A few important things to note about this discussion:
1) "Conservatism" as it presently exists in the national discourse is increasingly toxic and unhinged. With MAGA, it's not just that their views are bad, they're incoherent. While I have Republican and libertarian friends, it's hard to imagine someone in my circle trying to argue that the 2020 election was stolen or that vaccines are bad - you're gonna get shut down pretty quickly if you have nothing to back up your statements. That said I've seen heated debate about stuff like charter schools so it's not like people are afraid of that.
2) College campuses are less reflective of the American political landscape these days due to many major universities becoming expensive academic tourism ventures for the children of wealthy foreign families - some kid from Guangdong whose father is a wealthy factory owner and CCP apparatus member is not going to give a rat's ass about gun control or gerrymandering or whatever. Even the American representation on college campuses seems increasingly, disproportionately from rich families.
There's been a push amongst far-right think tanks to demonize education. The Republican/Moms for Liberty dream is a nation of people who don't understand how a bill is passed or who is in charge of the groups that funded it. Don't go to college, become a mason tender instead - your back will be broken by 45 but at least you'll be voting for us your whole life. That's what the woke/DEI boogeyman is all about. Then when these people google something to try to learn about it, they'll be greeted with a PragerU video sponsored by Jiffy Lube about how public transportation was invented to take away their freedom.
All that to say, it's not a surprise you don't see conservatives on college campuses too much these days.
Both #1 and #2 are critical points, but I think they speak to something deeper. Namely, Republicans, as opposed to conservatives, were all but run-off elite campuses since 2017. The reason that happened was not related to the rise of safe-spaces, nor was it led by students. Rather, it was poorly conceived effort by administrators and faculty who made the same mistake Lincoln did in 1861. They greatly misjudged both the strength and ultimate loyalties of anti-Trump Republicans, and tried to aid them in taking over local Republican organizations. The net effect was to destroy them.
The reason I make the analogy with Lincoln is that during the winter of 1860-1861 he not only remained convinced that Southern Unionists were stronger than they were, but fatally misunderstood their unionism. He assumed it was based on actual attachment to the Union over slavery and loyalty to their states, when in fact most of them hated Lincoln as much as the secessionists and were unionists because they believed it was the best possible way to preserve slavery and oppose Lincoln. As a result, Lincoln was shocked when 90% rallied to the Confederacy and fought for it.
American elites made the same mistake with Republicans who did not like Trump from 2016-2022 or so. They assumed that NeverTrump Republicans disliked Trump because of his policy positions and views which were in line with the Republican party, rather than because he was a liability to achieving those ends. The reality is, 90% of Republicans who did not like Donald Trump agreed with him and disagreed with Democrats, and at the end of the day would favor his Administration over any Democratic one. This was in-line with a longstanding fantasy that if intelligent people disagree on economic policy, all educated people are social liberals. Hence Republican friends and classmates only "pretend" to be Pro-Life or anti-immigration, secretly back BLM, and the whole Trans issue is an electoral stunt.
The result was faculty and universities tried to back "real conservatives" and "real Republicans" who in effect were Lincoln project types. This actually worked for a single student generation, as many College Republican leaders had bet on Trump losing and been outspoken in 2016. By 2018 and the Kavanaugh hearing, any Republican arriving on campus had stayed in the party after Trump won, and any Republican who ever wanted to work in DC pretty much had to have made their peace with Trump. At that point, any association with anti-Trump "Republicans" became a liability.
The result was a weird situation in which more "conservative" speakers than ever before flooded campuses, while loyal "Republicans" ie those loyal to the administration and party leadership, found themselves silenced.
The culmination of this followed January 6th. Schools like Harvard ban any speaker who failed to acknowledge Joe Biden as the rightful winner of the 2020 election. Regardless of the factual merits of the policy, it meant that the Harvard Republican Club is unable to host Congressmen, Senators, or future Cabinet Secretaries or National Security officials. Frankly anyone who is likely to be able to distribute jobs.
Without that ability, the only way for Republicans at these schools to gain advancement is
1. Have a home-state Senator or Congressman
2. Become so prominent in national, off-campus right-wing activist groups such as Turning Points they can land a job with someone like Vance
What has changed since 2022, and what I think explains the divergent views in this thread, is that administrators have given up, and younger students, whose trauma was covid, not Trump, don't care. NeverTrump Republicans have proved useless as anything more than a grift, so demands Republican classmates repudiate the party leadership have ceased. Furthermore, the far-left is so wacky these days with the Hamas stuff, a lot of the Trumpism doesn't seem so outside the norm. In fact, elements of what would be considered white-nationalism are seeping into the leftwing "mainstream" via the current anti-Israel movement.
Poll
