The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Too much hatinƒ?TM from the Left

By Joseph Schultz

Last semester I wrote an article on affirmative action which elicited some rather negative responses. It wasnƒ?TMt the first time Iƒ?TMve been called such terrible things, but this time the epithets got me thinking about hatred. Why do students from Macalester, hopefully a more thoughtful group of individuals, decide to use terms which can only be described as hateful (e.g. ƒ?oewhite supremacistƒ??)? For that matter, why do politicians and pundits on the Left always seem to be describing their opponents as ƒ?evil?ƒ?TM For the life of me, I can not recall a single nationally prominent, office-holding Republican calling a Democrat evil. The absolute worst that I can recollect is when Senator John McCain called Michael Moore a ƒ?oedisingenuous filmmakerƒ??ƒ?”hardly a scurrilous comment.A quick perusal of the books in the popular press confirms this observation: The I Hate George W. Bush Reader, The I Hate Republicans Reader, The I Hate Dick Cheney, John Ashcroft, Bill Oƒ?TMReilly, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannityƒ?Ý Reader: The Truth About Americaƒ?TMs Ugliest Conservatives. I went looking and found that there are roughly equivalent numbers on both sides for the ƒ?I Hateƒ?TM titles; apparently the ones which criticize the Left donƒ?TMt sell.

Perhaps a better measure of hate comes from our partisan political organizations. Moveon.org certainly made their position of hatred for Republicans and particularly the President well known in the last election cycle. The NAACP put out this ad on hate crime legislation: ƒ?oeMy father was killed. He was beaten, chained, and dragged three miles to his death, all because he was black. So when Governor George W. Bush refused to support hate-crime legislation, it was like my father was killed all over again.ƒ?? I guess this is not surprising coming from a group with a leader who compared Republicans to Nazis and the Taliban.

Hate smearing occurs among our elected Representatives as well. Senator Edward Kennedy introduced an amendment in 2001 that would add to the hate crime protection extended to various minority groups. When Republicans blocked the amendment because it created an inherently unequal system of justice, Senator Kennedy said Republicans lacked a commitment to basic civil rights. Harlem Representative Charles Rangel called President Bush ƒ?oeOur Bull Connor,ƒ?? a name integrally linked to the racial hatred of the Jim Crow era. Of course this ignored the fact that President Bush has placed more blacks in positions of leadership than any prior U.S. President.

The Right has their hate-mongers. But then the Right isnƒ?TMt trying to make hate a crime. I think Iƒ?TMll ascribe to the viewpoint of Andrew Sullivan, a well-known writer on gay rights: ƒ?oeViolence can and should be stopped by the government. In a free society, hate canƒ?TMt and shouldnƒ?TMt be.ƒ?? Indeed.

The Left has actually been very crafty with its use of hate since it seeks to both criminalize hate and peg Republicans as the party of hatred. Our educational institutions have been very complacent with this goal. The administrators and faculty at our colleges and universities essentially made hate expressed against minority groups unlawful at their institutions. Most of these policies were struck down by the courts, but their culture of intolerance lingers. Harvardƒ?TMs president was almost fired for expressing his opinion on women in science at a forum where he was explicitly asked to give his views. Students protested heavily and faculty gave a vote of no confidence in their president over what can only be described as a difference of opinion. One look at Harvard and what happened to its President for speaking candidly about women in science is troubling. What I have encountered during my time at Macalester mirrors such intolerance.

Hatred will continue to be symptomatic of American politics. It will also continue to be the primary tool the Left uses to demonize the Right. If I have to choose between the party that embraces Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, and Edward Kennedy and the party that includes George Bush, Condoleezza Rice, John McCain, and Rudy Guliani, I choose the latter. At least my hate will be in branding only.

Many of the facts cited in this editorial are from The Politics of Hatred by Stephen Paul Foster.

Contact Joseph Schulz ƒ?TM06 at [email protected].

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