by Penna Dexter

Our nation’s drift to the left is becoming a strong undertow.

It’s manifesting itself on the campaign trail. Just look at the popularity of candidate Bernie Sanders, especially among young people. Right now, there’s a lack of reasoned opposition to his socialist ideas with no candidate adequately defending capitalism or conservatism

Gallop polling shows only 42% of Republican voters self-identifying as both socially and economically conservative. Only 19 percent of Americans ages 18-29 say they’re capitalists.

And then – concepts that defy science and basic biology are being pressed into the culture from on high. What explains the federal government’s mandate that all public schools open bathrooms for use by students according to their preferred gender, not their biological one? The enactment of this policy is going to require active suppression of the view that men and women are intrinsically different and complementary.

With some pretty outlandish ideas taking hold these days we can only hope they’ll be be overshadowed by common sense.   But, the culture ends up accepting this stuff because a misguided compassion and tolerance is squeezing out timeless truths.

One key causal factor is the Left’s chokehold on the academy.

In a recent New York Times column entitled “A Confession of Liberal Intolerance,” Nicholas Kristof describes a root of intolerance that exists on the campuses of the nation’s universities.

Among liberals in academia there’s a sort of arrogance. Mr. Kristoff says there’s this “implication that conservatives don’t have anything significant to add to the discussion.”

It’s not a good situation. Mr. Kristof writes, “When perspectives are unrepresented in discussions, when some kinds of thinkers aren’t at the table, classrooms become echo chambers rather than sounding boards — and we all lose.”

He summarizes four separate studies, showing that (quote) “the proportion of professors in the humanities who are Republicans is somewhere between 6 and 11 percent, and in the social science between 7 and 9 percent.” By contrast, 18 percent of social scientists say they are Marxist.

Discrimination in hiring accounts for part of this. Mr. Kristof cites a peer-reviewed study of educators in which one third of social psychologists admitted that, other factors being equal, they’d be inclined to discriminate against the conservative job candidate. And if the applicant is an evangelical Christian, the job discrimination gets worse.

Conservative profs do exist. But many downplay or hide their conservatism. Nicholas Kristof says some remain in the closet early in their careers and only “come out” as conservatives when they have tenure.

This isn’t good. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has created a website, Heterodox Academy, to encourage intellectual diversity on college campuses. He says, “Universities are unlike other institutions in that they absolutely require that people challenge each other so that the truth can emerge from limited, biased, flawed individuals.” He says when universities lose intellectual diversity, “they die.” And that’s been happening since the 90’s.

Diversity — of worldview —  needs a resurgence on our campuses.