middletown, conn. <u+2014> as the needle on the new york times presidential predictor swung from a certain victory for hillary clinton to an upset win for donald j. trump on tuesday, i began to think about how my campus, wesleyan university , would react to the news. i am a trump supporter and voter on one of the more liberal college campuses in the country, where for the past year and three months i have heard critiques of the candidate and his alt-right supporters argued to exhaustion. along with my desire to celebrate, i feel sympathy for those who had invested so much in mrs. clinton, especially since i knew the sting of defeat in 2008 and 2012. a question i have heard from many people on campus, in one form or another, is how, after being taught liberal values for two years, could i still support mr. trump? it might be rubbing salt in the wound for liberals, but it was what i was taught at wesleyan that cemented my vote. it was the economics department that taught me the problems of the widening income gaps, of the larger share of the wealth and income that the top 1 percent is devouring, and of the increasing number of people who are unable to break out of poverty and achieve the american dream, and of the negative effects of international trade that have hurt many americans. and i learned that these problems have worsened regardless of which party was in power. it was the history, african-american studies, philosophy and classics departments that showed me that change rarely succeeds with a smile. rather, it requires an aggressive and unapologetic effort to show those in power that they no longer represent the will of the people. the republican party found that out in the primaries, and the democrats found that out early wednesday morning. it was the students of wesleyan who taught me to not judge a community by its fringe members, one of the messages that i received after the reaction to an article i wrote criticizing the black lives matter movement. taking their advice, instead of accepting the commonly held theories on the alt-right, i investigated the community of trump supporters further and found a diverse, intellectual and multifaceted community that prides itself on its all-encompassing embrace of free speech. after following the movement for several months, i now think most members of the alt-right aren<u+2019>t fueled by racial resentment but want a technocracy with positions earned through merit, instead of through the nepotism and cronyism that they see in washington. as i walked around campus the morning after the election, there was an eerie silence complemented perfectly by a misting rain. i had felt the same as these disappointed wesleyan students when i was in iraq in 2008, when senator john mccain was felled by the freshman senator from illinois. i had concerns about unity after that election; i had concerns that barack obama <u+2019>s inexperience would lead to a series of mistakes. i was angered by obama supporters who seemingly attacked any criticism of their candidate, regardless of its content, as bigotry. and yet, i remember being quietly envious of the energy that the obama campaign was able to generate, of those who had never been interested in politics rapidly becoming passionate about civics. i saw that excitement and had hope that mr. obama would bring in fresh ideas to move our country forward, even if i didn<u+2019>t exactly agree with his methods. it was wesleyan<u+2019>s president, michael roth , and his staff who reinforced the idea that we should seek the right answer, no matter what partisan ideology happens to own it. they showed me what it looks like to reach across the aisle and stand up for free speech even though they didn<u+2019>t agree with what i wrote in that controversial article. they defend democratic values, while also defending the right of those who disagree to express their criticisms in constitutional ways. i know there is an impulse to continue the deadlock in washington. republicans fell for that temptation too many times in mr. obama<u+2019>s presidency. instead, i hope we follow mr. roth<u+2019>s postelection advice that <u+201c>we have to remain vigilant to protect the people and values we care about,<u+201d> but also that <u+201c>we need more conversation across political and cultural differences, and we need new modes of engagement.<u+201d> i hope we exit our echo chambers, abandon the vitriol and name-calling, and find common ground where we can debate solutions instead of taking the ball and going home at the first sign of disagreement. we need a recommitment to finding and fighting for the truth, no matter where that truth may be. bryan stascavage , an intelligence analyst in the army from 2006 to 2012, is a junior at wesleyan university. follow the new york times opinion section on facebook and twitter (@nytopinion), and sign up for the opinion today newsletter .
my liberal university cemented my vote for trump
bryan stascavage