Congratulations, son! Your high school graduation is now in the books. Lifelong friends, favorite teachers and big wins (and losses) will define these formative years.
But now a new cycle begins. College life awaits. Plenty of new challenges will be presented – academically, socially, athletically and…politically. With respect to the first three of these, you have demonstrated an ability to handle your business. Here, your brains, brawn and common sense have served you well. Such attributes will continue to serve you in your new environment.
The fourth challenge will be somewhat unique, however. Some of your new peers (and professors) will seek to define (and degrade) you by the fact that your parents earn a good living; you are the product of a two-parent home; you attended excellent private schools; you are a Christian; you are a white male; you are a Republican; you are a conservative.
Your spiritual upbringing has taught you that all of this does not for a second make you better, or worse, than any other person on this earth. You have often heard Mom and me talk about judging others according to their values, actions, character – rather than the color of their skin (or any other characteristic for that matter). This is what Dr. Martin Luther King was referring to in his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. It remains advice for the ages.
But today’s college environment seeks to question even this most basic of values. You see, there is a new, virulent ideology bumping around “higher” education and, therefore, our culture. It is called “identity politics” – a brand of progressive thought that has gained an unfortunate foothold with your generation – and is especially popular on campus.
This platform turns King’s advice on its head. It seeks to impose judgment as a function of everything but personal character. And people that look like you and have your kind of background will often find themselves in its crosshairs.
This means that you must be prepared to deal with those who will label you in order to denigrate you. The more aggressive types will tag you with the “product of privilege” moniker. This means you will be identified as a “hater” – an unfeeling type incapable of empathizing with the plight of those less fortunate – defined as just about everyone who does not fit your description.
This, of course, is the essence of identity politics. It is also a first class, in-your-face guilt trip that may also be administered by professors and administrators who just live for this stuff.
Recent years have brought us the most radical iteration of this “movement.” It unfolds almost daily on our television screens during commencement season – or whenever a conservative speaker appears on a left-wing campus.
The scenes capture aggressively violent young people acting out in order to shut down or intimidate the audience and speaker. Sometimes, the protestors are heard screaming expletives such as “Fascist!” or “Nazi!” They also tend to carry signs, lots of signs, with every “victim” cause known to mankind. The riots at Berkley and Middlebury have been the most grotesque, but many campuses have experienced this sickening intolerance.
The election of President Trump has given these snowflake-protestors a convenient boogeyman to hate; but truth be told, they did not need a disruptor such as Trump to come along in order to strut their stuff. This group believes they own the moral high ground because of their self-identified victimhood. And those like you, my dear son, are the designated victimizers, aka “oppressors.” Yes, you and your ilk are “The Man” – just grinding various victim groups down for your own nativist, racist, homophobic, capitalist purposes – or so the popular narrative goes.
And please do not let the fact that so many of these “oppressed” young people come from wealthy, private school backgrounds confuse you. The guilt that accompanies their economic advantage only makes them angrier.
Today, this mindset has infiltrated the Democratic Party to its core. Conservative Democrats have been vaporized. Moderates have been shuttered. The party’s once consequential block of right-of-center “blue dogs” is on life support.
And all in the name of political correctness.
The left-wing intelligentsia (yes, the same group that gave us modern victimology) has now morphed into the go-to advisory group for the “The Resistance.” In this capacity, progressive pundits are providing advice on how best to talk to the great unwashed, i.e., “deplorables” who somehow ended up voting for Trump. People like…us.
Your job is not to go looking for conflict with campus progressives. But if conflict does find you, you know not to back down. In this context, engage where you can and debate with substance when opposing remarks dignify a response. If possible, remind the opposition millennials that college is (still) supposed to be about the respectful exchange of ideas.
But never allow them to shut you down. Bad things happen when good people are silenced. Never allow yourself to be silenced.
And call your mother!
Love,
Dad
Gov. Robert Ehrlich is a Washington Examiner columnist, partner at King & Spalding and author of three books, including the recently released Turning Point. He was governor of Maryland from 2003 – 2007.
