it. There isn't exactly a conservative version of Katy Perry running around in a latex ballot-print dress. Why is it that conservatives these days seem so afraid to voice what they really think? Why is so little done to promote intellectual diversity among Millennials? Overwhelmingly, it seems strange that in a modern country complete with a Bill of Rights, that a person should fear verbal or physical harassment for their political beliefs. Almost as strange as being harassed for your gender, race, religion or sexuality.
The only problem I see in self-defense classes or improving my one-mile time is that running from my problems or physically beating those who would harm me does not solve the problem: their own reluctance to be open to other ideas. In that sense, I don't know that writing political news articles will fix their narrow-mindedness. On the other hand, that's not my problem to fix. But maybe by writing these articles, I can hope that the lesser traveled path will see some more wear, even if it's just to peek at what's down the road.
