Thank you, David Walter ’11, for the in-depth analysis of conservative trends at Princeton. The most astute observation was from Tory founder Yoram Hazony ’86:
Princeton scoops ambitious young people up, “it cuts them off from their local roots, and then they don’t go back.”

Whether you are connected to “conservatism of the elite,” “Big Business, Big Finance,” or not, people from the small towns from which we came have started to view us not as that overachieving kid down the block but as part of the “globalist” elite.

Stripping the most high-performing students from all over America, combined with economic trends that have moved jobs to coastal cities while leaving exurban and rural areas stripped of manufacturing jobs and plagued with high poverty and an opioid epidemic, is a huge problem. Princeton needs to refocus its energy into ensuring its sons and daughters are committed to working in the nation’s service, not just in D.C., or New York, or L.A., but in the smaller communities that need them the most.

As a liberal living in a very Trump-friendly region (central Washington state), it is not always easy. But liberals and conservatives alike need to join together in tearing down this wall of perceived (and real) “elitism” that is dividing our country and destroying our future.

Liz Hallock ’02
Yakima, Wash.