Posted on 05/11/2006 3:41:51 PM PDT by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
May 11, 2006
You'd think that any reasonable person would be pleased that we are not suffering the kind of turbulent times on American campuses experienced during the '60s and early '70s. Campus buildings sacked and put to the torch, student union buildings occupied by armed militants, academic careers and lives disrupted, and the ultimate tragedy of four young people killed at Kent State.
Could it be that Chris Matthews isn't reasonable? For on this evening's Hardball, he expressed nostalgia for that riotous past coupled with apparent frustration that today's campuses are not aflame.
His guest was author Tom Wolfe, who back in the day had written of radical chic, and most recently wrote the disturbing tale of amoral campus life "I Am Charlotte Simmons". Wolfe mentioned having recently attended a reunion of 1969 Stanford campus radicals. He mentioned "that's when they blew up buildings and everything else."
Matthews, in the course of responding, observed:
"What happened? You look at the poll numbers. 56% of the country, a solid majority now, thinks it was a mistake to go to iraq. Not 'we did it wrong, we didn't have enough troops, we didn't have enough body armor. We shouldn't have gone.' And yet I look at the campuses, I was in South Carolina: calm."
Tough break, Chris. But keep working it. Maybe you can incite something.
Hardball/NewsBusters ping to Today show list.
Chris...you were in the Peace corps to avoid service.
It wasn't about protesting the war, it was about protesting being drafted to go to war.
the draft stopped and so did most of the war protests.
This is why many on the left wanted to reinstate the draft.
Sheesh! I vote instead.
And submit bills into Congress to reinstate the draft, and make dire predictions about the draft being reinstated, and breathlessly report that there is a bill in Congress to reinstate the draft.
"the draft stopped and so did most of the war protests."
As has been noted by many who took part in the 60's protests. Pretty much common knowledge to everyone but Chrissy.
In fairness, Matthews and Wolfe did discuss the fact that the end of the draft pretty much brought campus riots to an end. But Matthews' nostalgia for those days seemed clear, along with his frustration that campuses today are "calm."
He seems to have forgotten the day the world changed: 9/11/01.
Indeed, once the draft lottery was instituted, the fervor of the protests (except by the radical chicks whose boyfriends had low numbers and hightailed it for Canada) diminished considerably.
In his recent autobiography "Right Turns" Michael Medved states clearly that the campus anti-war movement was a minor curiosity until the day that LBJ tightened up on the college exemptions. Then BLAMMO! Conversely, right after Nixon's suspension of the draft (later made permanent) that same movement evaporated almost instantly.
not to mention the casualties are nowhere near the same.
Chris is an idiot. He famously opined that his solution to Terrorists was to hunt them down and kill them after they did their deeds, like Golda Mier did when Munich took place.
Uh, isn't that just a little late, Chris, AFTER PERHAPS THOUSANDS ARE DEAD, YOU IDIOT?!
Bingo! Exactly why the odious Charlie Rangel was pushing this idea - there's nothing better the liberals would like to see than campuses on fire as they were in the 60's.
So, he was expecting campus anarchy and mayhem due to Iraq? Maybe he can start a brawl with a guest and some audience members on his show.
Another issue: College costs in the 1960s- what? $500 per year?
College costs now: up to $30,000.
Anyone burning a building at a college campus where I paid (i.e. took out loans or my parents paid) that much to go to school would get mobbed by your truly. Just strung up and beaten like a pinata.
Smash your own property if you're going to be that irresponsible and obnoxious. Start smashing mine, and well, Texas has the right idea.
It must be awfully frustrating to the leftists that they can't subvert a voluntary military.
Back in the '60s, we were fighting against your buddies, the communists, hoping that we could avert a communist takeover of southeast Asia.
Today, we're only fighting, without a draft, some mideast no-account. Subversive socialists, such as yourself, are not interested.
Big difference.
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