.
Conservatives
and Liberals Clash in 'The Great
Debate'
by
Judah Ken Freed
William
Bennett and Karen Hughes square off
against Dottie Lamm and others in Bridges
to The Future forum.
.
Dulcet
tunes from the JP String Quartet of the
Lamont School of Music filled the air of
Magness Arena in the new Ritchie Center on
the Univerity of Denver campus Oct. 10 as
people streamed inside for the "Great
Debate" between conservatives and
liberals. The theme for the evening:
"Personal and Civic Values for the 21st
Century."
Representing the
conservative perspective were two national
luminaries.
Karen Hughes, former
counsel to Texas Governor and then U. S.
President George W. Bush, has been
described as "the most powerful women ever
to serve in the White House."
William Bennett was
Secretary of Education under President
Ronald Reagan and "drug czar" under Pres.
George H.W. Bush.
Representing the
liberal perspective were three local
lights with national reputations.
Tom Farer serves as
Dean for DU's Graduate School of
International Studies, former president of
the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights for the Organizations of American
States.
Dottie Lamm is the
Leo Block Professor in the DU Pioneer
Leadership Program, also 1998 U.S. Senate
candidate for the Democratic Party, and
wife of former Governor Dick
Lamm.
Terrie Robinson, a
practicing attorney in San Francisco, is a
visiting professor in the DU college of
law with an emphasis on civil
rights.
The evening was
presented by Bridges to the Future, a
joint project between the University of
Denver and Colorado State University. The
yearlong statewide dialogue aims to
encourage greater public dialogue about
"American History and Values in Light of
September 11th."
KHOW-AM radio host
Peter Boyles served as moderator. By
agreement, he gave the conservative team
the first crack.
Karen Hughes opened
with the "terrible awakening" of September
11th. She spoke about visiting "Ground
Zero" in New York a few days later.
"Nothing can prepare you for the
indescribable horror, the terrible sorrow,
and yet the inspiration" from people
working together on the scene of the
disaster.
When terrorists look
at America, she said, "all they see is
money and sex on TV, not the decency of
America." She framed the contest as "rule
of law versus the power of fear. We value
diversity, and they value
conformity."
Characterizing
current war preparations against Iraq as a
"monumental struggle between good and
evil." She added, "The only way to
overcome this evil is the gathering
momentum from a million acts of
good."
William Bennett took
the rostrum, commenting that he's quite
familiar with Colorado, having so far
climbed 32 of the state's 14,000 foot
mountains, "and when I get to the top,
they know they've been
climbed."
Turning to the trio
sitting at the table across the platform,
he quipped that liberals are "a herd of
independent minds." Then he addressed the
students in the audience, urging them to
study the classics of philosophy instead
of journalism and political science.
He said America
seems to lead the industrialized world in
crime, divided families, pornography and
drugs, "but the heart and soul of American
is deeper than these problems."
The real measure of
America is the "gates test," he said, the
fact that when America lifts its gates,
people rush to get in rather than to get
out. "We need work as a nation," he said,
"but liberty is the one American value the
whole world wants to emulate."
Now Boyles gave the
liberals their turn at the
microphone.
Dean Farer said he
could agree with almost everything that
both Bennett and Hughes said in their
opening remarks, "but I think when we get
past the high-level abstractions and look
at concrete issues, we will find many
important differences between
us."
He said
conservatives have misconstrued the label
to mean "the self-centered accumulation of
wealth" while defending "unfree markets
and monopolies that do not conserve
freedom."
He approved of Bush
administration efforts to shut down the
finances of Al Qaeda, but asked, "Why has
the administration not done anything to
shut down the flight of American capital
to offshore Caribbean banking centers by
those acused of corporate
corruption?"
"As we prepare for
the invasion of Iraq," he concluded, "we
can agree that Saddam Hussein is a vicious
tyrant, but this fact did not seem to
bother us when we backed his war against
Iran or when he gassed the Kurds. We need
to admit that the values of America that
conservatives praise are not reflected in
America's government."
Dottie Lamm opened
by telling Bill Bennett that she had
climbed 35 of Colorado's Fourteeners, then
she used the hiking metaphor to observe
the difference between building bridges to
the future and "erecting barriers to
citizens crossing those bridges, then
sending those unable to pass onto dark
trails where they get lost."
She remarked that
the conservative western values of "going
it alone in the world" with unilateral
foreign policies does not make sense in
today's interdependent world.
"Seems we are only
willing to cooperate with the UN and other
nations when it's on our terms," she said,
such as Bush pulling out of the Kyoto
accords to reverse global warming because
it displeased American oil
interests.
"Our job as
leaders," she said, "is to keep truth
foremost before us on the path to
freedom."
In introducing the
final speaker, Boyles said, "Looks like
this debate is shaping up."
Terrie Robinson said
her own upbringing as an African American
in the South had left her little choice
about becoming a liberal instead of a
conservative.
Her main theme was
that American conservatives have
"subverted American values to stifle
debate in America since 9/11 by saying
anyone who disagrees with the President or
question America's unilateral actions in
the world are unpatriotic."
She objected to
Hughes characterizing the currently
situation with Iraq as good versus evil.
"Seldom are problems so simple, and true
patriotism means we must question our
public policy, regardless of who may be
the leader."
Robinson went on to
say the conservatives now in government
are demonstrating the narrow-mindedness as
the Taliban extremists they
condemn.
Boyles returned to
the rostrum, requesting questions from the
audience. Much of the lively interchange
that followed applied to the academic
setting of the debate.
Bennett complained
about college campuses today being
dominated by "communists" with no
tolerance for conservative voices, saying
he'd heard of a professor being fired for
not being a Marxist. He remarked that the
White House had take away Stanford's only
conservative professor, Condoleezza
Rice.
Farer said colleges
need to uphold the ethic of voicing all
points of view with complete freedom to
question everything and everyone,
including all those calling themselves
conservatives. He also objected to
Bennett's leveling the "stereotype" that
all college professors are
communists.
Bennett shot back,
"I sat here quietly while being called as
bad as the Talaban."
Robinson raised the
problem of illiteracy among blacks and
other minorities. She questioned the value
of providing educational opportunities
when so many doors were closed to them in
society. "These graduates are all dressed
up with nowhere to go."
Hughes countered by
saying education was Bush's top priority
as Governor in Texas, that he had banned
"social promotion" without actual
learning, noting that as President he had
worked with Sen. Ted Kennedy on education
reform early in his White House
tenure.
She also remarked
that there is more liberty in America than
anywhere else in the world, such as for
the women in Afghanistan. "Government
should have a role in preserving our
liberty, but it should be limited role."
She observed that
the nation is now closely divided along
party lines, "as we saw in the 2000
election," and this division makes it
harder for government to be
effective.
Lamm closed by
saying energetic debate is what keeps the
American spirit alive.
Peter Boyles thanked
the participants on the platform and those
attending. The evening ended as the
audience filed out the doors accompanied
by the string quartet, filling the arena
with musical harmony to offset the
unresolved political discord.
Orginally
written for The Colorado
Statesman.
October 2002
(c) 2002-03 by Judah Ken Freed
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