Having an effect.

  I was contacted by my philosophy prof. last weekend to ask me out for a coffee so he could pick my brain about the Tea Party in the States, conservative thought, and libertarian ideas in general. He is putting together a proposal paper for a conference at Carlton in the near future and read some very disparaging remarks by the organizers about the Tea Party and wanted to get a "right wingers" view on the whole matter. He is slightly left wing but in his class all views are welcome and no one is ridiculed or patronized for holding a certain view; which is quite refreshing considering the types of characters running a lot of the classes these days.
  I had to take philosophy because in the political science class I had originally chosen the prof openly ridiculed, (unprovoked other than Christine O'Donnell had won the GOP nomination the night before), conservatives and creationists within 10 minutes of the first class of the year. I know a lot of people would say they would stay and argue the merits of both views but I am a middle aged engineering student who has better things to do than fight a loosing battle with an entrenched ideology. The good news is that the philosophy prof said he is planning on arguing the strength of the Tea Party platform and that the conference organizers may not be happy with his views. He didn't say exactly how he plans on defending the Tea Party view however he did take a lot of notes about my point that the constitution is not just an abstract group of idea that has yet to be tested and the federalist papers, many of which he has read, clearly indicate that government was meant to be bound and kept in check by the people not the other way around.