Michael Barone: What's oozing out of campuses is polluting society

Nearly 30 years ago, in a 1989 article in the New Republic, Andrew Sullivan made what he called “a (conservative) case for gay marriage.” Today, same-sex marriage is legal everywhere in America, supported by majorities of voters and accepted as a (small) part of American life.

Now, Sullivan has cast his gaze on what he regards as a disturbing aspect of American life, at the extension of speech suppression and “identity politics” from colleges and universities into the larger society. The hothouse plants of campus mores have become invasive species undermining and crowding out the beneficent flora of the larger free democratic society.