Redefining the ‘silent majority’

tradition in modern American society that increasingly radicalizes the methods of the base, and the left denoting conservatives as extremists.

While Democrats have no doubt had a role in this perception, conservatives have been guilty of creating this image for themselves. With an increasingly cynical outlook on the fate of the American cultural landscape and calls to use big government to impose a paternalistic agenda, conservatives have alienated voters, abandoned their principles, and played (even if unintentionally and falsely) directly into this narrative of extremism. It clearly did not benefit the party electorally, with claims of “threats to democracy” and “deprivation of women’s rights” by the left carrying weight among voters, indicative in exit polling. Many Trump-endorsed candidates flailed in the midterms, underperforming predictions.

encourage them to tap into the patriotic and traditional values that are still in the hearts and minds of what former President Richard Nixon would call the “silent majority." Emphasize America’s hardest workers, military service members, and invested parents. Be true to conservative ideas and prove to the left that there is nothing radical or extremist about issues everyday Americans care about.

For Democrats, this should serve as a reminder that conservatism in its most organic form is not all that foreign, radical, or alien. With roughly similar percentages of Americans currently identifying as Republicans and Democrats, it is very well possible that one of your best friends, closest family members, or neighbors is a Republican or has conservative viewpoints.

Living in Washington this semester, I have largely been struck by the bipartisanship I have witnessed. Many adults in the “industry” have friends across the aisle, and while they certainly don’t let that keep them from being ideological, they assume that the vast majority of their opposition is working in good faith. That said, when a Democratic government official that came and spoke to my class last week asked, “Have you ever been made to feel like you need to apologize for your views … because of your age or gender?” I answered with a disheartened yes. While I have been lucky enough to embrace my politics at Penn, find friends who have been supportive of me regardless of my views, and have platforms where I can express my opinions — notably this column — I am still often caught off guard by the lack of tolerance for conservative beliefs among our generation. In the last week alone, I heard about a friend getting shunned by her roommates after they found out about her partisan affiliations, and listened in on another friend getting ridiculed by his coworkers for daring to befriend a Republican.

These interactions are backed up by data, with 37% of Democrats saying they would not be friends with a Republican, compared to only 5% of Republicans when roles are reversed. These numbers have an even greater disparity when people are considering relationships, as 71% of Democrats versus 31% of Republicans won’t date outside their party.

These encounters point to how distant people our age feel from Republican ideas. Conservative values are often considered alien or extreme, especially by young people. This is in part due to political rhetoric on both sides, with the right describing a lack of

No devices beyond this point

“Electronic devices are not allowed in this class.”

Many professors, at Penn and elsewhere, have a no-electronics policy for their classes. The reasons for this are numerous, and often valid. For example, paper notes have been shown to be more effective for memory retention, and the presence of electronic devices in classes can easily distract students.

However, as someone who sometimes has difficulty reading handwritten notes, this creates a barrier when I try to review for a class. I can usually read my notes, but I have messy, rushed lettering, and English is one of my two native languages, making it difficult for me to read some complicated or atypical handwriting. Usually, this issue is limited to one or two sections of notes, mostly when I’m rushed to copy down a couple of slides before the professor moves on. There is still a marked difference in how easily I can review my past notes depending on whether the notes are on paper or digital.

The usage of electronic devices in lectures makes learning more accessible for many students. Whether it’s because English is a second language, or because students have difficulties with reading or writing quickly due to other diagnoses, tablets and laptops make the process of taking notes easier and less stressful for many. Non-native speakers, for example, may not have the time to understand what lecturers say due to the rush to write it down.

But what if just the students who experience these difficulties receive special accommodations to use electronics in class?

Accommodations like these publicize a private condition, where there is no real justification to do so for a student’s safety. Hypothetically, if a student struggles with dyslexia or dysgraphia, and they were the only one allowed to use devices in a lecture, other students would inevitably notice the accommodation.

