To the Editor,
In his op-ed ("Worthy of Debate," May 2), Jonathan Wisniewski, a conservative, asks us to take conservative arguments seriously and debate issues instead of simply taking the "liberal" line. Fair enough -- at an institution of higher education such as Dartmouth, one hopes that all view points are treated fairly and with respect.
For me, in fact, this concept that we should both recognize and respect differences of opinion is crucial. That, in fact, is why I love being a liberal. Because we value debate and compromise as a process through which good governance happens. A look at the Republican-controlled 109th Congress will show that such debate and compromise are missing.
I find it horribly ironic that, in the same space Wisniewski calls for open debate, he fallaciously asserts that liberals seek to label him and other well-to-do white males as "standard bearer[s] for the sins of the white males of this country's history." Next, he compares that "[m]aking rash judgments that every citizen of today's America has a responsibility to help the poor through taxes is indicative of a similar reasoning a bigot uses when he assumes all members of a race are inferior."
In fact, providing government solutions to social and economic problems people face is not my definition of bigotry. I know I sure hate it when I lose my job and need health care, and the government helps me get back on my feet. Actually, I cannot know, because I, like Wisniewski, come from an affluent background. Neither of us can really know. But liberal white men like me, we sure hate white people, and we're bigots! Oh, those great conservative heroes, cutting funding for medicare, social security, and welfare -- what champions of human liberty and dignity!
Ultimately, Wisniewski is demanding we give him and his ideas a fair listen. And that's fine. But perhaps it is unwise for him to call for us to listen to him and other campus conservatives in the same breath he calls us bigots. Just a thought.
