Campus Conservatives Are Dying

A DEEP DIVE into the under-examined world of campus conservatives, Amy J. Binder and Kate Wood’s book can feel like an anthropological account of a disappearing tribe. Despite a lackluster economy that held few jobs for the newly graduated and dim prospects for those still in school, young voters were overwhelmingly pro-Obama this November. But as Binder and Wood discover, the conservative heart still beats defiantly in many of our colleges. And the ardor with which movement professionals tend to the campus grassroots suggests the central role higher education plays in the conservative cosmology of American decline. Campus conservatives may be outnumbered by their moderate and liberal classmates, but they are better organized and trained. And their cultivation has consequences well beyond campus walls.