BY NOW we’ve all had time to comprehend how momentous it was for Virginia to change from red to blue in the 2008 presidential election. “Not since 1964 ...” was how most reporters’ sentences began last Tuesday night. Seeing blue elicited cheers of hope and optimism from supporters of President-elect Barack Obama. Yet some areas of the state stubbornly stayed red. Lynchburg, my hometown and unfortunately the home of Liberty University as well, was one of those areas. If Liberty students have anything to say about future elections, it is likely that Lynchburg will remain red for years to come.
Yet despite the students’ newfound political voice, it is doubtful they will use their numbers to encourage other Lynchburg citizens to vote. Confined to their own conservative Christian bubble, Liberty students will continue to overlook obligations to the larger community. They will only use their numbers to further their own social and political views while they ignore the rest of their fellow citizens.
Growing up 15 minutes away from Liberty University was like being forced to share my toys with a large and pugnacious bully. He took what was mine, usually broke it, and then handed it back to me in a shattered mess. That’s how it felt every time the school’s ultra-conservative evangelical founder Jerry Falwell spouted off an ignorant and hateful comment about one population or another, and that’s how it felt in 2004 as the school heralded the return of George W. Bush to the White House for four more agonizing years. I tried in vain to disassociate my hometown from the hateful messages elicited from Liberty’s campus, messages that often made headlines and painted Lynchburg as a backwards haven of intolerance. I gave my wholehearted support to certain political candidates whose policies were antithetical to those that Liberty supported, only to watch as my efforts were crushed under the weight of the conservative masses led by the king of bullies himself, Papa Falwell.
During this year’s campaign, Liberty went above and beyond its usual political activities, unyieldingly pushing its students toward the polls in an effort to secure the presidency for Republican candidate John McCain. Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. cancelled classes, provided buses to the polls, and espoused repeatedly the importance of voting on Election Day.
That’s all well and good, except for the fact that getting out the vote was all about ensuring a Republican victory and had nothing to do with exercising one’s right as a citizen, regardless of one’s political leanings. The City Council representative of Liberty’s ward even said in the Lynchburg’s newspaper, the News and Advance, “I would hope [Liberty students] would vote for limited government and greater freedom.” Falwell, Jr. himself vocally distinguished the campus from supporters of the Obama campaign, characterizing those who backed McCain as “our folks.”
Lynchburg eventually went for McCain, albeit barely — 51 percent of the votes went to the conservative candidate, and the 4,200 newly registered Liberty students no doubt helped him win. Once again, the big bully had come along and crushed my spirit. It wasn’t that McCain had carried my hometown that made me so upset as much as it was the fact that Liberty alone, the Evil Empire of the Hill City, had made the decision. Following the election, news story after news story focused on Liberty’s impact on the election, and more frighteningly, its potential impact on future elections. “I think without [Liberty students] Obama would have carried the city,” Falwell, Jr. told a news reporter Nov. 5. “And I think that’s a clear indication of how much influence these student voters will have in future elections.” His words still make me shudder.
With so many students expressing their electoral power, it is disheartening to see it go to little use. The most hopeful outcome of the entire election was the amazing increase in voter turnout, the fact that so many previously silent citizens decided to get out and voice their opinions. But Liberty had nothing to do with this increase. Their voter registration campaigns were restricted to Liberty students.
In the historically black neighborhoods of Lynchburg, according to the News and Advance, voter turnout reached 57 percent. Liberty’s turnout, however, was even higher, reaching 70 percent — the largest turnout percentage in the city.
Regardless of Liberty’s political leanings, what is most disheartening about all of this is the fact that students are not choosing to utilize their newly realized political power to generate higher voter turnout in the rest of the city. If expressing one’s political voice is truly so important, why not encourage others around the city to get out and vote as well? That is the moral choice. Instead, Liberty made the partisan choice. For them, influence means imparting their own hegemonic worldview on others rather than empowering those who lack a strong social and political voice. If you don’t vote their way, they imply, you shouldn’t vote at all.
Liberty will no doubt continue to fill its role as town bully for years to come. But students and administrators should stop and think before backing their next conservative candidate. Is it morally responsible to utilize your resources to further your own partisan agenda, ignorant of the rest of the world around you? Or is it your unspoken duty — moral, Christian, or otherwise — to empower as many people as you can, regardless of their political opinions, in the name of, for lack of a better word, liberty?
Amelia Meyer’s column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at a.meyer@cavalierdaily.com.
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