I agreed to their request because, particularly at a communication-centered school, I believed that the First Amendment should be alive and practiced daily (the campus already had a funded Emerson Democrats student group). Still, advising this group was often distressing, what with appealing rejection after rejection related to getting funding for the organization’s survival, navigating the “why the heck are you doing that?” e-mails from colleagues, and the general fatigue that set in trying to tell others why this organization should exist.
It was especially challenging to undertake these conversations because I am a political moderate who has, generally, leaned left of center. I was, and am, clearly not a Republican.
Yet students who had the temerity to have a “Make American Great Again” pin on their backpacks or who may have advocated vocally for smaller government found themselves ostracized, even ridiculed. The stories were difficult to listen to, and our group’s meetings soon evolved into the makings of a support group.
Today, the organization doesn’t exist because as those of us in the academy know, students come and they go. But one thing remains: Being a Republican on a college campus often finds you not just in the closet but locking the closet door.
Rich West North End
The writer is a professor of family communication and past president of the National Communication Association.
Values matter — they’re integral to who we are
Jeff Jacoby writes with dismay about how young people are disinclined to pursue a potential life partner if the prospect has different political views, and he seems to attribute this to our current state of discordance. Although his observations about the intensity of political dialogue may be insightful, his understanding of human compatibility, especially with someone with whom one will want to share mutual support in life goals and potentially raise children, is much less so.
Nowhere in his column was the word “values.” These are what define our beliefs integral to who we are as a person, among them, how we treat unrelated fellow humans and other living things. Americans don’t decide to pass on a choice in the mating game because of disagreement on tax-increment financing or the best way to fix the T. However, whether your mate-to-be would be inclined to support a cause, lifestyle, or candidate you think will cause suffering does matter.
Geoffrey Patton Ashland
How one voted in 2020 is a real litmus test
Jeff Jacoby cites an NBC News/Generation Lab poll about political differences in potential partners. The survey asked only about the last election. Had those questions been asked in 2014, about the 2012 election, I believe the results would have been very different.
A choice between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney was between two men of character with differing political philosophies. In the last election, a choice of Donald Trump would have been a proxy for someone prone to conspiracy theories, lack of critical thinking, and possibly white supremacy. Not exactly what I would have been looking for in a potential partner.
My wife and I have voted differently in a number of past elections and it was never an issue. Then again, we’ve never seen a candidate like Trump before.
Robert Marchetti Shirley
Trump and his followers are morally broken
Bemoaning the discord and distrust that divide our country, Jeff Jacoby recalls how in the 1980s, he was appalled to see a date end abruptly when he expressed support for Republican Jack Kemp as a potential presidential candidate. But in his assessment of Kemp — “a man of integrity, commitment, intellectual curiosity, and optimism” — Jacoby actually gets at the heart of the issue today: Donald Trump is none of these. Trump and today’s Republican Party have allowed their supporters to be their absolute worst selves.
Here’s my view of our political divide: If you voted for Trump and still support what he stands for, you are telling me exactly who you are — someone who prefers conspiracy theories and blatant lies to reality. There’s nothing to be learned from someone like this. Life is too short to waste around someone so morally broken.
Joe McFadd Lancaster
