But Dartmouth’s liberal majority doesn’t seem to get it. These students believe that America’s reaction to the terrorists is the real threat. The Dartmouth Free Press, the progressive paper on campus, has been quiet about Rice’s testimony both in its print edition and on its blog. It hasn’t even had anything to say about the Democratic darling, Clarke. Progressives on campus are too busy employing scare tactics about the Patriot Act. A story in the most recent edition of the Free Press warned readers of Big Brother’s watchful eye: “That book you checked out to help you with Organic Chemistry? Maybe it is the reason why you are currently under surveillance for terrorism (think chemical warfare or bomb making).” Who knew that in the post-9/11 world the greatest threat came from imaginary G-men following innocent premeds around? The confusion of the campus left is easy to understand: It’s easy to forget the hatred of terrorists when you’re consumed by your own hatred of George W. Bush.
At least my liberal classmates are staying the logical course of their criticisms–something I can’t say for their older, wiser counterparts in Washington. There’s something unsettling about seeing prominent Democrats who spent the winter blasting Bush as a trigger-happy cowboy now faulting the president for not pulling the trigger in time. The Democrats’ double standard on pre-emption–Bush should have acted aggressively on murky pre-9/11 intelligence but ignored the clear and present danger of Saddam Hussein–has led Dartmouth’s conservatives to dismiss the 9/11 commission as a partisan witch hunt. The left isn’t interested in seriously reforming our intelligence-gathering system. It’s interested in putting John Kerry in the White House.
With people like this setting the Democrats’ agenda, it’s no wonder that Dartmouth liberals are talking about all the wrong issues: demonizing our healthy economy, praising Kerry for promising programs he can’t fund, fantasizing that Iraq’s problems stem from a dark cabal busy divvying up oil profits. Meanwhile, terrorism isn’t going away. It’s time for progressives on college campuses to quit crying over the Patriot Act and realize who the real enemy is. Richard Clarke and the Democrats can demonize the Bush administrations for its actions. We on the right are focused on holding Osama bin Laden accountable for his.
