Campus will feel a little empty for the next couple of days. More than 12 percent of the school — 175 students, — will be attending the 22nd Conservative Political Action Conference to engage with conservative ideas and the current GOP presidential candidates.
This yearly trip annoys many professors. It is seen as a distraction from a liberal arts education. For many members of the faculty, CPAC is an unjustified absence. It is condemned as patriotic frivolity filled with networking and punditry.
It’s true that students will be missing two days of class. It’s true that it’s a lot of fun. But dismissing it as a distraction from our liberal education is a misunderstanding.
Since its establishment in 1973 by Young Americans for Freedom, CPAC has been a yearly celebration of the conservative movement and, simultaneously, a serious reflection on its growth. It engages conservatives young and old to debate the ideas that have made conservatism great.
CPAC is an immersion experience. Visiting a foreign country is one of the best ways to understand it. Attending CPAC is an opportunity to see conservative politics at work. Students who have generated strong political opinions based on lectures are missing a large part of the picture. As students and citizens, they should look to political reality before forming their beliefs.
CPAC educates as it entertains. Speeches are the highlight of the weekend. Some of these are filled with grandstanding, which provides students an opportunity to critically apply their knowledge of political philosophy from class. Every year, students have the opportunity to poke holes in illogical arguments. They also witness effective statesmanship in action: Real politicians who embody or reject the ideas they’ve covered in the classroom.
Another educational resource the conference provides is its interactive panels on controversial party issues. Topics range from marijuana legalization to prison reform. A variety of scholars, journalists, and politicians take up the debate. Students listen and ask questions, often drawing from their classroom lessons or preconceived notions. They may leave with opinions either affirmed or corrected, but educated regardless.
Interacting with other conservative students from across the nation is one of the most valuable elements of the entire weekend. In between speeches, or when the convention closes its doors in the evening, the political conversation continues.
Students discuss conservative principles over a meal or a drink. Students from Hillsdale reference the usual suspects: Aristotle, Hobbes, and Locke. Students from other universities counter with their favorite texts and views to engage in friendly and constructive debate.
Aristotle states in the “Politics” that “human beings are by nature political animals, because nature, which does nothing in vain, has equipped them with speech, which enables them to communicate moral concepts.”
CPAC is a chance for students to utilize their reason to generate opinions by experiencing political ideas at the source. Hillsdale’s education is unique because its lessons cannot be contained in the walls of classroom. These are ideas worth talking about in D.C. There will be more empty chairs in classes this week, but students will not be taking a break from learning.