Ross thinks it's unseemly for Matt Taibbi, in his Adbusters essay, to whine about how ineffectual liberalism is at a time when the Democrats are laying the groundwork for a massive clobberin' of the GOP. I take Ross's point, but if you're a real liberal, how excited should you really be about that? Yeah, sure, it's great to grind the GOP into the mud, but come on, who can possibly have real faith in what the Democrats have to offer? And while we on the Right lack for effective and credible leaders in our organizations, I'm not seeing that the Left is doing such a hot job on that front either. James Poulos says that Taibbi and other young leftists are becoming disillusioned with standard politics for identical reasons, and nails what could be the genesis for a populist political synthesis here:
Young leftists of the sort that keep Adbusters one of the consistently sane mags on the stands are now experiencing the sort of nauseous reappraisal of Democratic orthodoxy as certain young conservatives are concerning post-Bush Republican orthodoxy. The only major gulf between these two groups is defined by the third vector among them of cultural libertarianism, which as I keep repeating is basically the question of sexual ethics. As young leftists recover a wounded common sense about the putative benefits of getting into an S&M relationship with the price-tagged, pleasure-pimped System in exchange for a golden ticket to being Sexually Active, they will grow more truly toward the Right; as young conservatives increasingly detach from the corporate host which has come to depart -- in diversity programming, employee welfare programs, and product/service ethos, they will grow more truly toward the Left.
Poulos's and Douthat's comments made me wonder: would I be more depressed to wake up on the day after Election Day 2008 to find that the GOP had lost badly, or had pulled out a surprising victory? I'm not sure, but my gut tells me that real reform of the sort I'd like to see in the conservative movement is far more likely to come from a Democratic blowout than a Republican hanging-on-by-the-fingernails decent showing.
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Franklin Evans, it’s one thing to go searching out those on campus who have similar views, who surely exist at the elite colleges. But it would still be nice to be accepted in the classroom, your dorm, or any other group where you don’t choose your peers on those campuses, without having to apologize for your conservatism. Many colleges these days even have “speech codes”. If you haven’t heard about such outrages, visit www.thefire.org, which keeps tabs on the behavior of universities that don’t like to allow freedom of speech. Also see how students at many campuses have organized demonstrations to stop conservative guest speakers from even getting to speak. After reading about the cases FIRE has been involved in for a few months, you won’t be so sure that my remarks about liberal academia are “hyperbole”.
Mr. Savage, I've read The Fire's website a few times, and I find it to be an excellent source for news. However, I return to your broad generalization and insist on requesting that you show me that this is ubiquitous, show me that your generalization has any merit.
With respect, I don't see much difference between that and my decrying Bob Jones U. for refusing to invite New Age speakers and calling it undue influence of conservative academics suppressing the New Ager's freedom of speech. Not that I'd actually want to invite a New Age speaker anywhere, myself...
I will point out, too, that this is not the first thread on Rod's blog that has discussed this point. I have criticized and will continue to call ridiculous the rampant political correctness in all facets of our society. Most academic institutions have their problems, and most of those problems seem to work themselves out without invoking hyperbole.
One more thing, Mr. Savage:
But it would still be nice to be accepted in the classroom, your dorm, or any other group where you don’t choose your peers on those campuses, without having to apologize for your conservatism.
Replace "conservatism" with country of origin, female gender, color of skin and non-Christian religious background, and you've covered just about the entire history of higher education in the US. It was all wrong, just as what you describe is wrong, but it didn't stop the conservatives of each of those times from suppressing, oppressing or outright hurting those described. I suggest, in those institutions where this sort of thing is clearly happening, that the conservatives affected take a lesson from the other groups: persevere, and try to bring reason to their defense.
Sorry. The previous post was mine. Still getting used to the improvements here, eh?
I'd just like to echo Metro Center's remark.
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