When filling out my absentee ballot, I checked off every Republican, including a white-haired war veteran from Arizona.

But I’m not going to tell you to do the same or tell you why I think they’ll run the country better than others.

I have a Ronald Reagan poster in my bedroom and a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on my car. I gave Governor Mike Huckabee a standing ovation when he spoke at Bailey Hall last spring.

But I’m not going to advocate that you do the same.

What you do is your business. What you believe is your decision. How you express your beliefs is also at your discretion. And I’m not going to think any less or more of you because of who you support and what you believe.

Who am I to judge?

But understand that if you’re of a certain particular political ideology (read: a conservative Republican), it’s not easy.

Now, I knew coming to an Ivy League School in Ithaca, New York (of all places), is nothing like attending a bastion of conservatism (like Brigham Young or the United States Naval Academy).

But being a conservative at Cornell is a lot harder than it looks …

Take these situations as examples:

1. “Reapers of racial rage seclude themselves inside their ethnic ghettos (be it Ujamma, Latino Living Center, or Akwe:kon) and then complain about their supposed exclusion from the rest of the Cornell community.”

The above characterization comes from The Cornell Review’s Orientation issue this year. The article, entitled “What to expect,” is by Mr. Eric Shive ’07, a Cornell graduate and former editor of The Cornell American. Shive’s article was first published in The Cornell American in the 2006 Orientation Issue.

Our conservative campus newspaper republishes an article from two years ago that they absolutely knew would cause sensational controversy. Ethnic ghettos! I’m pretty sure that this characterization could have been done a lot more professionally and tactfully.

In addition, why, I ask, is The Review republishing an article from two years ago by someone who graduated in 2007? Has no one stepped forward that could write like Shive?

No. The answer is that The Review wanted to increase their circulation. They wanted to get people talking about their paper. They did so, unfortunately, at the expense of conservatives at Cornell.

My friends, I assure you that calling program houses “ethnic ghettos” is not helping anyone’s reputation.

And The Review’s stance of “We do not apologize” is not helping anyone, either. In fact, such a viewpoint can be alienating to folks on both sides of the aisle. People make mistakes. Are you going to tell me that The Review is infallible?

2. In another instance, the Student Assembly hears a resolution advocating for a concealed carry policy that would enable licensed students to carry handguns to and from class. The resolution’s sponsors are leaders within the Cornell College Republicans.

A campus debate ensues about rights and gun safety on campus. The resolution is voted down three for and 14 against.

The discussion occurs less than a year after the heinous shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University.

The concealed carry resolution brought before the Student Assembly advocated that the S.A. strongly urge the administration to take whatever action is necessary to allow for concealed carry on campus.

Regardless of what your interpretation of the second amendment was for this one, I thought it was in poor form to use the deadliest campus shooting in our nation’s history as a starting point to make a case for concealed carry on campus.

Students don’t need guns on campus. And when you begin advocating that they should, I worry that some maybe got the idea that they should bring their gun to class, even if they aren’t licensed.

My favorite statement made in the concealed carry discussion was “Frat Party + Guns = Disaster.”

What happens when I trip and fall in my fraternity house after a couple of drinks and my firearm goes off? What if someone, unnerved by the sound of my gunshot, shoots their firearm? A gunfight would ensue amidst a fraternity party. That wouldn’t bode well for anyone.

3. On September 26, 2008, The Cornell Daily Sun reports “over $92,000 of Obama’s campaign money came from 143 of Cornell’s professors and administrators; only three chose to give money to John McCain, totaling $1,300.”

The two newspapers that are sponsored by the campus student government and are made available are The New York Times and USA Today. Both rank highly among liberals.

This paper, The Cornell Daily Sun, refers to John McCain as “villainous.” It’s no secret who the editorial board is in bed with.

Lastly, it becomes increasingly frustrating when we hear statistics about faculty members leaning so far to the left. I’m not sure what a solution to such an unbalance is, but I can only hope that these faculty members will be a bit more open-minded and accepting than some of the faculty members I’ve encountered have been.

While some may think otherwise, I don’t think I’m a bad person for being a conservative. I’m also not a moron for having a certain political viewpoint. Please don’t view me, treat me, and speak to me as such.

As for The Sun and the campus newspapers, one has to hope that they are also looking for someone to share the other viewpoint. Let’s just hope the folks that have to offer these “other” viewpoints haven’t been scared away.

* * *

I don’t cite these examples to complain or whine. I cite them, instead, to help you realize how difficult it is to be in the political minority at Cornell University: a conservative Republican.

C.J. Slicklen is a senior in the School of Hotel Administration. He can be reached at slicklen@cornell.edu. Closing Time appears alternate Wednesdays.