Gustavus hates conservatives. You know it’s true. It’s not the fact that the liberal professors are indoctrinating the students in preparation for a Communist revolution, nor is it the fact that we allow, *shudder*,  atheists on our campus. Conservatives must be so outnumbered and so closed off from the rest of the school because there is a systematic plan to get rid of them all, right?

If Gustavus didn’t hate conservatives, why else would our students support women’s rights, GLBT rights and shared religious space so vocally? Why would Christ Chapel be mostly empty every Sunday if conservatism actually had a place here? Why else would the College Republicans, the White Heterosexual American Male Scholarship, Gusties for Conceal and Carry and Gusties for Restoring America, need to be so incredibly polarized to the right?

The real reason for why conservatives feel outnumbered on this campus is that they bring it on themselves. They choose to be the voice of insanity, to be the radical right, to be so loud, that even people who care nothing about politics (about 65 percent of college students) get annoyed. Cleary—oops I meant clearly—this is not true of all the conservatives on campus, but it is for the ones who control the organizations, the microphones and the money.

But you could say “Drew, you fool! The Republicans are outnumbered! Look at the statistics if you don’t believe me!” True. But the difference in ideology does not make civil discourse and rational responses impossible. So the issue here becomes not what someone believes, but how they display those beliefs. And when you display those beliefs by bringing someone like, oh I don’t know, Steven Crowder, as the College Republicans did last Thursday, you begin to see how they do this to themselves.

Steven Crowder, called “FoxNews’s brightest, funniest young Conservative mind,” by StevenCrowder.net, came to campus to discuss fiscal issues and have a Q and A session. I applaud the efforts of the Republicans for contributing to this very important discussion, however, Crowder is just another example of the Republicans trying to be loud, because they are so minimized, rather than having a real discussion.

I’m sure many of you saw Crowder last Thursday, and even more of you don’t see what the big deal is to bring him to campus, so let me give you a little history lesson. Search for Steven Crowder on YouTube, and you will find clips of him delivering the most racist view of illegal immigrants I have ever witnessed, condemning Islam as a “religion of hate” and even waterboarding Nancy Pelosi.

There comes a point when it doesn’t matter what he says or does at Gustavus; when he spews this much hate, it sticks with him.

So while I’m sure the College Republicans had no intent of bringing in these other Crowder characteristics, the point remains that the loudest voice, a voice of no compromise, a voice of extremism, is brought to campus for one purpose: to get a reaction. I’m sure Crowder did fine, and I’m sure a lot of people learned something, but remember why he, and not an economics professor, not a politician, not someone who has worked alongside the invisible hand, but a twenty-something year-old comedian with no experience is coming to our campus to talk about fiscal issues.

There is no reason for conservatives at Gustavus to feel marginalized. They have established themselves under past leadership to be a group that ignores moderates, forgets about civil discourse and focuses on the volume of the message as opposed to its content or presentation. (I would like to reiterate past leadership, because I do believe that the new president has them working in the Right direction. Pun intended.)