Much like how the Americans with Disabilities Act aims to protect the privacy of people’s conditions, this also is a student’s private matter that we need to protect. Herein lies the difficulty in only granting permission to students with disabilities or other barriers.

Thus, many professors at Penn must either decide to remove devices completely from the learning environment or to allow students to access them with universal rules. It is best for students to be allowed devices for accessibility, but in the case that professors still find it preferable to ban them, there are additional measures that can help. There are different approaches to these rules, each one with their own strengths and weaknesses.

Some professors attempt to keep students attentive and engaged while still allowing them to access their devices. A perfect balance is difficult to achieve, but there are some policies that help.

One common policy is for professors to allow only tablets or laptops, but not phones, since the former are not optimized for distracting software like chat messaging and social media. Professors could also have rules about being on nonacademic sites or distracting other students during lecture.

Another policy is to integrate interactive content into lectures. Studies show that while handwriting one’s notes is generally more effective than typing them out, interactive learning where students engage with the content is even more effective than lecturestyle teaching itself. While allowing students to take their notes electronically, professors could also minimize the amount of actual time students spend on their devices and potentially getting distracted by having them hold discussions, ask questions, and participate in simulations or games.

If professors do decide to ban students from electronics, it’s important to have safeguards that help

In my own experience, both conservatives’ fears and the way they are characterized are unfounded. As a field director and operative on state legislative and gubernatorial races in Connecticut, one of the “bluest” states in the country, I encountered countless voters who expressed concerns directly consistent with American values. They were troubled by the quality of their children’s schools and the increasingly ideological curriculums they witnessed being taught. These voters worried about the fate of their small businesses and the excessive cost of living imposed by punitive taxes, and they shared their distaste over the freedom-encroaching mask and vaccine mandates imposed by Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont's administration — even if this isn’t always conveyed on social media or at the ballot box. The same can even be said of my college campus. As president of Penn's College Republicans chapter, I notice our membership continue to grow weekly. Penn's American history classes are similarly widely attended, and I am regularly impressed by the showing at our Sunday Catholic masses.

For Republicans, these observations should students learn without requiring them to take meticulous notes every class. Some classes, in fact, are impossible to do well in without virtually copying down every topic and example discussed, simply because there aren’t enough alternate accessible resources.

Instead of shunning, judging, or assuming things about their Republican peers, Democrat students at Penn should take the time to consider what motivates conservative viewpoints they disagree with. Whether people like it or not, there must be a reason why politicians like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are getting reelected by wide margins in a state that had once been purple. Continuing to isolate and assume the worst about our political opposition only weakens our own arguments and ability to deliver substantive policy solutions.

While today’s “silent majority” may not be exactly as Nixon had imagined, the phrase does speak to many views that the average American holds which are being overlooked by both Democrats and Republicans. Common sense, honest conservative values are not radical or extreme, but instead can be found everywhere you turn.

LEXI BOCCUZZI is a College junior studying philosophy, politics, and economics from Stamford, Conn. Her email is boccuzzi@ thedp.com.

Providing ample online class notes is one solution, for example. Presentation slides for classes that actually include answers to the questions posed, a small summary of the content covered in class, which readings to review to understand the material better, or even just a set of page ranges of the textbook in which the concepts are explained are also extremely beneficial to one’s academic experience.

Every course at Penn has a unique topic and a

Take advantage of the venture ecosystem at Penn

BRETT’S BIZ BITS | Penn students have a unique opportunity to engage with entrepreneurship

Startups are exciting.

Businesses founded by Penn students (or recent dropouts) have raked in millions of investment dollars over the past few years from high profile investors like a16z, Founders Fund, Contrary, and 776.

Venture capital is the best performing asset class of the last decade. The value of venture investments has increased every year for the past 15 years to $333B in 2021. Ten years ago, it was cool to be an angel investor, another name for an investor who invests their own money. Now everyone wants to have their own venture capital fund, or a business that invests capital on behalf of limited partners. The venture capital industry is a rapidly changing environment and Penn will play a larger role in its future.

