As another election and the end of the school year approach, we find ourselves needing to defend fellow conservatives.
This year’s June 3 primary is being used by the Democratic machine for an attempt to oust Republican State Senator Jeff Denham. Denham’s offense was sticking to his conservative principles and rejecting an unbalanced budget laden with deficit spending. On Page 17, Sasha Tooryani explains why this attack on Denham is an abuse of the recall process.
On campus, we have a similar situation with Boalt law professor John Yoo. Leftists are trying to make Yoo’s life as miserable as possible and hope to have him fired from his teaching position because of his national-security work in Washington. Again, this is a situation of a conservative being victimized for the principles he holds. In our editorial, on Page 4, we defend Yoo from the attacks of intolerant liberals.
Sometimes, though, the liberals are not the only ones who are intolerant. I was on the receiving end of some intolerance from other conservatives last month because I wrote a conservative case for abortion. Now, I knew that this was a controversial position within the conservative movement, so I expected plenty of disagreement and letters tearing apart my argument. (See Page 5 for a sampling of the feedback.) There is nothing wrong with that — that is a healthy debate. What I did not expect was the hate and immaturity in some of the attacks, including from within my own board. I was heartened, however, when I received a piece of correspondence from Kelso G. Barnett, one of this magazine’s founders, who disagreed with my position, but was glad that it was published and also “that the Patriot continues to stimulate the free exchange of ideas at Berkeley.”
To that end, this month, we bring you Andrew Quinio’s conservative argument against abortion on Page 27. While this article represents a mainstream view within the conservative movement and, therefore, might not teach the reader anything new, I feel that it is important to publish it anyway because I do not want to dismiss other viewpoints as some have dismissed mine. I believe strongly in the free exchange of ideas.
In that spirit of tolerance, I’ve agreed to publish a piece by James Fullmer. James served as managing editor of this magazine for two years, but left at the end of the last school year and made a point of divorcing himself from the staff by writing a letter to the editor that was published in the November issue. James remains active in politics by serving on the Alameda Republican County Central Committee, and has seen the light regarding the dismal state of the college conservative movement — turn to Page 26 to read his guest essay.
In addition to learning to take seriously our opportunity to make a difference in the college conservative movement, we need to band together and take seriously our responsibility to defend our cities from the destructive ideas of leftists. Please read my article on Page 30 to learn why.
If nothing else, please remember not to participate in the circular firing squad that we conservatives sometimes employ against each other. We cannot attack fellow conservatives — there are already far too many attacks coming from the left, as the efforts against Dehnam and Yoo illustrate. Together, we can stand up to those attacks.
Your compatriot,
Alisa Farenzena
Your compatriot,
Alisa Farenzena
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