<p>Virtually all Northeastern elite colleges and universities are "rampantly liberal", both in the faculty and student body. That is just a fact of life, a function of academics who formed their world views during the 1960s and 1970s and the natural inclination of young voters. I think it's fair to say that they have been pulling professors and students in off the ledges at all Northeast campuses over the past week.</p>
<p>The student liberalism is centered almost entirely on social issues. It's easy to get lathered up about abortion or gay rights or war; not too sexy to dive into balanced budgets, tax policy, and other economic policy issues.</p>
<p>Swarthmore is certainly no exception and is probably somewhat to left of most colleges on social issues. The school has a tradition that includes leadership in the women's suffrage movement, the anti-McCarthy movement, anti-war efforts, and endowment fund divestiture of South African corporations (and more recently corporations without gay couple benefits).</p>
<p>I have no doubt that Republicans are in the minority. However, the student body is probably not quite as liberal as the students think they are. Here are the results from a campus poll conducted by a couple of Poli Sci majors last year:</p>
<p>Question: When it comes to politics, do you usually think of yourself as extremely liberal, slightly liberal, middle of the road, slightly conservative, extremely conservative, or haven't you thought much about this?</p>
<p>22% - Extremely Liberal
53% - Slightly Liberal
12% - Middle of the Road
8% - Slightly Conservative
1% - Extremely Conservative
4% - Haven't Thought Much About This</p>
<p>Also, there does not seem to be much "in your face" stylistic posturing. For example, you don't see much "goth" or "piercing" or other "statement uniforms".</p>
<p>There is widespread acceptance of gays and gay students seem to be comfortable on campus. However, it is a little hard to know whether the gay community is unusually large. It certainly doesn't seem to be a defining characteristic of Swarthmore, as it is at a few other schools.</p>
<p>By no means a scientific poll, but my daughter did report at least one friend voting for Bush and a second friend undecided from her hall for the election on Tuesday. There was a great deal of interest in the election, including the first debate shown on a big-screen TV set up on the main lawn of the campus and a lot of voter registration efforts, particularly because Pennsylvania was a key battleground state.</p>
<p>If I were a hard core Rush Limbaugh/Newt Gingrich Republican, I probably wouldn't go to Swarthmore. Anything from a Guliani/Weld Republican to a Howard Dean Democrat would probably be pretty comfortable.</p>