My family is liberal. When I say liberal, I don’t mean they jumped on the Obama bandwagon in ’08. I mean really, really freakin’ liberal.

On the back of my grandmother’s car — a Prius (sustainable, of course) — beside the Obama/Biden sticker, which covers the Kerry/Edwards sticker, which covers the Gore/Lieberman sticker, is a sticker that reads “Proud to Live in a Blue State” (for reference, I live in Massachusetts, the most liberal state in the country). My uncle’s car bears a sticker that reads, “Somewhere in Texas, a village is missing its idiot.” My aunt is a registered socialist who blames bad weather — and, it seems, everything else negative — on Bush, Cheney or Reagan depending on her mood. My (formerly Catholic, currently agnostic) grandmother claimed to be “sitting shiva” after Ted Kennedy’s death because she was so upset. We’ve been having locavore Thanksgivings (now trendy) since I could pronounce “Thanksgiving,” and I have “save the whales/seals/swordfish/insert any other endangered sea creature” buttons dating back to my time in the womb. So when I say my family’s liberal, I’m not kidding.

Somewhere along the line, though, to my family’s great dismay and disappointment, I ended up conservative. Maybe it was my love of freedom, my anger at the taxes deducted from my high school paychecks or my attachment to guns (just kidding on that one). Maybe I was just being a contrarian until I realized I actually agreed with what I was saying. But these days, I am a libertarian-leaning conservative, and given my family background, it’s pretty clear that I came to these views on my own.

Being a student at Cornell is a bit like being a member of my family — my conservatism, when revealed, is greeted with shock, dismay, a sense of betrayal — so much so that I often don’t reveal my political convictions to professors or acquaintances. And while Cornell espouses acceptance and tolerance and gumdrops and posies, in reality, tolerance — by professors, peers, university policies — is extended to all minority groups except the one that nobody cares about: conservatives at Cornell.

I know what you’re thinking — “poor little spoiled conservative girl, all bitter that McCain lost and taxes are going up.” For the record, I voted for Barr (told you I was libertarian). But let’s think about it this way: Over the summer, Republican activist Rusty DePass referenced an escaped ape as “probably one of Michelle’s ancestors,” referring to the first lady, on his Facebook page. The comment made national headlines as racist. DePass was shunned by both national and local leaders. He issued a public apology, claiming that he was only referring to evolution and the idea that all humans descended from apes (an idea he found problematic, if not absurd, and that the First Lady, like most educated Americans, holds true).

Several weeks ago, a Cornell professor, in the course of his lecture, made a similar public statement — in the course of teaching about evolution, he posted a photo of Bush next to one of a monkey and pointed out the similarity between the two. While it is hard to claim that this is a racist act, and, I will concede that DePass’ motives can never really be known, the two incidents are nearly identical. And yet, nobody made a peep. The professor got a round of uproarious laughter instead.

In other classes, professors unabashedly refer to Bush as “the devil,” or blame irrelevant and minor incidents on Bush (similar to what my aunt does). There is almost always a resounding tone of negativity when discussing the years that Bush was in the presidency, and a sense that all of the world’s problems (war, famine, the credit crisis) can be blamed on Bush, Cheney or Reagan (there goes my aunt again). In fact, in some classes, it feels like there is an all-out assault on conservative politics — professors (even in the economy department!) expounding on how bankers have single-handedly ruined our economy (never mind all of the selfish people who spent beyond their means, or the greedy mortgage brokers … just blame it on the bankers), or stating, as if fact, that Bush is directly responsible for all of the University layoffs, or claiming that all racial, social, and sexual-identity-based inequalities are all the repercussions of conservative politics.

And yet, were one innocuous comment to be made about the similarities between President Obama and the devil, an uproar would arise that could be heard from midtown Manhattan.

The same people who cry out about tolerance and accepting everyone as individuals are often the very hypocrites grouping conservatives into a large, stereotypical block. The same people who carefully distinguish, properly, between religious groups, sexual minorities and ethnicities, carelessly group conservatives into one single block. And the poster child of that block is usually a character like Bernie Madoff — male, white, greedy, over-privileged. (Side note: Madoff was a Democrat, and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years to Democratic campaigns and PACs — claw-back possibility, perhaps?)

Just as all liberals aren’t Prius-driving, dreadlock-wearing, vegan activists, not all conservatives are white-collar, over-privileged white men (or, the other stereotype, uneducated, blue collar hicks). Just as many liberals weren’t big fans of Carter, lots of conservatives (myself included) were less than pleased with Bush as president.

Under no means am I saying that racism is acceptable, in any form. Nor I am suggesting that the conservative minority needs or deserves special resources, as many other minority groups on campus benefit from. I am largely in favor of these policies, and do not think that political groups of any kind (as opposed to ethnic or religious groups) should get special treatment.

Instead, like many others have before me, I ask for a sense of equality, conscientiousness and sensitivity. Think about who might cringe if you openly criticize conservatives in a class. Watch what you say about Bush. Heck, even go out on a limb and ask a conservative what they actually believe — we don’t all believe the same thing, and many of us (myself included) agree with lots of liberal policies. Making a snarky remark about a conservative usually isn’t racist, or homophobic, but it reflects the same narrow-mindedness that racist or homophobic comments reflect.

Ithaca is a bastion of liberalism, and many students and professors reflect that sentiment. While I’m used to being challenged by my liberal family, students shouldn’t have to be constantly challenged or insulted by comments made by professors or peers. Next time I hear an unfounded conservative-bashing comment, I’m going to remind the commenter that about half the country disagrees with them. And then point out how bad their dreadlocks smell, that Priuses are clichéd and ugly, and that it was misinformed, close-minded, self-righteous people just like them that got us into our current financial mess. Conservative-bashing is close-minded, self-righteous and misinformed — just what they claim conservatives to be in the first place.

Leigha Kemmett is a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. She may be reached at lkemmett@cornellsun.com. Starboard Tact appears alternate Thursdays this semester.