Not long ago, a Finger Lakes Times letter writer lamented the absence of Conservative columnists in these pages. A subsequent letter writer identified yours truly, along with George Will, as an example of that endangered species: a Conservative columnist.

A few observations are in order.

First off, we need to make a distinction between politics (the art of getting elected) and governance (the art of governing). Unfortunately, the two have drifted into different orbits. The first letter writer, as I see it, was pointing out a lack of balance between political perspectives. He noted the obvious: the columnists (both syndicated and local) presented on the Opinion page seem heavily skewed against A.) President Trump in particular, and B.) Republicans in general. At the level of syndication, the explanation is simple: Mainstream journalism in this country is as hospitable to Republican journalists as talk radio is to Democrat news/opinion presenters.

Far more members of the Communications/Journalism School industry are self-identified Democrats than Republicans. Mitchell Langbert’s oft-referenced 2016 study of 40 prominent liberal arts universities found a 20-to-1 Democrat to Republican ratio among professors in Communications/Journalism programs. This is not to say that the students graduating from these programs will necessarily reflect their mentors’ political........

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