Readers of The Scrapbook may have noticed that a “controversial” American political figure gave a much-publicized speech on a well-known college campus last week. And that while his views were not likely to find favor at that particular institution—indeed, are regarded as anathema by faculty and students alike—he was, nevertheless, received without incident, given a friendly hearing, and warmly applauded.
We are, of course, referring to the appearance by Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders—the Brooklyn-born, Vermont-based socialist firebrand—at the late Rev. Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia.
In The Scrapbook’s opinion, in laying down the welcome mat for someone so (politically) inimical to its values, Liberty University did what colleges ought to do. And Bernie Sanders was shrewd to venture into the lion’s den. Both came out looking impressive: Sanders gave a good speech and earned himself some political brownie points; Liberty’s reception was gracious and—how shall we say it?—mature.
We say this, by the way, holding no particular brief either for Liberty University or for Sen. Bernie Sanders. But his successful, and comparatively uneventful, appearance stands in contrast to the curious, even frightening, atmosphere that seems to prevail in higher education at the moment.
So hostile is the American academy to the tenets of conservatism—or, put another way, to any departure from leftist orthodoxy—that texts and ideas, as well as individuals, are not just ignored or reviled on campuses but unwelcome altogether. How many titles have been scrapped from any syllabus? How many conservative scholars or public figures have been disinvited from campuses, or shouted down, even physically assaulted, when they sought to speak?
You need only consider the mirror image of Bernie Sanders at Liberty University to grasp the implications for higher learning. For in a world where America’s first black female secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, is disinvited from Rutgers, and former New York police commissioner Raymond Kelly is shouted down at Brown, anything is possible. So startling is this rigid ideological regime, in a nation founded on freedom of conscience, that even President Obama has taken notice. Speaking in Iowa last week, he said,
No, it’s not the way we learn. But one way to grasp the American ideal is to follow, and learn, by example. And what better example of intellectual debate, of civilized discourse, of democracy in action, than Bernie Sanders on his platform at Liberty University?
