The Illiberalism of liberals
Toolbox
By Rep Thomas F. Koch - Published: June 30, 2006
Years ago, a liberal friend confided in me, "Liberals are very illiberal with non-liberals." Unfortunately, over the years, I have found that to be true. Just examine a few recent events in our area.
Ann Veneman, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), was chosen as the commencement speaker at Middlebury College. American children have been collecting money at Halloween for over 50 years to support UNICEF, and the organization has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its humanitarian work. But because Ann Veneman had the temerity to serve as Secretary of Agriculture in the Bush administration before taking her UN post, our liberal friends think she has nothing worthwhile to say and objected to her selection as commencement speaker.
When Laura Bush came to Burlington recently, the obligatory picketers had to make their presence known, complete with obscenities and one person stepping into traffic. As a First Lady notably separated from policy decisions, her only offense is her choice of a spouse, but how could a dedicated liberal demonstrator resist the opportunity to show that Vermont is not the "beckoning country" for conservatives?
Then, a number of participants turned their backs on Gov. James Douglas as he spoke at a St. Michael's College conference on "Creating a Welcoming Community." His offense was vetoing a bill that would have outlawed discrimination against trans-gendered people, but which was so poorly worded that it had unintended consequences. Whether that bill should have been signed or vetoed is an appropriate subject for discussion, but standing and turning one's back on the governor is mere insult, not discussion. The governor generously defended the protesters' actions as free speech, but the distraction caused by their behavior no doubt interfered with other participants as they attempted to listen to the governor's presentation.
And when National Intelligence Agency director John Negroponte, whose son was a graduating senior, spoke at the St. Johnsbury Academy commencement recently, several protestors could not resist interrupting the proceedings, despite prior agreements with police that demonstrations would take place only on the public sidewalk and not on Academy property. Amid the yelling and the consequent arrests, the demonstrators' precise message was lost, and what the graduates will most remember in future years is that their special day, which should have been one of honor and celebration, was uncivilly disrupted by outsiders.
Do you see a pattern here? Does there not seem to be a concerted effort to prevent any person with whom the liberal activists disagree from being heard in Vermont? Is there not an effort to restrict First Amendment rights? What, I wonder, would Thomas Jefferson and James Madison think?
The media, I submit, is complicit in this lowering of standards of civil discourse by their dutiful reporting of every protest, every demonstration, every disturbance. There seems to be little or no editorial judgment as to what is truly newsworthy, and the sure and certain knowledge that every demonstration will be prominently reported fuels the drive to protest every event and every speaker not aligned with the liberal agenda. Indeed, the media stooped so low as to become the publicist for the Negroponte protestors, reporting on the day before the ceremony that a protest organizer was asking "activists" from across the state to come to St. Johnsbury to join in the protest.
Some will cite the success of the civil rights demonstrations and the civil disobedience of the '50s and '60s in support of the present rash of protests. But there is no comparison between the overriding moral issue of the last two generations and the spewing of obscenities and hatred that mark the current "liberal" behavior. To equate the two does a disservice to the heroes and martyrs of the civil rights movement.
True liberalism is dedicated to a full and rational exchange of views in a mutually respectful manner. In the classical sense, liberals are centrists on the political spectrum, open to persuasion and seeking to persuade. They value the thoughts and policies advanced by persons both on their right and their left. They defend the right of every person, private citizen and public official, to speak freely, and they condemn any effort to restrict freedom of speech or to drown out others with shouting or vulgarity.
The intolerance and illiberal behavior of those who present themselves as modern liberals is a betrayal of true liberalism. Today's liberals would do well to rededicate themselves to the defense of the right of every individual to speak and be heard in the public forum.
Thomas Koch is a Republican member of the Vermont House of Representatives, representing Barre Town.
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