It’s a beautiful Friday afternoon, and my Conservative Political Thought seminar has decided to meet outside. Sitting on the steps of Deering Library in the not-quite-too-warm sunlight, a sweeping discussion ensues, ranging from Christian theology to the writings of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I almost wish a photographer could have been there – it was the kind of scene Northwestern always paints in its admission packets, yet I had never experienced such a thing until now (it should be noted that last week the class met in the Celtic Knot, which is probably not the type of scene NU likes to portray to prospective students but was quite delicious).

While you might think that a class like this would only contain iconoclastic males, the political affiliation of the class is quite diverse, even if the gender is not. There’s a good blend of moral traditionalists, moral relativists, capitalists, communists, libertarians and even a neoconservative or two.

Glancing around the class, there are some notable campus personalities: several ASG senators, the president of College Republicans and the editor in chief of the Chronicle, to name a few. Finally, there is Weinberg freshman Jonathan Green, the founder of Northwestern Students for John McCain (to satisfy the roving spirit of Francis Willard, I should add that Green was absent when we met at the Knot).

Green claims no specific party affiliation, but describes himself as a philosophically conservative independent. McCain appealed to him because of his conservative approach to government combined with progressive stances on issues like climate change and immigration. After Super Tuesday, Green thought it would be a good idea to get an early start on the general election campaign, leading him to start Students for McCain. While he is aware of the political leanings of the NU community, Green doesn’t consider that to be a problem. He believes that he and his liberal friends are both motivated out of compassion for others, but disagree on which policy implementations best exemplify that compassion.

But does he seriously think that one student organization can make a dent in this bastion of left-wing idealism? Green admits that he may not change many minds or help Illinois go for McCain in November, but says it’s important to establish a campus presence nonetheless. “Rather than classifying all Northwestern students as liberals, why don’t we give them the independent choice to choose the candidate they want?” he responds.

So what is the point of having College Republicans, or the Chronicle or Students for McCain on campus at all since most of us disagree with them? I found Green’s last point persuasive: Even if every NU student has liberal views, those views are meaningless if they are not the product of free choice. As William Blake wrote, “Without Contraries is no progression.” Just as many Republican lawmakers might benefit by taking a course within liberal Academia, it might not hurt some liberal academics to pick up the Chronicle every now and then – just to make sure they still disagree with it.

Music senior Braxton Boren can be reached at [email protected].