We exist to promote honest and vigorous debate on campus. Our writers and members include Republicans, independents, libertarians, Reformers and others, and while conservative Democrats are few and far between these days, we want them too. Liberals and non-conservatives are welcome too, in the pages of the Witness , on Righttalk and at our events. We thrive on dissent. It's a luxury we can afford because our purpose is to educate, to bring conservative ideas to students.
Open debate is necessary to that end.
And far from being impractical, we know that this battle of ideas is indispensable to any kind of political or cultural action. Action without committed principle and understanding means disaster. As the title of Richard Weaver's conservative classic says, Ideas Have Consequences . Washington University itself embodies the principle. As a leading research university and bastion of the sciences, Wash U applies theory to action in the classroom.