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Answer from Jordan Boyd-Graber, assistant professor at the University of Colorado.
I’m a professor. I’m fairly centrist (fiscally conservative, socially liberal, generally pro-market libertarian), which makes me very right-wing compared to my colleagues. I would have definitely been a Republican in the last century (before the southern strategy), and was actually registered as one until recently (partially for game theoretic reasons). At the national level, I’ve donated to more Republicans (Romney, Huntsman, and Ron Paul) than Democrats (Lessig).
There are three big reasons that conservatives are hard to find in university faculties: intellectual consistency, anti-science trends by conservatives and social pressure.
Intellectual consistency. As a professional “thinker” (however pretentious that sounds) academics value intellectual consistency and people who can articulate sound policies. However, all of this century’s top ticket Republicans have lacked this essential trait. Thus, philosophical consistency has prevented me from voting for any Republican presidential candidate since I’ve been able:
- George W. Bush was a big government Republican, was unabashedly anti-intellectual and surrounded himself with evil, lying people; he expanded the debt, entitlements and brought more religion into government (all anathema to me). He also handled the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan completely incompetently.
- I really wanted to vote for John McCain, and I’m still upset for Bush’s dirty tricks in South Carolina (see above) that stole the primary from one of the most honorable politicians in the US. I think campaign finance reform is the most important issue in America, and I think McCain would actually have the guts to do something about it. However, when such an old candidate chooses a vapid religious fundamentalist as his running mate, I simply cannot vote for him (if only he’d picked (Joe) Lieberman, (Mitt) Romney, (Tim) Pawlenty or (Jon) Huntsman).
- I liked Romney until he completely abandoned Romneycare, which was completely intellectually dishonest (it was developed by the Heritage Foundation!). I ended up voting for Gary Johnson instead out of protest.
- 2016 is so much worse …
I suspect that many of my colleagues who are also prone to be centrist feel similarly.
(The local level is a different matter. There, Republicans are more consistently pro-development and anti-NIMBY. They also are more supportive of nuclear energy and reasonable policies on GMOs. I’ve often voted for Republicans at county/city level, but given the places I’ve lived they never have a chance anyway, so it’s a bit of a protest vote.)
Another issue is that Republicans have been increasingly anti-science, hounding federal funding agencies looking for “fraud” and “waste” and pursuing witch hunts against climate scientists. That deeply offends intellectuals both at a philosophical level and at a practical level (we depend on state and federal funding).
Social pressure. Finally, the few “conservatives” that are in academia tend to keep their mouths shut. If we’re in a science discipline, we can just steer conversation to our personal lives or business to keep things running smoothly. Or we concentrate on issues where we agree with our peers (education, equal rights, immigration reform, how Trump is a buffoon).
Why are there so few conservative university professors? originally appeared on Quora—the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google+. More questions:
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