Political correctness has been a controversial subject for decades now. Opinions on both sides are strong and have a lot of emotion attached to them which can make it a difficult topic to have civilized debates and conversations about. Those in favor of a more politically correct America argue that it is important to ensure that people are treated with respect and that everybody has a right to voice their opinion not only in American government, but in society in general. (West).  However, there is a large population of Americans who feel that political correctness is something that is an unnecessary obstacle to our government and public servants in making effective laws and policies. (Cummings). Political correctness limits the free speech of Americans with conservative values and opinions on public policy and other aspects of society. As a result of political correctness becoming so mainstream, largely in part to mass media as well as social media, conservatives have not been expressing their views out of fear of being labeled as a bigoted, racist or ignorant and their opinions won’t be taken seriously. (Morris). This is detrimental to the operation and efficiency of our government because our politicians are voting certain ways on legislation not because they feel it will be beneficial to our nation, but because they are afraid of the repercussions that may follow when the vote against policies such as affirmative action or other legislation that have racial connotations attached to them. (Bernhein). This is dangerous to democracy because one of the most important characteristics of a democracy is being able to speak you mind without fear of persecution for your opinions. It is so important in fact, that the founders of this country felt that it should be the first amendment of the bill of rights. Just as everyone has the right to practice whatever religion they wish, as the first amendment states, people should be able to have whatever political positions they wish as well. That is why the argument that political correctness help everybody have an equal voice in government is misguided and misinformed. The issue of political correctness effecting freedom of speech far exceeds American politics. There are many examples of political correctness seeping into may other fields of profession and academia as well. College campuses have been under a lot of scrutiny by both professors and students with conservative ideals and have said that certain universities are suppressing their ideas and opinions. They argue that universities are places where opinions should be heard and idea should be exchanged to help further higher learning and that choosing which ideas can and cannot be expressed goes against the true purpose of universities, which is for people from all different backgrounds and beliefs to come to the same place to share those beliefs and ideas and to become educated, learn to deal with people of different mindsets, and make progress as a society.  There are numerous examples of how it has effected the medical community and has even led to less effective treatments being used to help minorities with certain aliments that they are facing, out of fear of the medical community being viewed as having racial bias. This happens even thought people of certain races may be predisposed to certain illnesses and may require specific preventative treatment, or medication after they have been diagnosed with a disease. Treatments that could save lives aren’t being used as a result of political correctness. 

When it comes to the topic of political correctness, people generally have very strong opinions and can be very emotionally invested. Usually people are either completely in favor of or completely against it, there seems to be very few people that are somewhere in the middle. In an opinion piece written by Nick Adams of Fox News called “Political Correctness is Destroying America. That’s Why I’m on a Mission to Crush It.”, Adams writes a very emotion filled article, but doesn’t seem to give any facts to back up what he is saying. He says things like, “Just about every problem in America today is lined to Political correctness.”, it is clear that his position isn’t based in actual logic or facts. He talks about issues such as declining education standards, increased secularism, and border security and blames them all on political correctness. However, he doesn’t give any evidence or proof to back up any of these claims. This is a prime example of people who have strong opinions on political correctness, but don’t have any fact to back to support their opinion. This is true of people on both sides of the argument. In another article by Marina Fang of the Huffington Post, she talked about how Donald Trump had made remarks when he received Time magazines “Person of the Year”, that the award used to be called “Man of the Year” and that the reason they changed it was to be politically correct.  She then goes on to talk about how Time magazine has been using the title “Person of the Year” since 1999 and talked about how the first woman won this award in 1936. (Fang). She gave some hard facts, but then the article turned into an attack on Donald Trump. She brought up the incident that happened with Megyn Kelly of Fox News when she asked him about sexist comment that he had made against women. She then jumped to the assumption that by having problem with the question, Trump was saying that “it was politically correct to treat women with respect”, implying that he meant that we shouldn’t be treating women with respect. This is just another example of how people’s personal political opinions tend to cause any real discussion about the topic of political correctness to fall apart and an effective solution is never found. Unfortunately, this is the way it is in American society and both sides of the argument are at fault for this. When both sides are so unwilling to consider the other’s point of view on the matter, it is very unlikely that a fair compromise will ever be reached. This isn’t just true about political correctness, but about any number of other political and social issues as well.

The growing effect that political correctness is having on politics and policies from our government is profound. Politicians on both sides of the isle, but conservatives especially, are becoming afraid of voting how they want to on proposed bills and policies in congress out of fear of being labeled as a racist. (Cummings). When it comes to policies such as affirmative action, border security, immigration, or any other political policy that has to do with race, many politicians don’t vote for what they feel is right because of the consequences that could come along with voting against them. For example, if a Democratic congressman were against a bill that would allow illegal immigrants who have lived in the United States for more than 20 years to be grandfathered in and be given immunity from deportation, it is very unlikely that congressman will vote his or her conscience on that bill out of fear of repercussions from the party that they are affiliated with. However, there is another, perhaps more powerful deterrent from voting against policies like this, and that is threat of being labeled a racist by their acquaintances and by their constituents. (Bernhein). This creates a situation where politicians feel that they must conform with their party and “vote the way they are supposed to” out of fear of being labeled intolerant or ignorant, which could lead to them losing the political office that they currently hold. (Morris).  This “theory of conformity” doesn’t only apply to politicians, but to everyday Americans as well. A good example of this is the 2016 presidential election when the polls were strongly leaning in Hillary Clintons favor, but Donald Trump ended up winning the election. Many Americans were afraid to tell people that they supported Trump or that they were going to vote for him because of the way that people might view them for supporting somebody with conservative values. The difference between the regular American citizens and politicians is that when we as citizens vote for a candidate, it is private and nobody has to know who you voted for if you don’t want them to. Politicians on the other hand, don’t have this luxury. How they vote on policies is, for the most part, public information and they are not able to keep this information secret, especially for their party. If this were the case for every American, and how people voted was public, Hilary Clinton probably would have won the general election in 2016 instead of Donald Trump. He had what he called the “silent majority” on his side which was composed mostly of people in more rural areas who didn’t necessarily tell people who they were voting for before the election. (Whitaker)

