With Trump now all but clinching the GOP nomination, people on all sides of the political spectrum see the triumph of the uneducated in defining conservatism. Increasingly, Democrats are becoming the party of the young and the educated, and conversely, Republicans have gained support amongst older and working-class voters. This beckons the question- where is the home for conservative college students, a burgeoning class of intellectuals becoming increasingly alienated from both parties? Educated Democrats by definition do not agree with our ideology, and many working-class Republicans resent people in positions exactly like ours. We share more in common circumstantially with Democrats, but more so ideologically with Republicans. Yet, even while sharing many of the viewpoints with working-class Republicans, many from this demographic despise people exactly like us- those studying at universities to get an education that we can ultimately parlay into a well-paid, modern, stable white-collar job. We simply lead very different lives from most blue-collar workers. So if like-status people don’t want us, and like-minded people don’t want us, then where do we go? What do we do? What is our future? To answer this, we have to first look at the past, and what got us here, and then push back against those trends.
For much of the 20th century and even into the 21st, the GOP was the party of the elite and successful and entrepreneurial spirit. The mass exodus of educated white-collar voters from the Republican party was relatively recent. A successful campaign by academia and left-leaning media outlets portraying Republicans as close-minded, narrow-thinking, and just outright dumb convinced many well-educated voters to transition to the Democratic camp, despite still holding strains of conservative belief. The result is a self-fulfilling prophecy: educated voters feel it is more socially appropriate to align with Democrats, leaving Republicans as the party of the working class, further alienating educated individuals into joining the Democratic camp. The dwindling number of white-collar Republicans is thus becoming increasingly differentiated from the blue-collar voting base, who are generally not sympathetic to their white-collar counterparts.
I put forth the argument that we need to vigorously advocate for what I will call “Intellectual Conservatism” to preserve and grow the space for intellectual young conservatives. The clear solution to this problem is easier said than done- to reclaim Republicanism as a space for intelligent, influential individuals. But we can’t afford to not try, as the alienation of the young intellectual class from Conservatism is deepening by the day. We have to advocate for, and rigorously justify our principles. We have to show that pro-life, pro-second amendment, pro-border-control, anti-gender-ideology, anti-CRT, and a litany of other issues can withstand intellectual scrutiny and are not simply positions held by closed-minded, resentful people as much of the media portrays. Therefore, we not only have to be willing to express our opinions, but also be able to defend them. We have to decouple the positions of the people who currently believe them by showing how they are intellectually sound and politically astute.
Defending our beliefs is more of a measure of legitimization than conversion. We should not, at least directly, try to convert people away from their deep-seated ideological beliefs. Rather, we should try to show there is space to hold conservative values despite being on a white-collar track. For most of modern history, the intellectuals and elites were conservative. The idea that conservatism is reserved for the underclasses is a bug, not a feature, in history. It can therefore still be reversed.
Republicans should certainly respect and appreciate the strong working-class base. But as intellectual conservatives, we just have to realize conservatism should not be exclusive to this group, and try to expand it back into white-collar circles.
Young, intellectual conservatism is on the verge of extinction. College Republican clubs, especially at elite universities, and nearly all fledgling. Republican viewpoints are being delegitimized and squeezed out of the classroom. If we don’t start advocating, there won’t be a next generation of us.