BTW: I'm a youngin'... went to a 'public' state school (PSU) and I was surrounded by CONSERVATIVES.
Then again, I was in the Engineering ciriculum...
Still, don't assuem all college students get caught by these mindless 'professors'.
Its actually funny... we are prefectly aware of these types of professors. They are a joke to the students, and are made fun of behind their back.
They are 'manipulators', yet the running joke is how all of us (conservative students) manipulate them. I got an A in my humanities elective 'writing' all kinds of BS that I thought was a load. I kept those papers, and use them as evidience of what a good 'fiction' writer I could be if I wanted.
I was a Sophmore when 9-11 happened... I'll let you in on a little secret.
ALOT of people came into political 'awareness' after 9-11 (for the obvious reasons). People like me... didn't really pay much attention to the larger issues.
Of course 'kids' mature into political awareness at different degrees throughout time. What was different this time, was that the event, the realities, and the response, and the history all work in the favor of conservatives.
In short: 9-11 created a 'baby boomer' type (albeit less 'severe') swell of conservatives that are currently aged ~ (18-26).
If you were 'moderately conservative' you shifted to conservative. If you were wildly liberal, you became shifted to moderately liberal. If you were slightly liberal, you shiftd to slighly conservative.
Alot of minds were opend, and whats more, history has played out to teach those who "just stared paying attetion" some VERY GOOD lessons.
Of course it follows that those who 'just started paying attention" around 9-11 have an abysmally low respect for Democrats.
I like to joke that the hard-leftist types that still exist post 9-11 (or, blech, joined up after it) just kept slapping the alarm clock that day, and have been living in a cave since.
And I get the feeling everything you said about the 9/11 change is true.
Focusing on that, and it's repercussions, you have one side that knee-jerk opposes anything we do to stop it, and the other that wants to stop it. The former side doesn't even seem to grasp that these people aren't the kind you can make deals with, they're out for your blood, their promises are worthless. Some of them actively root for them (it seems like all sometimes... but I'd like to think it's a small minority...:( ) The other side might not always know EXACTLY what to do, but they're not sticking their fingers into their ears or pulling that "jedi-mind-trick" "they aren't the problem, America is" crap.
Half of my disrespect for the Democrat party came after coming to the abrupt realization that all those little attacks under their watch were basically the same people that killed so many people on 9/11. They did NOTHING to stop them, aside from firing missiles at locations they left hours before. No troops sent to roust them and their little minions out, just a token "hey now, stop it." The enemy tends to view this as a sign of weakness, not mercy. Repeating that action would lead to more 9/11's. Hell, they might even get bolder than that. We know they have sleeper cells here, if we're going to keep launching missles after they slaughter thousands, tell me they won't send those people out to bring 10 or 20 Beslans on us. The left doesn't seem to get that, or is more focused on other things.