POLITICS - Demonizing Academics?

Is the Republican Righteous-Right doing this?

In an article "Dangerous Academics, Right-wing Distortions about Leftist Professors" by Robert Jensen, he does think so.

In an “urgent” e-mail last week, right-wing activist David Horowitz hyped his latest book about threats to America’s youth from leftist professors.

The ad for The Professors -- The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America describes me as: “Texas Journalism Professor Robert Jensen, who rabidly hates the United States, and recently told his students, ‘The United States has lost the war in Iraq and that’s a good thing.’”

I’m glad Horowitz got my name right (people often misspell it “Jenson”). But everything else is distortion, and that one sentence teaches much about the reactionary right’s disingenuous rhetorical strategy.

....and....

Why would anyone suggest that I rabidly hate the United States? It’s easier to defame opponents using emotionally charged language than engage on real issues. Accuse them of being irrational and hateful. Ignore the substance of the claims and just sling mud. By even minimal standards of intellectual or political discourse it’s not terribly honorable, but it often works.

Beyond these junkyard dog tactics, Horowitz’s email also makes one crucial factual error. I did write that the U.S. losing the Iraq war was a good thing -- not in celebration of death and destruction, of course, but because the defeat temporarily restrains policymakers in their dangerous attempts to extend the U.S. empire. But that was the first sentence of an opinion piece I published in various newspapers in 2004, not a statement to students. The distinction is important.

Note the last 2 sentences above. So, Horowitz thinks personal dissent is by someone "rabidly hates the United States." Humm, has this idiot read the Constitution lately?

This "junkyard dog," wait... that's an insult to dogs. This brain-dead idiot wouldn't recognize a Constitutional protected right if it hit him in the face. Dissent does not = "hating" America, in point of fact it may be loving America. When you love someone, or something, you try to stop dangerous behaviour before damage is done. Like, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."

Well, the Bush Whitehouse is driving this country while drunk (DUI), and because Jensen and I love the USA we will dissent and speak out.