While there is a strong argument that political correctness is diminishing the free speech of conservative Americans, there are some who feel that political correctness expands free speech and makes more people’s opinions heard. In an article written by Lindy West called “Political Correctness doesn’t hinder free speech- it expands it” for the Guardian, she argues that political correctness has given a voice to people who in the past, haven’t. She specifically talks about minorities and women having more say in politics as well as a society as a whole. She says that for decades, the only people who had a say in government were, “old, white males” and that finally we have diversity in government and that everyone’s opinion is represented. There are also a lot of facts and statistics given to support her claim that college campuses are now becoming the “new battleground for our next great culture war” in which minority student as well as female students are demanding to have their voices heard. (West). Of course, everybody should have a voice in our government, there are very few Americans who would dispute that idea. However, many Americans believe that is going too far in the other direction and that conservatives of all races, gender and background are being labeled as bad people for having a different opinion than the new wave of liberalism in this country. Supporters of political correctness argue and fight for equal say in government and then they alienate people who have a different opinion than them and this makes them seem very hypocritical.

College campuses across the country have come across a lot of criticism from both conservative professors and students who feel that their opinions are being suppressed by their universities. In the book, “Beyond Political Correctness”, written by Michael Cummings who is currently a professor of social science at the University of Colorado Denver there are many examples of this. In one of the chapters of the book, he gives an account of a professor at Central Connecticut State University who had posted anti-affirmative action flyers around campus that were taken down by a forty-year-old student. He then reported the student to the University and they sided with the student. This case has been used by conservative academics “as an example of how college campuses will tolerate the suppression of unpopular views while cracking down on those who aren’t considered ‘politically correct’.” (Cummings). There have been many other examples of colleges across the county, of all reputations, of suppression of conservative thought and opinions. In an article from U.S. News called “Political Correctness Is Too Painless”, the author talks about how fear of offending other on college campuses is impeding conversation and growth on college campuses across the country. (Card). She argues that students of different race are becoming less and less likely to talk to each other out of fear of offending one another. She gave examples of her college experience in the 1990’s and talks about there seemed to be much more racial harmony and people of different races, religions and backgrounds got along well at Middlebury College, the small school in rural New England that she attended. She then says that in 2016, there is less racial harmony and it is because of the push by the university to be politically correct. Noting that campus leadership is finding it more and more difficult to find ways to discuss race that doesn’t end up hurting someone’s feelings, lead to public shaming, or creating fear among students of different races to talk to each other. (Card). Political correctness is being used by colleges to try and create racial harmony and it is having the exact opposite effect. This is detrimental to the main goal of colleges which should be to further learning by creating an environment where all people can be free to speak their mind no matter their race or political opinions. 

Other fields of profession and academia have been effected by political correctness as well. Perhaps most notably, the field of medicine. (Cummings). A shocking example this is given in the book, “Beyond Political Correctness”, in which a finding by France’s leading obstetrician, Dr. Emile Papiernik, who had discovered through his research that the fetuses of black women come to full term about a week sooner than those of white women on average. This discovery could lead to the monitoring of black pregnant women sooner and could “cut in half pre-natal deaths, fetal distress during delivery and the neonatal damage associated with post-term births.”. Dr. Papiernik came under a lot of criticism and scrutiny for suggesting that race has any impact on people’s biology. Even though Papiernik, who is Jewish and lost his father in a Nazi concentration camp, he was called corrupt and racist by many liberal periodicals throughout France. He is quoted in the books as saying, “As a doctor, I can tell you in numbers of lives lost, about the stupidity of political correctness.” (Cummings).  It is one thing for political correctness to impact politics, but it is something else entirely to allow it to affect the field of medicine, especially when people’s lives are at stake. Although this isn’t an example for the United States, the message is universal that allowing political correctness effect something as important as people’s health is senseless ignorance. This is just another example of how political correctness is an unnecessary obstacle to the truth and when it effects the medical community, it can cost people’s lives.  

While some argue that political correctness is important to American politics and society because it allows more people to have a say in the direction of our government than ever before, there are many examples that it has either gone too far and has been limiting people’s free speech by making them afraid to express their true opinions. The 2016 presidential election is proof that this idea is not just made up by right wing politicians to try and make conservatives out to be victims. (Latimer). Not only does it suppress conservative ideas in politics, but also at universities which are supposed to be open to all kinds of opinions. Conservative professors and students have their opinions suppressed by universities for decades now. The case of Professor Jay Bergman at Central Connecticut State University is just one example. (Cummings). While political correctness is effecting conservatives, it is much more far reaching than politics and college campuses. It is having a very negative effect on the field of medicine and the medical community. It is creating an environment where doctors and researchers are afraid release potentially lifesaving research out of fear of coming under harsh criticism and being labeled as either racist or bigoted such as in Dr.Papiernik’s case.  It is important that everyone has a voice in society, but it has gone too far and now just simply suppresses a different group of people, conservatives. 
