THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

The majority of the students on campus tend to be liberal and ready to mock and hoot tomorrows Mitch McConnells and Paul Ryans. Now, in addition, they have to deal with the Great Orange Dookie as their fearless leader in the upcoming election.

For decades, College Republicans have drawn ridicule from — and defined themselves against — the more liberal masses on college campuses. But this year has been especially nightmarish for C.R.s, as they call themselves.

The nomination of Donald J. Trump, who has attacked their conservative heroes and esteemed alumni, has prompted widespread mockery from their liberal classmates, dissension from within and something of an identity crisis.

While some College Republican leaders profess an appreciation for the anti-establishment voters that Mr. Trump has awakened, many in the preppy Vineyard Vines set are wondering if Mr. Trump is transforming the party they hope to inherit into one in which they are unwelcome.

“They tend to be center-right traditional Republican conservatives, and so you know there is a little bit of a mismatch there,” said Karl Rove, the architect of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns.

Mr. Rove’s career in politics started as a blazer-clad national chairman of the College Republicans who won the position in 1973 over opponents supported by Roger J. Stone Jr. and Paul Manafort, both of whom went on to become advisers to Mr. Trump. “There’s a tension there,” he said.

That tension, tangible on campuses across the country, threatens to change the nature of both the organization that has long trained the party’s leaders and the party they are being trained to lead. Since 1923, when Calvin Coolidge became the first former College Republican to become president, the list of the group’s alumni reads like a who’s who of the Republican establishment.

This year could very well be a crucible election for the little boogers. Their chance to stand up and reclaim the party for the adults or sink into the pullulating mass of vicious violent stupidity that is modern conservatism.