
The Disappearance of Conservative Commencement Speakers - ryan_j_naughton
http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-disappearance-of-conservative-commencement-speakers/
======
mynameishere
Huh. Ed Helms gave the commencement speech at Cornell in 2014. This was
presumably based on him having played a character who went to that particular
Ivy League school.

I'll tell you what: No serious person gives a damn who their commencement
speaker is. Sure, if Obama or Conan O'Brian shows up, that's worth a headline.
But the only people who join the _Commencement Planning Committee_ to decide
between Jerry Seinfeld and Kermit the Frog, are unserious people. College kids
tend to be more liberal, sure, but you can't really put that sentence together
without the word "kids" in it. College "adults", if any, wouldn't pay 25
dollars to rent a mortarboard in the first place.

------
hordac
I believe any movement in favor of a collective attempt to cling to an
anachronistic past, in the face of drastic, rapid, broad, sweeping social and
economic changes facilitated by modern technology will face an inevitable
implosion.

There will always be clusters and enclaves of the orthodox. Amish and Quakers,
if you will.

But when we're staring down the barrel of self driving cars that map our
cities for us (even the crumbling cities no one wants to live in), privatized
corporate rocket ships, quad-copter delivery services, instant/constant/global
all-points communication in every language simultaneously, artificially
intelligent voice-activated personal helthcare devices, killer robot jet
aircraft miles overhead watching us all with baited breath for an air strike,
cryptocurrencies few fully understand but many will hurriedly buy drugs with,
high frequency autonomous trading no one understands and everyone fears, well
gee... the humdrum arguments even from last year barely seem to make sense
this year.

Trying to preserve any political inclinations amidst all this, let alone those
biased towards standing still or moving backward, is like trying to swim
against a tidal wave.

I don't think any political label will survive this kind of tide. Only
attitudes and personalities persist in this kind of turbulence.

------
carsongross
Condoleezza Rice - Neo-con and socially liberal

Christine Lagarde - Neo-con internationalist banker

Robert Birgeneau - Lifer academic liberal

Conservative... I do not think this word means what you think this word means.

~~~
asdfologist
Agreed on Birgeneau, but I don't understand your comment regarding the first
two. You realize "neo-con" is short for neo-conservative right?

~~~
carsongross
Globalist neo-conservatives are conservative in name only: they are typically
socially indifferent, contemptuous of decentralization and tradition, and
radically progressivist in international relations.

Russell Kirk was a conservative. Condi Rice is not.

~~~
asdfologist
I'm not sure the author of the article is referring exclusively to social
conservatism. There's also fiscal conservatism, which Republicans are
associated with.

------
tdees40
News flash! Generally liberal college students prefer liberal commencement
speakers. Hardly a surprise, really. How many college students do you know who
are looking to hear from George W. Bush or Ted Cruz?

~~~
maaku
I would have preferred George W. Bush over my commencement speaker. Hell,
who'd say no to a former president?

~~~
zak_mc_kracken
Apparently, plenty of people.

------
sk5t
Interesting observation, but isn't this just a reflection of the fact that the
Republican party is in a deep, deep hole with the sound majority of educated
Americans?

~~~
rjdagost
If you define "educated" as being a college graduate, more educated people
voted Republican than Democrat in the last presidential election:
[http://www.statista.com/statistics/245886/voter-turnout-
of-t...](http://www.statista.com/statistics/245886/voter-turnout-of-the-exit-
polls-of-the-2012-elections-by-education/)

------
Apreche
Well, at universities people are very intellectual. The right wing has had a
decidedly anti-intellectual stance for quite some time now.

~~~
brc
I would consider Milton Friedman very intellectual. I would also classify him
as on the conservative side of the ledger. Some might even call him right
wing. He certainly would have made a good commencement speaker.

There is a danger of groupthink that anyone who doesn't follow the du-jour
trends of college life must be an anti-intellectual. Young people should be
aware of this as they leave college and enter the real world. Few things are
as insufferable as a young person who plasters their political views into a
workplace without respect for the people they work with.

~~~
ChrisGaudreau
Milton Friedman would be considered a liberal by modern conservatives, really.
Accepting that monetary policy can be effective is heresy to the conservatives
who currently wield power.

But yes, Milton Friedman would be an excellent commencement speaker. I'm sure
there are more great academic conservatives who would be equally good, but
very few of them are well-known enough to be considered even if the students
wanted a conservative.

~~~
deciplex
He also advocated negative income tax, which is essentially communism to the
right.

