Give the man a chance to speak
Brad DeFlumeri, Collegian columnist
Issue date: 4/1/08 Section: Editorial / Opinion
The UMass Republican Club is bringing esteemed conservative author Dinesh D'Souza to speak at the school this week. A lot has been said about D'Souza's views and assertions in both the local and national press - and even in The Daily Collegian - of late.
He has been called everything from a radical, to a racist, to a homophobe. As the president of the only remotely conservative group on campus, I hear these things on a daily basis too, so I am not surprised.
For one to promulgate conservative views in an area like this one, the popular liberal mythology will have you believe, you must be seriously deranged, incredibly misinformed or completely discriminatory.
D'Souza's arguments often meet opposition from liberals who intend not to discredit what he is saying, but to altogether keep him from saying it by labeling him a radical right-wing extremist.
That campus and cultural liberals only want freedom of speech for themselves and treat conservatives as a militaristic curiosity is neither noteworthy nor exciting. It does nothing but undermine their own attempts to stifle thoughts which run counter to their movement's prevailing Clintonian orthodoxy.
Jeremiah Wright (not White) can trash an entire race of people and condemn this great nation to damnation. But he is black and liberal so he gets a free pass.
But a conservative like D'Souza can't say anything remotely offensive about the destructive nature of homosexuality and multiculturalism - and the liberalism which triumphs it - or else he is labeled a radical and compared to convicted criminals. What would Jefferson have thought?
The outright idiocy with which these attacks are levied is not only astounding, it is also dangerous.
In Dinesh D'Souza, the conservative intellectual movement has a mesmerizing articulator and breathtaking debater. By any measure, his accomplishments are profound.
He founded the Dartmouth Review, widely regarded as the best conservative college newspaper in the country, at age 19. He worked as a White House domestic policy analyst under Reagan in his mid 20s.
He has been called everything from a radical, to a racist, to a homophobe. As the president of the only remotely conservative group on campus, I hear these things on a daily basis too, so I am not surprised.
For one to promulgate conservative views in an area like this one, the popular liberal mythology will have you believe, you must be seriously deranged, incredibly misinformed or completely discriminatory.
D'Souza's arguments often meet opposition from liberals who intend not to discredit what he is saying, but to altogether keep him from saying it by labeling him a radical right-wing extremist.
That campus and cultural liberals only want freedom of speech for themselves and treat conservatives as a militaristic curiosity is neither noteworthy nor exciting. It does nothing but undermine their own attempts to stifle thoughts which run counter to their movement's prevailing Clintonian orthodoxy.
Jeremiah Wright (not White) can trash an entire race of people and condemn this great nation to damnation. But he is black and liberal so he gets a free pass.
But a conservative like D'Souza can't say anything remotely offensive about the destructive nature of homosexuality and multiculturalism - and the liberalism which triumphs it - or else he is labeled a radical and compared to convicted criminals. What would Jefferson have thought?
The outright idiocy with which these attacks are levied is not only astounding, it is also dangerous.
In Dinesh D'Souza, the conservative intellectual movement has a mesmerizing articulator and breathtaking debater. By any measure, his accomplishments are profound.
He founded the Dartmouth Review, widely regarded as the best conservative college newspaper in the country, at age 19. He worked as a White House domestic policy analyst under Reagan in his mid 20s.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 3
Scott Harris
posted 4/01/08 @ 10:31 AM EST
D'Souza is an intellectual lightweight, and somehow I don't think that protesters should be bothered trying to interrupt such a silly event.
Andrew F
posted 4/01/08 @ 1:34 PM EST
Brad,
You present Dinesh D'Souza as "a mesmerizing articulator" of the conservative intellectual movement. I'd like to quote some critics of The Enemy at Home, one of D'Souza's latest books, in which he says that the "Cultural Left" caused 9/11. (Continued…)
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