There is definitely a difference between free speech and exploitative speech. The students didn’t pay tuition to hear our political views, I think this would be true even for those who teach poli sci. In any case, we have a duty not to take advantage of our students minds.

The more I think about this issue of political bias in the classroom, the more I wonder why it is that we think we’re in some tremendous position of power, and the more I wonder why it is that we’ve accepted some notion that we’re supposed to be impossibly objective and hide our political views. What’s worse is that, the longer I teach, the more I realize that it is only the liberals who feel this compulsion and face this kind of public and highly organized outcry against political speech in the classroom. I bend myself into a political pretzel in the classroom to hide my political leanings because of some delusion that I might “influence” my students and “abuse” my power. Well…what’s wrong with that? What’s wrong with me influencing my students? Isn’t that what I’m supposed to do, in the end? What precisely about my normal, completely un-radical political thoughts makes them somehow dangerous if students are to hear them?