Being a conservative at Harvard has always been a daunting task. But after February 25's Conservative Coming Out Dinner, it just may have gotten easier. Co-sponsored by Jews for Conservative Politics, the Harvard Republican Club, and the Salient, the event brought together several dozen undergraduates to a festive buffet dinner and celebration of ideological diversity. The dinner provided an opportunity for students to "come out" as conservatives to the Harvard community. It might prove to be the first step in a new brand of conservative campus activism.
        Held at Hillel, the event commenced, appropriately, with the Pledge of Allegiance. The rest of the evening was complete with an all-American menu of steak, potatoes, and apple pie; patriotic background music; and red, white, and blue decorations. After dinner, conservatives rose one at a time to tell anecdotes relating their experiences as members of what is perhaps Harvard's most misunderstood minority group.
        The event was an unqualified success. According to Missy Langsam, co-chair for Jews for Conservative Politics and one of the chief organizers, interest in the Coming Out dinner was far greater than what she had expected. "Originally, we had expected maybe thirty people," said Langsam, "but we got almost twice that. It was great, and maybe we'll even be able to turn it into an annual event."
None of the event's participants had ever expected being a conservative at Harvard to be easy. Despite the trend toward pragmatism among students over the past two years, the campus remains predominantly liberal. Conservative views are constantly attacked in the classrooms and editorial pages of the Crimson, and the left-wing protest marches and candlelight vigils dotting Harvard Yard serve as constant reminders of our minority status. It sometimes seems that Harvard's idea of intellectual diversity is a panel discussion starring Michael Sandel, Alan Dershowitz, and Cornel West. A wide spectrum of views, to be sure -- but variations on a common liberal theme.
        Conservatives can respond to this adversity in two main ways. One option is for us to cross our arms, sit in a corner, and pout. The other, better, alternative is to launch an aggressive counterattack.
The hard-core Left is not as strong as one might think. The Crimson editorial page notwithstanding, most students at Harvard are not politically active. Aside from the minority of radical leftists and even smaller minority of conservatives, there's a vast category of students -- the "silent majority," one might call them -- who are either apathetic or uninterested in politics. They accept the basic tenets of the radical Left only because that is the mantra they constantly hear chanted in the classrooms and by their classmates. No student, no matter how ignorant of politics, can possibly avoid the unrelenting stream of postmodernism, feminism, multiculturalism, and other politically correct ideologies. And so, through a sort of intellectual osmosis, the majority of Harvard undergraduates absorb and conform to the prevailing campus atmosphere. Most students are liberal by convention, not conviction.
        It is thus that the Left maintains a grip -- albeit a tenuous one -- on campus political discourse. In everyday matters it holds sway. Support for affirmative action is as high as ever, for instance, and any mention of Ronald Reagan (to pick one prominent conservative example) is invariably met with giggles, if not outright derision. Liberals have also succeeded in winning much of the rhetorical battle. Words like diversity, equality, and tolerance -- good words -- have been turned into rationales for discrimination and close-mindedness.
        At the same time, experience shows that when mobilized, the silent majority can be rallied to conservative causes. Last year's Great Grape Referendum, an outright repudiation of the Left's solidarity with radical labor unions, is one case in point. The back-to-back elections of Beth Stewart and Noah Seton to the Undergraduate Council presidency are further examples. That Stewart had worked as an intern for Newt Gingrich and Seton was a former Republican Alliance president didn't matter to the majorities that chose them. There's a lesson here: when conservatives are energetic and willing to educate the campus in the service of a particular cause, they can be successful. The silent, liberal-by-default majority, in other words, can be swayed -- so long as conservatives get their message out loudly and articulately.
        For Harvard conservatism to gain influence, however, its proponents must be energetic all the time, and not just when UC elections come around. It's not enough for us to sit back and disdain our activist counterparts, secure in the knowledge that, as Winston Churchill once said, "Any young man who isn't a socialist hasn't got a heart, but any old man who is a socialist hasn't got a head." That might be true, but it's not enough. By nature, conservatives are wary of activism, but on a college campus that may be the only way to get attention. We're going to have to start fighting fire with fire.
        That's the reason why events such as the Conservative Coming Out dinner are so important. If conservatives are going to try to present the silent majority with a viable alternative to Harvard liberalism, then we're going to have to organize and unify. Moreover, we're going to have to be willing to embrace, to some extent, the activism of the Left.
        A conservative brand of activism depends, first and foremost, on individuals willing and able to speak their minds. No longer can we succumb to the temptation of leaning back into our chairs during sections, closing our eyes, and dreaming of the Reagan years. The professors and t.f.'s who drone on endlessly, attacking the Western past and advocating social and economic "justice" must be challenged. Only that way will middle-of-the road students hear, respect, and eventually come around to conservative arguments.
        Conservatives also must be organized. Efforts like the ad hoc Grape Coalition and December's pro-impeachment counter-rally were successful because the word was spread, meetings were held, and action was ultimately taken. As a result, newspapers across the country, including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Boston Globe, were forced to take note. Even the Crimson had to sit up and pay attention. Such activism should continue. We must bring conservative speakers to campus, we must campaign for our UC candidates, and we must organize rallies to counter the excesses of the Left. The Coming Out dinner is the first step towards this end.
        Finally, campus conservative writers and journalists need to be prolific. Conservatives need constantly to be writing letters to the Crimson and articles for the Independent; even essays for the Advocate and Diversity and Distinction. An outpouring of conservative opinion would force these publications to prove their commitment to the most important kind of diversity of all -- diversity of opinion.
        While becoming more active, of course, conservatives must never lose sight of our principles: equal opportunity in the face of affirmative action, free markets and property rights instead of socialistic notions of "economic justice," and self-restraint and responsibility above licentiousness. Against the soft totalitarianism of political correctness we must always and everywhere affirm the virtues of free speech and intellectual diversity. Finally, to those who would condemn the Western European tradition for its imperfections, we must respond with a hearty defense of those governments and those institutions which have brought the modern world to an understanding of what is surely God's greatest gift -- the gift of freedom.

Harvard's Conservative Coming Out should be the first step in an activist effort to convert the silent majority. On a campus once known as the "Kremlin on the Charles," that will certainly be no easy task. But if Harvard conservatives are to have any success at all, we must work to rival the Left in both energy and organization. And there is reason to be encouraged -  after all, our numbers have nowhere to go but up.