A Call For Dialogue

Letter to the Editor, The Cornell Review, November 2003

Andrew Garib, The Cornell Review | I have written extensively on the depressing quality of political dialogue on this campus and in this country, especially discussion of the issues of highest importance. Behind party lines and empty rhetoric lies a fundamental distrust for those with opposing political views and affiliations. In the early 90’s, many of the Republican right-wing viewed President Clinton’s attempt at health insurance nationalization as a socialist Trojan Horse. Today we need look no farther than the ‘Bush is a Nazi’ camp for corresponding views in the political Left.

Notwithstanding the high viscosity of political debate, the goals of both this paper and the organization I work for – Turn Left – include greater discussion about the issues that matter most to Cornellians and Americans alike. It would nevertheless seem inevitable, given the political atmosphere within which we express our views, that our mutual desire for debate and the prevailing paradigm of political discussion would collide.

Such collision happened recently. Staff at both the Review and Turn Left noticed large numbers of our last issues missing from their usual haunts, which were presumed destroyed. Suspicions arose and fingers were pointed. And although much of the distrust came about through misunderstanding (the staff of both the Cornell Review and Turn Left uphold the highest standards of personal and journalistic integrity), the event has once again brought the problems of contemporary political discourse to our attention.

It seems plainly obvious that the solution to the currently sad state of political discussion is in fact more and better quality debate. Yet even more important is the need to remove our fears and irrational reactionary mindset in regards to each others’ political ideologies and institutions. Those fostering this kind of distrust between the denizens of the Left and Right seem to forget the nature of American government – moderation, checks and balances – which has kept a Washington, D.C. Hitler or a Pennsylvania Avenue Lenin from haunting our history. Bush is no Hitler and Clinton no Lenin – and in the country with the highest concentration of military, economic and cultural power, it is simultaneously a wonder, a delight, and a reassurance that ideologues of such extremes could never for long hold the reigns of American office.

What’s needed, clearly, is more of the cooperation between Left and Right that we are seeing today: The simple fact that the Editor-In-Chief of the university’s premier progressive newspaper is writing for this paper, and that the Review, too, will have its voice heard in the next Turn Left, is symbolic of a growing trust. This letter is a call for all Cornellians, regardless of political stripe, to stand up for ideas and practical solutions to today’s problems, not just party lines and historic institutions; to criticize ideas and their formation, not personalities, individual or stereotypical; to raise the bar of political activism and journalism; to get our ideas out into the community while avoiding destructive, diminutive or divisive consequences.

I, along with the staff of both The Cornell Review and Turn Left challenge all readers to set a new standard for political discourse. We encourage you to get active, write prolifically and stand for you beliefs. Most importantly, we invite you to create new modes of discourse between and among those of all political stripes. Despite the divisions along party and ideological lines that exist between us all, I am confident that Cornell can step up to this challenge, be driven by this encouragement, and with courage take the invitation we have offered. We risk much more than personal pride and the integrity of political institutions if we pursue the course of those who still think Clinton is a socialist, or that our current president is Hitler incarnate.

www.cuturnleft.org End.