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should put it. Their opinions come from certain traditions. But again, I
don't find them cynical.
Abigail Thernstrom:
But recent polling data suggests that a majority
of young voters are Republican.
William Phillips:
That doesn't prove that they're cyni cal, does it?
Abigail Thernstrom:
N o, but it does prove that they're not pro–
grammed in the way you think.
William Phillips:
Wait a minute. The polls are national polls. I don't
know how many times we have
to
say this, there's a split in American
life. The universities are not the population as a whole.
Abigail Thernstrom:
I'm talking about the way young people think.
William Phillips:
Well, wh ich young people are we ta lking about?
I'm talking about students. My students were not Republicans. There
wasn't one Republican in my class.
Abigail Thernstrom:
In the first place the students in those polls are
not generally voters. If they think that way only in their college years
and then graduate and think differently, then we have no problem.
William Phillips:
Students are not represe nting the American popula–
tion politically and culturally. It seems to me that's a fact.
Abigail Thernstrom:
I'm just saying that if you take the youngest age
cohort and look at their political profile, you see a picture very different
from the one you're describing.
William Phillips:
Look, Bush won the last election by an enormous
landslide. But he couldn't win one in the uni versity.
Abigail Thernstrom:
Among the facu lty.
William Phillips:
N ot among the students either.
Edith Kurzweil:
I don't think we're going to solve that problem here.
I'd like us to go back to what you brought up in the very, very begin–
ning. The thing that I find very alarming on my campus and that's
alarming on other campuses, polls or no polls, is the incredible polariza-
