Can Leftists Be Intellectuals?

Writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education of May 25, 2001, "the eminent sociologist and political theorist Alan Wolfe… essentially argues that no thinker of intellect who calls himself a conservative can be considered an intellectual," notes Ronald Radosh in "The Myth of the Public Intellectual" (FrontPage, May 23, 2001).

Judging from comments made by self-styled "liberal" academic Mark Edmundson on the final, December 5 installment of C-SPAN's "Book Notes", we at Moonbat Central suspect that it may be more appropriate to ask how many leftists actually deserve the designation "intellectual."

Host Brian Lamb had invited Edmundson – a University of Virginia English professor with a Ph.D. from Yale – to come on the show to promote his new book, Why Read? In an apparent effort to at least simulate broadmindedness, Edmundson expressed compassion for college students whose shabby treatment at the hands of "liberal" professors might have sent them down the dark trail of Rush-Limbaugh-style conservatism. He said:

"I think a lot of the kind of angry conservative movement that rubs me the wrong me, the Rush Limbaugh kind of stuff, came about because people going to college felt, `All my professors are liberal, I could never give them my reservations about the liberal line,' so that those things festered and got darker and nastier. And then, you know, welcome to talk radio. .... If they`d been listened to in a tolerant way and disagreed with in an affectionate way, we might have a little bit better civil discourse in the country."

Later in the show, Lamb played video footage of past "Book Notes" guests. One turned out to be Nobel-Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman discussing Friedrich Hayek's 1945 freemarket classic, The Road to Serfdom. The following exchange ensued:

LAMB: "He`s talking about Road to Serfdom – Hayek – a bible for people on the conservative political side."

EDMUNDSON: "I`m glad to know about it. Until this moment, I`ve heard nothing about it. But I will write it down and give it a look."

LAMB: "So, you`ve never read Road to Serfdom?"

EDMUNDSON: "Never. Nor heard of it, until this moment."

Impressed by Edmundson's show of penitence regarding "liberal" tyranny on campus – if not necessarily by the breadth of Edmundson's reading – David Horowitz invited the good professor via e-mail to put his words into action by supporting the Academic Bill of Rights and the academic freedom movement. Edmundson never replied. "So much for his liberalism," comments Horowitz.