Venture capital is in the midst of a great transition from the world of business to business and consumer software as a service companies to the more gatekept world of artificial intelligence and hard tech.

That’s a lot of buzzwords. But we are really living through an anomaly. Venture and startups have been the best get-rich-quick scheme in human history. Have an idea? Good at selling yourself? You and a computer could raise funds and build a billion dollar company with the help of some venture capitalists and a great team.

That's because software is inherently accessible. Google and YouTube allow you to learn anything you need at home with Wi-Fi and a computer. But those days are over. It has been 20 years since the infrastructure for these advancements was built and the surface area for building a startup in this extraordinarily accessible space is shrinking. It’s the beginning of the end for SaaS and traditional software products.

A great example is the proliferation of nearly identical apps. Sidechat, for example, is a copy of Buzz (now Fizz). Fizz, although different in that it requires people to be students to join communities, is very similar to Yik Yak. Dive Chat, which recently launched on the Penn campus is an improvement on GroupMe undoubtedly, but a relatively incremental advancement compared to the original genesis of group-based, mobile communication.

As the opportunities in traditional software shrink, robotics and AI are just beginning to take off. AI, because the internet was not as easily harvested, categorized, and universal as it is today. It’s now possible to measure nearly everything that happens to people all of the time. And with that data we can create AI that replicates human decision making and creativity.

Robotics were not as accessible previously — mostly because of Moore's law and lack of infrastructure for widespread enterprise adoption of robotics. Tesla has demonstrated significant leadership here in its gigafactories — indicating that the mainstream use of robotics is only years away.

Robotics and AI are much more gatekept industries. The amount of data you need to access in order to build an industry-specific AI algorithm is mindboggling. A kid with a laptop can't get access to that — only universities, enormous tech companies, and other societally entrenched institutions can.

The amount of hardware, testing, and enterprise exposure necessary for robotics entrepreneurship is similarly daunting. Shinkei Systems, a Penn robotics company started by Wharton graduate Saif Khawaja, has been in and out of accelerators (startup programs) for years. They have received the support of YCombinator and Penn’s many resources. Shinkei still hasn’t launched with customers. Khawaja is brilliant and has assembled a welleducated team of robotics experts — and he is still having these difficulties. The industry is very difficult to break into and requires the pedigree and access to resources that Penn and YCombinator have opened to Khawaja and the Shinkei team.

For Penn students, the increasingly difficult to access entrepreneurship ecosystem means that we have an even greater responsibility to take advantage of our opportunity. We are all in a unique position to leverage Penn’s reputation and resources to succeed — and Penn students have an even stronger competitive advantage now that more exclusive industries are on the rise.

Get involved with startups in and around Penn.

Hundreds of students are working on side projects or startups that could blossom into a great company with enough effort and luck. Ask around about the data and hardware support that Penn provides to entrepreneurs — they are a powerful differentiator in today’s venture landscape.

If you’re interested in academic opportunities in these areas — check out the new masters program in robotics or machine learning classes unique way the lecturer teaches it — something I personally appreciate for how interesting it makes every class. However, there are simple steps that professors and other teaching staff can take to make learning much more accessible to every student, in every class. like CIS 5200. And, if you are looking to get into startups in a more traditional SaaS space, make sure it’s in an industry with enough remaining friction that is so specialized that the collective knowledge of humanity over the past 20 years have been unable to build it.

To guarantee immersion and engagement, course content needs to be accessible. We must recognize the daunting barriers that some course policies and restrictions create, and act on them as necessary.

Penn, as a globally renowned institution, will have access to the hardware, testing, enterprise exposure, and data necessary to power entrepreneurship for the future of the venture ecosystem. Your access to industry-changing data and technology is unparalleled. How you choose to deploy those resources is critical, so get to work.