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PARTISAN REVIEW
who routinely capitulate
to
white opportunists for whom the travail of
black Americans is little more than a stalking horse for their own ideo–
logical agenda.
The argument for the widest free speech on the campuses need not
detain us. Let us grant that Farrakhan - or David Duke - should be
permitted
to
spew his poison on campus. It does not follow that a dime
of university funds should be expended towards that end. And there is no
excuse for permitting private paramilitary forces to set foot on campus,
let alone paying for them out of university funds. College presidents are
responsible for the safety and security of their campuses as well as for
genuine free speech, and they do have the resources to maintain order. If
they cannot do their job, they ought to be sacked.
The current resurgence of anti-Semitism is hardly surprising. It is
commonplace of history that when times are bad - when discrete groups
feel threatened or abused - they single out Jews as scapegoats. Before we
panic, we would do well to note that the potential mass base among
whites for a dangerous anti-Semitic movement is probably smaller today
than at any time in our nation's history. The Christian right, for exam–
ple, which in the past has sometimes proven a recruiting ground for anti–
Semitic movements, is now largely held by people like Pat Robertson,
who, whatever his sins, has a splendid record of opposition
to
white
racism as well as anti-Semitism. Recall that Robertson was the first na–
tional politician of note
to
sound the alarm against David Duke, and that he
vigorously and effectively campaigned to defeat Duke's gubernatorial as–
pirations in Louisiana, denouncing him as a counterfeit Christian, a racist,
and an anti-Semite.
Robertson and the leaders of the Republican Party forcefully repu–
diated David Duke and made clear that they would not associate with
any Republican leader who cozied up to him. In contrast, the leaders of
the Democratic Party have accepted, without a word of protest, people
like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Carol Moseley Braun, and Kweisi
Mfume, who have refused to declare the Nation of Islam beyond the
pale. The arguments are worth reviewing. First, we hear that blacks, be–
ing genuinely oppressed, cannot afford to exclude anyone from their
ranks. Oews should be familiar with this gambit since a Jewish version has
cost them dearly on more than one occasion.) Second, we hear that, af–
ter all, Jesse Jackson and people like him do not endorse the Nation of
Islam's anti-Semitism, but merely endorse its positive work in the ghettos
and some of its economic ideas. Third, we hear the pompous pseudo–
theorizing according to which "racism means prejudice plus power" and
since blacks lack power, they cannot be racist.
The problem with this demagogy is that all of these points were
made in defense of Mussolini, Hitler, and every other political terrorist -
