Many of the most recent and insidious acts of far-left violence have been carried out by ideological refugees. These were true believers, people who bought into the transgender ideology peddled to them. Tragically, because they believed it, they acted on it. Most did great damage to their minds, many did irreversible damage to their bodies, and a few, like the shooters who murdered children in a Minneapolis church and Charlie Kirk on a college campus in Utah, even took the lives of others.

These individuals are victims. Elites of the progressive left vociferously supported the idea that men could become women. Under the umbrella of that support, many made life-altering decisions. Then transgenderism became a losing issue at the ballot box, and that support dried up. Many of the true believers, abandoned by their leaders, were too far gone. They were left with no off-ramp and no choice but to retreat further into madness and hatred. They missed the last chopper out of their ideological ’Nam.

I am glad to hear many important voices on the right acknowledging this trend. But there is a cautionary element to this tale.

The right has true believers, too.

I am one of them. I am an archetypal conservative Gen Z man. I am traditionally conservative. I am deeply religious and have found my way into a more liturgical form of Christianity. I married young. I want a family. Most critically, I want to help the Gen X and millennial elder statesmen of the conservative movement rebuild this country and make it a place my grandchildren will be proud of.

I am also at a decision point, for it is time for me to go to law school.

I have the credentials. Through a mix of natural ability and a year of hard work, my LSAT score is above the median at every law school in the country. Yale, Harvard, and the University of Virginia are not out of reach. I could attend an elite institution, make enough money to support a large family, and make meaningful contributions to my community and my country. For the past 200 years, this has been the dream of any American preparing to enter the legal profession.

Here’s the problem: You keep telling me not to go.

When conservative leaders talk about higher education today, they call it a scam. They describe Maoist-style indoctrination camps, indoctrination camps with college football, perhaps, but indoctrination camps nonetheless. These institutions, we are told, are not meant to educate. They will not give young men what they want or need, nor will they enlighten their minds or draw their souls toward the true, the good, and the beautiful. The standard advice is that most young men should attend trade school. For those who still feel compelled to pursue professional careers, there is a small network of explicitly conservative institutions they are encouraged to attend instead.

We are also told that the reputations of these new schools, such as Hillsdale, Regent, New College of Florida, and Christendom, are strong. Conservatives in politics and business say that a Hillsdale graduate is just as qualified, and has far more common sense, than a Yale graduate.

I want to believe this. I really do. Institutional capture is real. I have seen it myself. I applied to some of the most ostensibly conservative law schools in the country, and more than a few asked me to list my preferred pronouns on the application.

What’s more, I agree with conservative leaders who argue that the movement needs to create parallel institutions to form elites of our own. There is no reclaiming the established institutions, so we must build our own. These institutions must be rooted in natural law and the Western tradition, training young people to be good citizens, parents, and leaders.

But it is hard to ignore one uncomfortable fact: the people telling me this have already benefited from the Ivy League.

It is easy to say “don’t go to Yale” when you went to Yale.

When I look at the leaders and commentators offering this advice, the young populist, traditional conservatives, I see elite credentials everywhere. Missouri’s U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley attended Stanford and Yale. Vice President JD Vance graduated from Yale Law School. Commentator Michael Knowles went to Yale. U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth attended Princeton and Harvard. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis went to Yale. Former U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse attended Harvard and Yale. Arkansas’ U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton attended Harvard. Even Pat Buchanan attended Georgetown and Columbia University for crying out loud!

William F. Buckley Jr. wrote “God and Man at Yale” in 1951. For nearly 80 years, conservatives have warned about the ideological capture of American higher education. And yet, each successive generation of conservative leaders continues to attend the same establishment schools, only to denounce them upon graduation.

When I look at conservative think tanks, businesses, and institutions that are active and effective today, their leaders still predominantly come from elite schools. So I must ask: Is it really true that, at your firm or think tank, applicants from Harvard and from Patrick Henry College are considered equally prepared? Is that how decisions are actually made?

According to what we’ve been told, the person who could have gone to Harvard but chose Patrick Henry instead was simply being prudent. He was following your advice. Yet the reality is that even the most committed conservatives, including those giving the advice, still prefer to see the elite name on the diploma.

These new conservative institutions will be unable to build reputations comparable to those of the established schools if they cannot attract the best minds in the country. They will not attract those minds if they cannot produce outcomes that allow graduates to support their families and become the leaders they are meant to be. And they cannot deliver those outcomes unless elder statesmen finally break the cycle and treat well-qualified students from conservative institutions as equals to their peers from Yale.

Many of us are eager and willing to attend the schools you recommend. That commitment is necessary, but not sufficient. It only makes sense if, on the other side of the degree, you – judges, senators, business owners, deans, provosts, and voters – are willing to hire us or entrust us with leadership.

We need to fix higher education. But you are asking me to stake my future livelihood, the food I could put on my children’s table, on the claim that this generation of leaders will finally be the one to change things.

I am not a betting man, by nature or conviction. But I am a true believer.

There is enough momentum in the conservative movement to suggest that a breakthrough may finally be within reach. I am willing to take that risk. I believe that America’s future leaders can indeed be formed in small schools in Kansas and Wyoming rather than in New Haven or Cambridge.

I hope that is true. I pray that it is, because I, and by extension my family, are counting on it, and on you.

So heed the lessons of the left’s ideological refugees. And remember us, too, who will soon be joining your ranks. Many young conservatives are ready to put our money where your mouth is. Just do not leave us behind. 

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This article was made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image credit: Yale University Library (ajay_suresh, CC BY 2.0)