Degrees Of Separation

 

Ben Hubbard is deputy director for outreach at the Center for American Progress.

Right-wingers often say they are victims of liberal bias on campus. Perhaps that's why they are planning a Ronald Reagan University, a sprawling 200-acre, $850 million academic oasis outside Denver, Colo., as reported by The Washington Post.

But considering the mileage and publicity young conservatives get from exploiting the controversy they create in deploring "political correctness" at American colleges, it's a wonder that they want their own university.

There won't be much for conservatives to disagree with at Reagan U. The young and impressionable "Gippers" won't take courses in women's studies or postmodern literature. They'll study their university namesake's voodoo economic and Cold War diplomatic principles. They'll learn the benefits of massive budget deficits and triple-dip recessions; how to wage war in small island countries and fund right-wing anti-revolutionaries through illegal weapons sales to bloody theocrats; they'll study how trees create air pollution and practice telling tales of welfare queens. Reagan U will even have a performing arts school, "to reflect the president's long movie career," according to Terry Walker, the founding president of the proposed school. Presumably, students will learn the value of camera-ready earnestness and how to package their extreme policies with an affable, all-American wink.

This little utopia for the young Right will have no problem filling its classrooms, but then what? What happens when young conservatives have a campus all to themselves? Will they finally have to admit that "liberal bias" has been a conscious weapon of self-promotion, a red herring that falsely portrays young conservatives as victims of leftist duplicity?

David Horowitz is the former '60s activist who came out as a conservative"or at least as an opportunist"with a highly publicized 1985 Washington Post article, "Lefties for Reagan." He's the most adept self-promoter of conservative victimhood on campus.

Horowitz keeps himself busy"and in the news"by alleging that colleges discriminate against conservative students and faculty. He has founded Students for Academic Freedom, drafted an "Academic Bill of Rights," and in eight state legislatures, introduced bills to induce state-funded universities to measure diversity by political standards, not academic criteria.

So far, the group's Web site lists only 12 instances of bias. There are more than 1,400 accredited institutions in the United States. Most of Horowitz's evidence is anecdotal, and most omits important details, such as the date of the incident.

But Horowitz is getting plenty of air time"National Public Radio and The New York Times ran full features on him recently, and Dennis Miller gave him prime booking"and softball questions"on CNBC.

The irony in all of this, of course, is that Horowitz is seeking political affirmative action on campus (the very practice conservatives despise) to protect oppressed conservative victims. He's doing it by passing laws in state legislatures (the same government conservatives wish would leave us alone)"a move that would infringe academic freedom while purporting to protect it. But mythmakers have little need for facts, and opportunists rarely stick to principle.

So what is Horowitz going to do when conservative students flock to Reagan U and surround themselves with people of like minds? They won't be able to cry "we're victims!" anymore. The pugnacious young conservatives who created "political correctness" simply by alleging it might be lulled into thinking the world is a homogenous place where everyone memorizes passages from Ayn Rand books; where every public space is graced with the Ten Commandments and still shots from "Knute Rockne, All American" and "Bedtime for Bonzo." That might sound pretty good to them.

No doubt it sounds good to the rest of American colleges and universities, too. With the Right's best and brightest off on their own at Reagan U., everyone else can breathe easier and get back to their books.

Editor's Note: On April 29, Nancy Reagan announced that she would not allow the proposed program to use the name "Ronald Reagan". Organizers of the new school are in the process of responding.

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Published: Apr 30 2004