A Conservative in the Classroom
By Allison Chebuhar ‘21,
In today’s American system of higher education, intellectuals like Eli Nachmany are taking a stand against conforming to the status-quo political beliefs of most Ivy League Law students.
Nachmany is a twenty-four-year-old Harvard Law Student from Closter, New Jersey. He became involved in conservative politics as an undergraduate student at New York University, where he served as State Chairman of the New York College Republicans. He completed his Fall 2016 semester online in order to work as a full-time paid staffer for the Trump 2016 campaign. Then, before beginning his first year of law school this year, he worked as a staffer under the Trump Administration again for two additional years. During his time with the Trump Administration, he worked as Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s speechwriter for a year and a half, assisted the Department of Justice with the confirmation of Brett Kavanagh to the Supreme Court, and lastly spent five months as a domestic policy staffer in the White House Office of American Innovation.
As the American higher education system has become increasingly more liberal, Eli Nachmany is a student who refuses to subdue his personal beliefs in fear of ridicule by his peers and professors. He is confident expressing his conservative views because “you have to remember that half of the American electorate shares [conservative views]. The classroom is just a forum for discussion and a place to learn.”
When asked if during the Trump administration, it is a hard time to be a conservative in terms of judgement from peers and professors, Nachmany said, “perhaps, if you care about that sort of thing. I’m just focused on working to get the President re-elected, as I trust he can get the economy back on track after the coronavirus pandemic.” Nachmany says he considers himself to be a conservative because he believes in “strong borders, fair trade, economic prosperity for all Americans, and an America-First foreign policy.”
While standing up for a largely unpopular belief in the classroom may sound like a daunting task, it can, and should, be looked at as an opportunity for self-growth. It is an opportunity to defy the negative, unwarranted stereotype of Republicans and uninformed and uneducated.
Nachmany spoke to the opportunity for self-growth that is presented when one is forced to relentlessly defend their perspective. He said that, “holding a view contrary to many in the classroom has forced me to sharpen my arguments. There is much less margin for error when the well-represented other side is waiting to pounce on the weakest link in your chain of reasoning. My experience in this regard has seriously helped me in law school.” He referred to being a conservative at Harvard Law School as “wonderful.”
There is no shortage of the bashing of conservatives in American society, but contrary to what the media will lead you to believe, now is a great time to be a conservative. Nachmany said that “shoddily (and often anonymously) sourced, partisan reporting has damaged the institution of the press. I think many members of the media are serious journalists, but the prevailing business model encourages sensationalized reporting.”
Looking back on his experience in Washington thus far, Nachmany said that a critical moment of his life took place while he was working in the White House as a moderator for a Student Leadership Summit and welcoming Turning Point USA students to D.C. According to Nachmany, this opportunity influenced his political outlook because the “bright, young scholars were so eager to learn about political activism, but more importantly, they were willing to put in the work to achieve the results they hoped to see.”
Nachmany said, “We have great people, and I am so optimistic about the future of conservatism in America.”
He has high hopes for his generation of young conservatives. Nachmany argues that, “as far as the American people, I think public sentiment is shifting ‘conservative,’ or, at least, in the direction of the President.” Motivated, passionate, and informed intellectuals like Nachmany are a force to be reckoned with, and they are willing to shape the future of American politics.
As a rising senior at W&L, I, Allison Chebuhar, hope that as we return to campus, we can continue to have civil academic and political debates. When we come back to Lexington, I expect that the student body may be more divided over issues of racial injustice, the 2020 Presidential election, and the potential of changing the name of Washington and Lee University than when we left. My hope for the student body is that the voices and viewpoints of conservative students are not simply be ‘canceled,’ but are rather respectfully debated.