European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 14, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Saturday september 14, 1991 the stars and stripes Page 13 commentary William f. Buckle Mccarthy and Academia nothing happened in a recent Exchange on the subject of political correctness one heard it said a for perhaps the 10th time this season a that the College and University worlds Are going through another version of the a Mccart Hite oppressions of the �?T50s. That was the Straw that broke the Back of this Camel. Because there is an oppression of sorts abroad in the academic world but it is not to be compared with the oppression of sen. Joe Mccarthy for the very simple reason that there Wasny to a Mccarthy Ite oppression in the academic world. You can say with some historical accuracy that there was Mccarthy Ite oppression in the foreign service. To suggest that there was a Mccarthy Ite oppression on the campuses is sheer fantasy. Eugene Lyons the Veteran journalist and author of red decade once commented that the newspapers of the Day were filled with pictures of men with Mouths wide open who were saying that mccarthyism had people so scared they  open their Mouths. Although it is True that there were common Points of Contact a Many Active anti communist professors saw Merit in such an investigation As that of sen. Pat Mccarran into the Institute of Pacific relations and its guru professor Owen Lattimore a if there was one professor in 10 who sympathized with Mccarthy during the period i will go live in Lotus land. The Academy was a mobilized desert storm. Now this is a matter merely of historical rectification but the perspective is what matters. This is so because what is happening in Many quarters of the academic world Isnit like a wave of mccarthyism which wave never hit the academic world. It is the institutionalization of a kind of anti Western ideology that is quite full of rage. President John Silber of Boston University put it forcefully when he said at the Exchange in question that in Many perhaps most of the trendy universities you cannot discuss candidly a seriously calmly a homosexuality feminism racial questions or abortion. That is quite a lot of important subjects to absent themselves from serious investigation at the student level. But Silber was right when for instance he said that choices will not let lifers speak at Many colleges and universities. Me Carthy ism mikha1lism. Are you now or Wane x3u Ever seen a commun5t? Are Vou now or Twe Vou Ever seen a go Mun amp to they Are treated As representatives of the Pentagon Fla and White House were treated during the Vietnam War they Are interrupted hooted Down made to feel that whiplash of intellectual scorn reserved for positions that have been certifiably discredited. When professor Leonard Jeffries of the City College of new York began his anti semitic diatribes recently or rather elaborated on theme became news whether you were Reading the new York press or the los Angeles press. It is a healthy sign when it is deemed newsworthy that a tenured professor is going about suggesting that jewish nabobs Are ruling the world and subverting America along with the White race in general. What is not a healthy sign is the relative indifference of the critical Public to other excesses on the campuses. In fact we done to notice much of what goes on in the colleges. Consider this course offered at Brown University the  of America. It is described in the Catalon a or paganism and masculinity go together. In this course we will examine the relationships Between popular conceptions of masculinity and Neo conservatism in order to assess and critique the importance of gender difference in contemporary culture. We will draw heavily on feminist theory and cultural studies in order to consider masculinity in the context of ongoing social  if that course were the subject of 15 minutes of fun on late night with David Letterman All would be right in this world. But it and a thousand similarly chaotic exercises Are being taught in contemporary America. Have you heard of the multicultural management program Fellows who list words you Are not permitted to use for example a banana an offensive term referring to asian americans who allegedly have abandoned their  if you read about such things in National Lampoon we d be a healthier nation. Instead we talk about the awful things Mccarthy did to the academic world in the 1950s, such As what c a moors a press Syndicate David Brod rare political conventions Worth the fuss lets suppose for just a moment. Lets suppose that the republicans recognizing the divisions in their ranks on the abortion Issue ask the delegates to the 1992 convention to write a Plank that satisfies not Only president Bush but the thousands of other gop candidates of varying views who will have to run on that platform next year. That a ridiculous you say. The White House already has signalled it wants no floor debate on abortion at the Houston convention. So there will be none. Well How about this lets suppose that state democratic parties around the country recognizing the weakness of the Early Field of presidential aspirants elect favorite son or a pledged delegates to the 1992 convention in Hopes a stronger opponent for Bush might be a a drafted right there in Madison Square Garden next july. A pipe dream you say. The primaries will pick the nominee. Everyone knows that. The implausibility of those hypothetical scenarios tells you All you need to know about the decline of that once vital american institution the presidential nominating convention. Time was when the delegates to those conventions actually picked the candidates for the White House and wrote the platforms on which they ran. But now cynics say the conventions have become nothing More than the worlds longest and most Boring political commercials four nights of prime time propaganda produced and controlled by the winning nominees. Byron e. Shafer the Oxford scholar of american politics thinks the conventions Days Are numbered. He expects them first to be compressed into weekend events by Ever stinger allotments of to time and then to be eliminated in favor of a National presidential primary. That a not implausible. Democratic National chairman Ron Brown toyed seriously with the weekend convention format for next year. And the Rush of states to the front end of the primary Calendar brings us closer to a National primary with each passing election. Would anything of value be lost if the conventions were to disappear the answer a even from pessimists like Shafer a is yes. Even if they simply ratify the primaries verdict on the parties nominees he said the other Day they still serve As a remarkably compact and convenient stage on which to examine the interplay of forces among party and ideological activists the press and the Public a a a metaphor for an increasingly did politics. Of fragmented coalitions focused on sending messages. Rather than preparing to  Shafer a nostalgic comments in a panel discussion at last weekends convention of the american political science association were echoed by another longtime convention watcher the Brookings institution s a. James Reichley. Reichley went to his first Republican convention in i94k a the last time the gop took Mic than one ballot to pick its nominee. Democrats have not had a Multi ballot convention since 1952, he noted. But realistically conventions will not survive in the Only people who really cherish them Are political scientists political reporters political activists and political junkies. The conventions were a byproduct of the Rise of the party system Early in the 19th Century a a Way of democratizing the Choice of party nominees. As we approach the 21st Century the parties increasingly have lost their place in a politics dominated by individual candidates mass Media messages and the Man Euver Ings of organized interest groups. To imagine that the political conventions will Long endure in an Era when the parties themselves Are disdained and disregarded by the Public requires a Peter pan like Faith. Next year the Treasury will give the parties More than s21 million from taxpayer checkoff funds to pay for the two conventions. Most people i suspect would question if they re Worth it. To Welsh it Uttof i of it a nth is of Oija